If your question isn't here, send it over — real answers, from someone who flies the line.
The Ident software, plus a step-by-step illustrated build guide and support. You buy the Raspberry Pi, the e-paper display and an SD card yourself, from whichever supplier you like. We don't mark up hardware or hold stock, so you pay the going rate.
The 7.3″ Inky Impression is the one to get if you're unsure — readable across a room and wide enough for the route maps. The 4.0″ is the budget option and works well on a desk. The 13.3″ is a proper wall piece but costs considerably more.
All of them use Pimoroni's Spectra 6 colour e-paper and all are fully supported.
Yes, fully. That's the panel Ident was originally built on, and it has seven colours rather than six. Pimoroni have discontinued it, so it isn't a sensible choice for a new build, but if you have one it will keep working.
Any Pi with a 40-pin header. The Zero 2 W is the cheapest and smallest and is the usual choice — but only if your Wi-Fi broadcasts on 2.4GHz (see the next question). A Pi 3B+, 4 or 5 will also work and support 5GHz.
If you buy a plain Zero 2 W you'll need to solder a 40-pin header. Buy the pre-soldered Zero 2 WH version and you won't.
The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W has a 2.4GHz-only radio. It cannot see 5GHz networks — this is a hardware limit with no software workaround.
Most home routers broadcast both bands, so it's usually fine. Problems arise when a router publishes a single network name and steers devices onto 5GHz, or when 2.4GHz has been switched off. If that's your setup, either enable 2.4GHz, give the 2.4GHz band its own name, or choose a dual-band Pi.
Usually not with a Zero 2 W. iPhone hotspots default to 5GHz; turning on Maximise Compatibility forces 2.4GHz and generally fixes it. A dual-band Pi avoids the problem entirely.
Very little. A Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W idles at roughly 0.5–1 watt — published measurements put it around 100–120 mA at 5V, rising towards 250 mA with Wi-Fi busy. The e-paper panel draws nothing at all while it's just sitting there showing your duty; it only pulls current during the ~30 second redraw, which happens a handful of times a day.
Call it under 1 watt on average. Left on permanently that's roughly 6 kWh a year — around £1.50–£2 a year at typical UK electricity prices, or about the same as leaving a phone charger plugged in.
A Pi 4 or Pi 5 draws considerably more (nearer 3–5 watts idle), so if running costs matter and your Wi-Fi has a 2.4GHz band, the Zero 2 W is the efficient choice.
Yes, for updates. E-paper keeps its image without power, so the display doesn't go blank if you unplug it — it simply stops changing. Power draw is very low.
Ident was built and tested against easyJet eCrew calendar feeds. Any roster published as a standard .ics calendar has a good chance of working, and PDF rosters can be uploaded too.
If you fly for another airline, get in touch before you buy and we'll tell you honestly whether it'll work.
You paste your crew calendar link into the control panel once. Ident then re-checks it every 30 minutes, so roster changes appear without you doing anything.
Yes. It recognises standby, training and non-flying codes and shows the right screen. On a day off it shows your next duty — the date, report time and where you're going.
All destinations are shown, not just the first. A four-sector day reads as NTE/BOD, and a button press gives report time and sector count.
Yes — personal flights can be added by flight number and are tracked the same way, with the report time set for leisure travel rather than duty.
On your device, and nowhere else. It is fetched by your Raspberry Pi, from your airline, over your own internet connection. We never receive it, cannot see it, and don't operate a service that holds it.
No. There's no sign-up, no cloud login and no telemetry. The only outbound connections your device makes are to your roster feed, an optional flight-tracking service, and a daily check for software updates.
Worth checking your own company's IT and data policies — some airlines have rules about where crew data may be processed. Because Ident keeps everything on your own hardware, it's a far easier conversation than a cloud service, but the responsibility is yours.
Flash the SD card, plug the display onto the Pi, power it up, and open the setup page in your browser. It walks you through your base, airline, roster link and a password. Allow an unhurried hour for a first build.
Through the control panel in any browser on your home network. You can change display style, timing, timezone and roster source from your phone.
Yes, and it's optional. The simplest route is a free Cloudflare tunnel, which gives you a web address you can open from anywhere without installing anything. Tailscale is the other option and gives a permanent private address. Both are free for personal use and neither requires opening ports on your router.
Left switched off, your display is reachable only from your own home network.
You set a username and password during setup. Passwords are stored only as a salted hash. If you expose the panel to the internet, use one of the tunnel options above so the connection is encrypted.
Yes. Point each one at the same roster link and they'll stay in step by themselves — no server in the middle. Give each a name (Kitchen, Study) so you can tell them apart.
Colour e-paper takes roughly 30 seconds to redraw, so Ident refreshes when something meaningful changes rather than continuously. It's a duty board, not a clock.
Your display checks for new versions once a day and tells you in the control panel. Installing is one click and always your choice — nothing is installed behind your back. The update is checksum-verified and the previous version is backed up first.
Almost always a network problem. A Raspberry Pi has no battery-backed clock, so if it can't reach the internet it keeps the last time it knew. Reconnect it to Wi-Fi and the clock corrects itself within a minute or two.
Check the band first — if you're on a Zero 2 W, it must be 2.4GHz. Then check the password and that the network name is exactly right, including capitals. You can pre-load extra networks (a hotel or crashpad) from the control panel while you're still on a working connection.
Colour e-paper is muted by nature — it reflects light rather than emitting it. Cold rooms make it worse; the panel likes normal room temperature. There's also a contrast toggle on one of the buttons.
Yes — see the terms at checkout for the statutory cancellation period on digital purchases. If Ident won't work with your airline's roster, tell us and we'll sort it out.