pitrix

What is pitrix?

pitrix is a software to run on an ESP8266 microncontroller connected to a LED matrix. It will display the time and a few other nice effects and stuff.

pitrix fetches the current time via NTP, is controllable via MQTT and can be flashed over-the-air, so you don't need to disassemble your nice-looking LED matrix everytime you want to update the software.

How to use

Checkout the code, rename include/config.sample.h to include/config.h and edit it to match your preferences / environment.

Then compile and flash it, preferrably using PlatformIO.

Control it

Currently, control is only possible via MQTT. MQTT_TOPIC is set in include/config.h and defaults to pitrix.

Possible commands / topics are:

• MQTT_TOPIC/mode lets you select an effect to show. See src/effects.cpp for a list. Default effect is cycle, which will cycle through some of the available effects. Another effect is off, which will just display black, effectively turning the display off. (pitrix stays running, so you can turn it on again by simply selecting another mode.)
• MQTT_TOPIC/brightness sets the brightness of the display. Valid values are between 1 (darkest possible setting) and 255 (maximum brightness).
• MQTT_TOPIC/reboot reboots pitrix. Send any value.

You can set retained values to have pitrix read them at startup, effectively setting a default effect or brightness. (Do NOT set a retained value for MQTT_TOPIC/reboot unless you want pitrix to reboot all the time.)

Monitor it

The current status ("ONLINE" or "OFFLINE") of pitrix will be set at MQTT_TOPIC/status.

If you enabled MQTT_REPORT_METRICS, metrics are sent via MQTT every 15 seconds:

• MQTT_TOPIC/free_heap contains the free heap memory in Bytes.
• MQTT_TOPIC/uptime contains the uptime of pitrix in seconds.
• MQTT_TOPIC/fps contains the currently reached frames per second.

If you enabled DEBUG, log messages will be sent to MQTT_TOPIC/log.