Internet speed monitoring can be a useful addition to your desk. Slow internet speeds can be frustrating, and I like to check the stats from time to time, so I created this project. It allows you to measure and display your internet speed results directly on the Waveshare 2.13 V4 e-Paper screen, providing a clean and energy-efficient solution for tracking your connectivity performance.
Remember that internet speeds measured over Wi-Fi do not always reflect the actual speed of your network. A weak Wi-Fi signal can significantly reduce your internet speed. To illustrate this, I created a short video comparing speed test results on the Raspberry Pi with weak and stronger Wi-Fi signals. You will find the link below.
Project Overview
This project runs an internet speed test using the speedtest-cli tool and displays the results on a Waveshare 2.13 V4 e-Paper connected to a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. The e-Paper display, which supports black, white and red colors, presents ping, download and upload speed in a structured format along with the current date and time to know when the measurement was taken.
How does it work?
The script executes speedtest-cli via a subprocess, captures the output and extracts the appropriate values. These values are then formatted and displayed on the e-Paper screen. The script ensures that the data is presented in a structured table format, making it easy to read quickly.
Since the Raspberry Pi network performance is dependent on the strength of the WiFi signal, speed test results may vary depending on your location. If placed in an area with poor signal reception, the results may indicate significantly slower speeds than expected.
How did I build it?
If you are interested in building it, a short description of the project, a list of the things I used to build it, and instructions can be found on Github lepczynski-cloud/Raspberry_pi_Waveshare_speedtest.
Of course, you can run such a speedtest on a scheduled basis, for example once an hour, along with other cool stuff like current weather, Fractal art and the like.
Live demo
To see the project in action, check out the YouTube videos that show the display with both strong and weak WiFi connections:
Conclusions
This project is a great way to visualize real-time internet performance on a small, energy-efficient device. Whether you’re troubleshooting network issues or just like to occasionally check your internet speed, this Raspberry Pi-based display provides a low-power, easy-to-read solution. And it looks cool on your desk.