Winter is coming, and it’s the season for boys to give gifts. This is a headache for most boys 😶.

Accidentally found a foreign project Awtrix. The project can create a matrix display that displays data such as date and time, Github Followers, etc.

Let’s start with the renderings

Instantly make your girlfriend stunned 😏!

material

  • Boutique WS2812B full color 8×32 display programmable pixel soft screen X1
  • -ESP8266 with CP2102 WIFI module X 1
  • Dupont line, female to male x 3
  • A server or other environment that can run jars
  • Glue, tape, double-sided tape, scissors, knives, etc

Afore-mentioned material taobao can be bought, also be necessary material. The following materials are optional. 3d printed materials are provided on the website. It is a little expensive on Taobao, so you can use other materials instead.

  • The acrylic plate behind, the middle hollow 325x85x9.5mm
  • The front acrylic plate, tea black, transparent 325x85X2 mm

The above materials can be customized on Taobao. The size of mine is a little small, so it is a bit troublesome to combine them. If you want to make them, you can adjust the size appropriately to make them wider and longer.

Connect the line

This is the wiring diagram of the Awtrix circuit connection, but we can remove the resistance and do not need the power port.

There is no 5V port on our development board, only 3V power supply. Connect the circuit as shown on the drawing.

Installing the server program

Start by ensuring that the Java environment is installed on the server.

Then enter the following command

sudo mkdir /usr/local/awtrix
cd /usr/local/awtrix
sudo wget https://blueforcer.de/downloads/awtrix.jar
Copy the code

The configuration program starts automatically

sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/awtrix.service

[Unit]
Description=AWTRIX SERVER
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
WorkingDirectory=/usr/local/awtrix/
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -jar /usr/local/awtrix/awtrix.jar

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Copy the code

If the configuration is correct, you are ready to start.

sudo systemctl enable awtrix
Copy the code

Run awtrix

sudo systemctl start awtrix
Copy the code

Stop awtrix

sudo systemctl stop awtrix
Copy the code

Restart awtrix

sudo systemctl restart awtrix
Copy the code

Now open our website http://[IP]:7000 and you will see the following screen

The installation is now complete.

Burn the program

First, follow vscode to search for platformio-ide in the plugin. Make sure you have python on your system before following the plugin.

Clone awtrix 2.0-Controller from Github.

Git clone https://github.com/awtrix/AWTRIX2.0-Controller.git

Open it with vscode. Open file SRC /awtrix-config.h and define SSId, password and awtrix_server, respectively wifi name, wifi password and server address.

Configure these can click on the following → burning procedures.

If the program is successfully burned, the current time and date are displayed on the screen at the moment.

I have a problem here, lib/ OTA reported an error, I delete this package, can finish burning.

As shown at the beginning.

beautify

Finally, we use acrylic / 3D printed model to encapsulate the screen circuit board and beautify it. It’s great, isn’t it?

We can install the APP on the Web page, but we need to pay attention to one point, such as Facebook and other foreign service apps, the server must be able to connect to these services, otherwise they cannot be used, and the screen can only display English and numbers, not Chinese characters.

But you think this is the end of the year?

to young,too simple

First of all, the official web page is too difficult to use, do not believe you experience it. In addition, it is not intuitive to draw custom patterns on the display screen. Although the official interface is provided, it is ALL JSON. It’s not like EVERY time I write a big chunk of JSON.

This is the real deal!

Write our APP

First, thanks to Flutter, the powerful cross-platform technology that allowed me to develop Windows, Android, ios(unverified), macOS(unverified),Linux(unverified) applications. Yes, you read that right.

The above first

At present, App can control display switch, App switching, App configuration (currently adapted for 4, gradually adapted in the future), App installation, and custom pattern and text.

You just need to draw it on the App, and you can draw it on the display.

The program will be open source in the future.

Welcome to pay attention to the wechat public number