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BusinessToys and learningConcept, not built

Idea“A card students tap their phone to, that shows the next class and where it is, the homework that's due and what's on after school, and moves on through the day by its own clock.”

An e-paper schedule card that hangs on a school lanyard. Tap a phone to its back and it takes in the week: classes and rooms, homework and when it's due, the evening's plans. Its own clock moves the screen on through the day, from the next class to what's due to what's after school, with no phone nearby. It runs on a coin cell you can replace, with nothing to charge.

Upcoming$43–$69a card, estimated, plus shipping to your address

Goal: 1,000 cards

Backing isn't open yet. Nobody is charged unless 1,000 people back it. Once they have, factories quote for the run and the final price is set from their quotes, never above $69.

From the parts list and cost estimate of 9 November 2026, with the owner's margin. It doesn't include certification (FCC, CE and the coin cell's tests) yet.

Pre-order

Made with Physily: Feng Zhang typed that one sentence, and Physily's engines did the engineering. Turn your own idea into a product

See it come apart

One turn around the design, while its parts move apart and go back together. Rendered from the design files, like the view above. It isn't footage of a real unit.

Product facts

Size: 60.5 × 110 × 7.4 mm, about 45 g (estimated)
Screen: 3.97-inch e-paper, 800 × 480 at 235 pixels an inch, black and white; it keeps its picture with no power
Sync: Tap a phone to the back: NFC, into the card's own tag memory, which takes the week even while the card sleeps
Clock: A real-time clock on a 32.768 kHz crystal moves the screen on, redrawing only when something on it changes; it's set again at each tap
Battery: A CR2430 coin cell behind a coin door: about 3 years a cell, estimated, not measured; no charging, no port
Board: 53.4 × 24 mm, 4 layers, 30 parts fitted
Board checks: Routing and manufacturing passed
Fit check: No part overlaps

From the design files, November 2026.

What isn't done yet

There's no phone app yet to write the week to the card, and the screen shown is a picture of the layout at the panel's own pixels.
The e-paper panel and the NFC coil are placeholders sized from typical parts. Neither has been bought or measured, and the coil's tuning and read range are untested.
The battery life is worked out from published panel figures with a margin, not measured.
The coin door's quarter turn and seal are drawn, not engineered or tested, and how the back cover fastens isn't designed yet. The card hasn't been drop- or bend-tested.
No firmware has been written for it, and no unit has been built.

Inside it

The card apart along its thickness, seen from behind: the graphite back cover with its tap mark and round coin door, an amber coil with copper turns, a silver coin cell, the small black circuit board with the cell's contact strip and red lead, the graphite frame with the cell's round compartment, the e-paper panel's back with its amber cable, and the front lens with its black border. — The product pulled apart, with its real routed circuit board inside.

Its black four-layer board: a long flat-cable connector for the screen along one edge, a small processor in the middle with its clock crystal, an NFC chip at one end with the screen's booster parts beside it, a large capacitor at the other end, and a row of round pads along the far edge. — The circuit board our engines placed, routed and checked.

Updates

No updates yet. Feng Zhang posts here as the design moves on, for example when the first unit is built.

Comments

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Ratings

Ratings load with JavaScript. Nobody owns one yet, so a rating here rates the idea.

Questions

Is it built?: No. It's a concept: the design files are done and checked, but no unit has been built, and every image here is rendered from those files. “What isn't done yet” under Story lists what's missing.
Can I buy one?: Not yet. Pre-order puts you on the waitlist for this product, and nothing is charged. We'll tell you when orders open.
Who made it?: Feng Zhang owns it, and designed it with Physily's engines from the one-sentence idea at the top of this page.
Can I make my own?: Yes, that's what Physily is for: you bring the idea, Physily does the engineering, and the product is yours. It isn't open yet. Join the waitlist and tell us what you'd make; we invite people in small groups.

Want one?

Pre-orders aren't open yet. Join the waitlist, and we'll tell you when they are.