orb-os 2.18.00

What changed

• The flight tracker is flying again. The aircraft feed stopped accepting ordinary
  connections and the Orb had no way to make a secure one, so every dial went empty at
  once. It now talks to the feed securely, and a second source steps in when the first is
  having a bad day. Spotted and traced by CanadianAvenger, fixed by Lerxtwood
• The Orb can make a secure connection at all, which it never could before. Nothing else
  uses it yet, but the weather radar and the airport routes have been waiting on exactly
  this

First flash (USB): TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin — the full merged image (offset 0x0).

• Browser, no toolchain: https://zionbrock.com/orb
• Or: esptool.py --chip esp32s3 write_flash 0x0 TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin

Updating an Orb you already have: open Orb Studio and press Flash. It puts all
four files at the four offsets they belong at, which is the part that is easy to get
wrong by hand. There is no over-the-WiFi update: the device's OTA page is compiled
out, so do not go looking for theorb.local/update.

What's Changed

• post release re-sync by @mloit in #14
• Fix/flight tracker source fix by @Lerxtwood in #17
• 2.18.00 release by @mloit in #18

Full Changelog: v2.17.01...v2.18.00

orb-os 2.17.01

What changed

• The hands are stacked the way the design asks again. The second hand was being pinned
  underneath the others whatever the arrows on the hands card said, and on a dial where it
  is shorter than the minute hand that left pieces of the old hands on the glass, cleared
  only as the sweep passed over them. Worst in the first minute after a theme change. Found
  and filmed by johnplayerspecial, traced to the cached hand layers and fixed by Lerxtwood

First flash (USB): TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin — the full merged image (offset 0x0).

• Browser, no toolchain: https://zionbrock.com/orb
• Or: esptool.py --chip esp32s3 write_flash 0x0 TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin

Updating an Orb you already have: open Orb Studio and press Flash. It puts all
four files at the four offsets they belong at, which is the part that is easy to get
wrong by hand. There is no over-the-WiFi update: the device's OTA page is compiled
out, so do not go looking for theorb.local/update.

What's Changed

• 2.17.00 tracking by @mloit in #10
• Fix cached clock-hand stacking in src/clock_view.cpp (#11) by @Lerxtwood in #12
• 2.17.01 by @mloit in #13

New Contributors

• @Lerxtwood made their first contribution in #12

Full Changelog: v2.17.00...v2.17.01

orb-os 2.17.00

What changed

• The Orb stops running out of memory. This is what sits behind the theme sends that stop
  part way, the install page that will not load, the page at theorb.local that stops
  answering, and the feeds that go quiet after a long uptime. Diagnosed by Greg Takacs,
  measured and fixed first by Techtobi83
• The second hand sweeps evenly instead of jerking its way around the dial, and on a
  ticking clock the minute hand no longer appears in two pieces or pushes the second hand
  out of step. Found and fixed by Greg Takacs
• A theme with a long name finds its own artwork, so a freshly installed theme no longer
  comes up missing its background with the hands off center. Reported by biker_trash_1340
• Animated backgrounds keep animating and hold every frame for the same length of time,
  and the radar sweep moves evenly

This is a new baseline: everything since the last published version, in one release.
Merged by CanadianAvenger, with most of the firmware work by Greg Takacs.

First flash (USB): TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin — the full merged image (offset 0x0).

• Browser, no toolchain: https://zionbrock.com/orb
• Or: esptool.py --chip esp32s3 write_flash 0x0 TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin

Updating an Orb you already have: open Orb Studio and press Flash. It puts all
four files at the four offsets they belong at, which is the part that is easy to get
wrong by hand. There is no over-the-WiFi update: the device's OTA page is compiled
out, so do not go looking for theorb.local/update.

