That is what Paul Lagier set out to build with his latest creation, called Pala Note.
A 500 mAh LiPo battery and an SD card were also added to the build for mobile, offline use.
Pressing a button wakes it instantly, and holding another button records audio directly to the SD card as a WAV file.
Since the ESP32 lacks the horsepower to run speech recognition locally, the Pala Note relies on cloud transcription through OpenAI’s Whisper API.
During scheduled or manual sync sessions, recordings are uploaded over Wi-Fi, transcribed, and saved back onto the SD card as text files.
There are a great many good things that can be said about the information-dense world we live in today. There are also some downsides to having so much information constantly vying for our attention. Every notification and headline shifts our focus, making it easy to get sidetracked. Great ideas for projects, things we want to look into further, and items for our to-do lists are often forgotten before we have a chance to make a note.
A smartphone can help, but it’s really not ideal for this purpose. Unlocking the device, loading the app, and typing out the note simply takes too long. What we need is something purpose-built for capturing thoughts — something that is incredibly easy and quick to use. That is what Paul Lagier set out to build with his latest creation, called Pala Note. To record a note with this pocketable device, you need only to press a button and say your idea out loud.
The device was built with a single development board (📷: Paul Lagier)
The hardware design of Pala Note is almost as simple as its user interface. Lagier used the Waveshare ESP32-S3 1.54-inch e-Paper Development Board, which contains all of the components that the project requires, including a microcontroller, display, microphone, and speaker. A 500 mAh LiPo battery and an SD card were also added to the build for mobile, offline use.
Unlike traditional LCD or OLED screens, the E Ink panel only draws power when the image changes. Once text or interface elements are displayed, they remain visible without continuously draining the battery. This gives the device a calm, paper-like appearance while also dramatically extending battery life — so you won’t lose any great ideas while it's charging.
To get the right look and feel, Lagier discarded the stock enclosure and designed a custom 3D-printed case from scratch. The enclosure snaps together without screws, using carefully designed clips and alignment pins to hold everything securely in place.
This is all you need (📷: Paul Lagier)
Inside the case is an SD card slot for local storage, a microphone for recording voice notes, and a small speaker for playback and system sounds. Those sounds serve an important purpose because E Ink displays refresh relatively slowly. Audio feedback gives users instant confirmation that button presses and recordings have been registered even before the screen fully updates.
The device spends most of its time in an ultra-low-power deep sleep mode. Pressing a button wakes it instantly, and holding another button records audio directly to the SD card as a WAV file. Once the recording ends, users can assign tags before the device powers back down.
Since the ESP32 lacks the horsepower to run speech recognition locally, the Pala Note relies on cloud transcription through OpenAI’s Whisper API. During scheduled or manual sync sessions, recordings are uploaded over Wi-Fi, transcribed, and saved back onto the SD card as text files. Lagier also added a lightweight browser-based dashboard hosted directly on the device itself, allowing users to browse, organize, and download notes from any computer on the same network.
Lagier is selling the 3D design files, firmware, and an assembly guide for about $6.50. The hardware costs roughly $30 more, making this a pretty cheap way to capture your best ideas.
