Monitor-Buddy 1.0.2

Monitor-Buddy 1.0.2 makes your Buddy smoother on bad Wi-Fi, adds a brightness swipe, and lets you mount it on either side of your monitor.

Thank you, @AmyJoT

This release starts with the first outside contribution to Monitor-Buddy. @AmyJoT sent in #3 with three improvements:

• the brightness swipe;
• a sturdier touch read;
• the first round of network changes that stop the face from freezing while data loads.

Amy also turned the review feedback around quickly. The PR passed a full device test, including a 46-minute soak, before it was merged. Thanks, Amy!

What's new

• Brightness swipe. Swipe up for brighter, down for dimmer. Keep dragging for bigger steps. The level is remembered across restarts, and a factory reset brings it back to the default. (#3, @AmyJoT)
• Left or right side. A new setting in config/config.h:

  #define MOUNTING_LOCATION RIGHT   // LEFT or RIGHT

  RIGHT turns the screen, the touch input and the eye movement around for a Buddy mounted upside down on the right side of the monitor. The printed holders already work on both sides. If your config.h doesn't have the line, the Buddy stays on LEFT as before. (#8)
• No more freezes on weak Wi-Fi. Weather, stock and GitHub data now load in the background, so the face keeps blinking and touch keeps working whatever the network does.
  • Before: on a weak signal, the face could freeze for several seconds while a page loaded.
  • Now: a 46-minute soak at a weak signal showed no pauses at all.
  • Weather and GitHub are now fetched ahead of time, so their pages show data as soon as you swipe to them.
  • After an internet outage, data comes back within seconds.
  • (#3, #7)
• Clock sync no longer freezes the screen. Without internet, 1.0.1 retried the time sync with a blocking wait of up to 8 seconds at a time. The sync now runs without blocking and picks up the time as soon as it arrives. (#3)

Fixes

• Holding still after a swipe no longer opens the Wi-Fi setup by accident, and a slow swipe no longer counts as a tap that changes the face. (#6)
• The serial log prints its status on one line again.

Documentation

• README §4.10, "Everyday controls": lists every gesture, plus the factory reset, which was missing from the README until now.
• Troubleshooting has new entries for an upside-down or too-dark screen.

Updating an existing Monitor-Buddy

1. Download Monitor-Buddy-1.0.2.zip from the Assets below and extract it. Copy your config/config.h over from your old folder, so you keep your settings.
2. Optional: if your Buddy is on the right side of the monitor, add #define MOUNTING_LOCATION RIGHT to your config.h.
3. Flash it the same way as before: README §4, Flashing the board.
4. If the Buddy opens its setup hotspot after flashing, set up Wi-Fi again.
   • Why: when you flash from a freshly extracted folder, scripts/auto_upload_fs.py uploads the setup pages once more, and that also clears the saved Wi-Fi.
   • Join Monitor-Buddy-Setup and enter your Wi-Fi as you did the first time.
   • Your config.h settings are built into the firmware and aren't affected.

Download

Monitor-Buddy-1.0.2.zip is the curated build package. It holds only the files needed to build and flash: firmware, setup-page HTML, PlatformIO config and config template. The auto-generated Source code archives contain the full repository.

Hardware

Unchanged: a Waveshare ESP32-C6-Touch-LCD-1.47, one 3D-printed holder (Monitor-Buddy_flat or Monitor-Buddy_recess, both now usable on either side of the monitor), and a USB-C cable.

Full changelog: v1.0.1...v1.0.2