This is a rework of Dave19171's splitflap project I found over at prusaprinters.org
https://github.com/Dave19171/split-flap https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/69464-split-flap-display
No changes to the Arduino unit code. ESP code now has OTA firmware updates and MQTT subscription!
The ESP is now subscribed to a MQTT topic. Send a string to the topic and watch the splitflap do its thing!
I use Node-red to send data to the queue. Currently I just send the time, but will be adding functionality as time permits.
You can import the basic flow into node-red if you are interested