Public Access
mangavalkandClaude Opus 5.5
968492ca35
Slow mode (Home Assistant switch "FlipDot Display Slow mode", dropdown
"FlipDot Display Slow mode interval", web UI Settings) makes the display
change only every 1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 or 60 minutes, on the clock, and
powers it off in between: less noise. Nothing else is drawn meanwhile, also
no page changes. It updates at once after boot, the night, the Power switch
and live mode, and when it is switched off. Rules can override it ("show at
once in slow mode"): while their page is shown the display works normally.
Settings layout 7 and schedule layout 4 (older records are converted; they
are stored again once the firmware is marked good, so a rollback still
finds the old ones). Pages in older formats are rewritten in the current
one, in time-boxed steps. /api/status reports old_data_left.
Version 2.15.0.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
36 lines
2.3 KiB
Markdown
36 lines
2.3 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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- **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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- **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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