What's Changed

• Combined PR Merge by @mloit in #4
• 2.16.72: the sweeping hand is aimed from when it woke, not when it finished by @gregtakacs in #8
• 2.16.71 by @mloit in #9

New Contributors

• @mloit made their first contribution in #4
• @gregtakacs made their first contribution in #8

Full Changelog: v2.16.64...v2.17.00

orb-os 2.16.64

What changed

• The hour hand creeps again on a clock with a sweeping second hand. Since 2.16.56 it was
  being redrawn once an hour, so it stood still and then jumped a whole division instead of
  moving with the minutes. Found and diagnosed by wizard.oz
• The release page no longer tells you to update over WiFi at an address that is not there,
  and it now carries what actually changed in the version instead of only how to flash it.
  Both raised by wizard.oz as well

First flash (USB): TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin — the full merged image (offset 0x0).

• Browser, no toolchain: https://zionbrock.com/orb
• Or: esptool.py --chip esp32s3 write_flash 0x0 TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin

Updating an Orb you already have: open Orb Studio and press Flash. It puts all
four files at the four offsets they belong at, which is the part that is easy to get
wrong by hand. There is no over-the-WiFi update: the device's OTA page is compiled
out, so do not go looking for theorb.local/update.

Full Changelog: v2.16.63...v2.16.64

orb-os 2.16.63

First flash (USB): TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin — the full merged image (offset 0x0).

• Browser, no toolchain: https://zionbrock.com/orb
• Or: esptool.py --chip esp32s3 write_flash 0x0 TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin

Update over WiFi (no cable): TheOrbOS-ota.bin — the app-only image.
Open http://theorb.local/update on the device and upload this file.
(Do not upload the merged image there.)

Full Changelog: v2.16.62...v2.16.63

orb-os 2.16.62

The firmware Orb Studio flashes as of 2026-10-05. Install it from Studio (My Orb, Flash) rather than by hand: a board needs all four files at four offsets, and Studio puts them where they go.

Changes

• 2.16.62: two flight-path fixes from Techtobi83's fork
• 2.16.61: an interrupted install stops wedging the Orb

Files, for anyone flashing with esptool: bootloader.bin at 0x0, partitions.bin at 0x8000, boot_app0.bin at 0xe000, firmware.bin at 0x10000. Theme capability level 57.

orb-os 2.16.60

First flash (USB): TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin — the full merged image (offset 0x0).

• Browser, no toolchain: https://zionbrock.com/orb
• Or: esptool.py --chip esp32s3 write_flash 0x0 TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin

Update over WiFi (no cable): TheOrbOS-ota.bin — the app-only image.
Open http://theorb.local/update on the device and upload this file.
(Do not upload the merged image there.)

Full Changelog: v2.16.59...v2.16.60

orb-os 2.16.59

First flash (USB): TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin — the full merged image (offset 0x0).

• Browser, no toolchain: https://zionbrock.com/orb
• Or: esptool.py --chip esp32s3 write_flash 0x0 TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin

Update over WiFi (no cable): TheOrbOS-ota.bin — the app-only image.
Open http://theorb.local/update on the device and upload this file.
(Do not upload the merged image there.)

Full Changelog: v2.16.56...v2.16.59

orb-os 2.16.56

First flash (USB): TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin — the full merged image (offset 0x0).

• Browser, no toolchain: https://zionbrock.com/orb
• Or: esptool.py --chip esp32s3 write_flash 0x0 TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin

Update over WiFi (no cable): TheOrbOS-ota.bin — the app-only image.
Open http://theorb.local/update on the device and upload this file.
(Do not upload the merged image there.)

Full Changelog: v2.16.55...v2.16.56

orb-os 2.16.55

First flash (USB): TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin — the full merged image (offset 0x0).

• Browser, no toolchain: https://zionbrock.com/orb
• Or: esptool.py --chip esp32s3 write_flash 0x0 TheOrbOS-esp32s3.bin

Update over WiFi (no cable): TheOrbOS-ota.bin — the app-only image.
Open http://theorb.local/update on the device and upload this file.
(Do not upload the merged image there.)

Full Changelog: v2.16.54...v2.16.55