Public Access
mangavalkandClaude Opus 5.5
e9f3c16c78
Each page in a schedule block, and each rule that adds its page to the rotation, has a "skip in slow mode" checkbox. While slow mode is on those pages are left out of the rotation; when none of the block's pages are left, the chosen page is shown. The rotation keeps its own timers. Schedule format version 5; version 4 is converted when read and stored again in version 5 on the next save. Version 2.18.0. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
46 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
46 lines
3.1 KiB
Markdown
# How it works
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[← Back to the README](../README.md)
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1. **ESP32 boot.** The ESP32 connects to WiFi and starts ArduinoOTA. After a crash it
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runs only OTA for 15 seconds, and after repeated crashes it goes to safe mode. Bad OTA
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firmware is rolled back automatically, see
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[Keeping OTA alive](../src/esp32/README.md#keeping-ota-alive). It then switches the display relay on, waits for
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the Nano's `READY` message (at most 3 s), shows "Connecting...", starts NTP and
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connects to MQTT.
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2. **Clock.** Once the time is synced, the ESP32 sends a new frame whenever the screen
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changes, mostly once a minute:
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- **08:00–23:30:** the page: the chosen page (by default the built-in Clock page,
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Pikachu with a thought bubble showing `HH:MM`, yawning from 17:00), or what the
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[schedule and rules](web-ui.md#schedule) pick.
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- **Game of Life** (a page element): the ESP32 runs the board (`logic/life`) and sends a
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frame per generation with only the changed dots. Like scrolling text, the next frame
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waits until the Nano has received and flipped the last one, so a busy board runs
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slower than the chosen speed. Only the shown page runs; it pauses while the display is
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off. Still or repeating boards are found by comparing a hash of the board with the
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last 16 generations. With the hidden margin, gliders that leave the area are cleared
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at the outer edge, and leftovers that stay put in the margin are cleared after 12
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generations, so a glider gun keeps running cleanly.
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- **Slow mode** (a switch in Home Assistant and the web UI, for less noise): the display
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only changes every 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 or 60 minutes, on the clock (15 minutes =
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:00, :15, :30 and :45). 30 seconds after each update the relay turns the display off;
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the dots keep the image. Page changes wait for the next update too, except for rules
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with "show at once in slow mode": while their page is shown, the display works normally.
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Schedule pages and rotation rules with "skip in slow mode" are left out of the rotation
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(none left in the block: the chosen page).
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- **23:31–08:00:** the screen is cleared (or shows the off image chosen in the web UI)
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and power is cut after 30 seconds.
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3. **Home Assistant**: switches, dropdowns and sensors over MQTT, see
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[Home Assistant](home-assistant.md).
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4. **Nano.** The Nano reads commands from the serial line and updates its frame buffer.
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On `D` it flips only the dots that changed, in small steps so it never stops reading
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the serial port. Every 2 minutes (Settings, "Dot refresh") it flips every dot once
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more to fix dots that did not flip.
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5. **Frame check.** After a frame the ESP asks the Nano for a checksum of its image and
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compares it with what it sent. When they differ (lost bytes can shift the picture),
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the Nano doesn't answer, or it restarted, the ESP sends the whole image again. It also
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does that every 10 minutes (Settings, "Image resync"); only dots that differ flip, so
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normally nothing changes. The counts are on the System tab.
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The serial protocol is described in [src/nano/README.md](../src/nano/README.md).
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