LED Matrix Display IOT Clock

Details:

• Using an old ESP32 and 3 very old HT1632 8x32 LED matrix panels

  • Originally created ~2011 for a Make Magazine project, and has been [updated over the years to its current form

• Features:

  • Spotify Integration:
    • Start playing a song and the sign automatically switches to act as a "now playing" display
    • Displays song information and live duration
    • Used to scrape lyrics as well but haven't ported that feature to this version yet
  • Headlines:
    • Using NewsAPI to find and scrape headlines
      • Configurable sources and topics for these headlines
      • Day to day, I have it pull a bunch of headlines every hour, and display a few every 10-15 minutes
      • Free for under 1000/requests a day
  • Weather
    • Determines city and rough geographical coordinates from IP via ipwhois.io API at startup
    • Uses OpenMeteo for Weather information
    • Automatic updates every 15 minutes
    • WIP: custom icons for different forecasts (cloudy, snow, etc)
  • Clock
    • NTP based timekeeping
    • In the end, it's an overengineered digital clock, what else can I say?
    • WIP: fun clockfaces like Conway's Game of Life, animations, etc.

• Currently for the last 10-12 years has been enclosed in an old set of blinds,

  • One of these days I'll finish the enclosure... right?
    • Would love to add one more panel but you can't get these matrix displays w/ the same driver IC anymore :-(

  Gallery:

  

  

  

  Let me assure you it looks better in person

• The panels altogether are roughly a foot and a half long.
  • Quite well suited for viewing from across the room..

Code

• Should really be rewritten from scratch

  • Tech debt from using the same modded HT1632 lib for 10+ years
    • Originally for an older Arduino, could really be faster/more efficient
  • Ideally should use RTOS / task based approach and better queuing for different tasks / states accessing the display

• WebUI needs a finished settings page

• WiFI credentials are saved to flash, see <matrix/data/config.json> or the NetworkManager class.

  • on the event of WiFi failure, the matrix hosts a wifi, you can join and set the SSID/pwd there...
  • no UI for this yet, TODO
  • TODO: cleanup and move NetworkManager into its own library for use in other personal projects

• Boy do I love ESP OTA updates, makes development fun not fiddling with USB->FTDI cables and reset buttons.

  • Noticing a bug, quickly fixing it, and having Platform.IO uploading a patch automatically post-compilation makes for fantastic workflow

• One must configure api_config.hpp with their own API credentials

  • will instead save these to SPIFFS or something in near future, before I accidentally somehow commit API tokens again.. (VSCode overwrote my .gitignore a few weeks ago and I got to learn how to edit the history of git repositories as a result!)