PixelClient: Firmware for an ESP-32 board to drive a 32x64 HUB 75 display, by subscribing to a websocket and streaming pushed images. The corresponding server is located at https://github.com/joe714/pixelgw

Mainter: Joe Sunday sunday@csh.rit.edu GitHub: https://github.com/joe714/pixelfirmware

Build and Install

Pinout for the display is set in components/Hub75Display/Hub75Display.c, note this is not the same pinout as official Tidbyt hardware and needs to be set for particular devices. (TODO, make this more configurable at build time) . Reference schematic / board coming soon.

To build, you'll need a working Linux machine with Docker installed and your user in the docker group. After cloning the repository, fetch the required submodules:

$ git submodule init
$ git submodule update

To compile the firmware:

$ ./build.sh build

For first setup, copy nvs.csv.sample to nvs.csv and set your WiFi credentials and endpoint / pixelgw IP address on the appropriate lines, and generate the initial NVS partion data:

$ ./build.sh nvs

To flash, connect the device via USB and flash everything. Note that you should only flash the NVS data on the first install. Once the device has registered with the gateway, reflashing NVS will cause the device UUID to change.

$ ./build.sh flash
$ ./build.sh flash_nvs

To do OTA updates once already installed, start a temporary web server:

$ ./build.sh ota-server

Then navigate to http://*device-ip*/, verify OTA URL listed, and click "Update Firmware". Currently it assumes you're running the OTA update from the same machine as the gateway endpoint, otherwise you'll need to change the IP in the firmware URL.

FAQ

• What hardware does this need?

  An ESP-32 board with the HUB75 display wired according to the pin definitions in components/Hub75Display/Hub75Display.c.

  I'm working on a V1.5 board revision, but I'll publish the v1 board design when I can.

• Do you sell hardware?

  Not currently, but inquire and if there's demand I'll see what I can do.

• Can I run this on Tidbyt Hardware?

  Theoretically, yes but I have not tried it or determined the right compile options, or determined how to reset it back to factory firmware. At a minimum, the pin definitions need to be tweaked. If you want to try, feel free and give me a pull request with changes and instructions, but I take no responsibility if you brick it.

TODO

• Integrate firmware management into the server.
• Web interface to bootstrap / modify configuration
• More device support (including pre-canned config for Tidbyt 1 devices)