AX206 SmartCool Display Manager

A pure Node.js and Electron GUI application to drive the AX206 320x240 LCD display (VID: 1908, PID: 0102). This project has been fully decoupled from the legacy Python script, making it self-contained, lightweight, and modern. It provides dynamic dashboard views, automated hardware driver controls, and local service quota monitoring.

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Architecture & Project Structure

The project is structured logically into separate backend, frontend, and utility modules:

• main.js: The Electron main process. Creates the dashboard browser window, coordinates background timers, polls system/API telemetry, auto-connects to the USB screen, and acts as the IPC bridge.
• driver.js: Hardware driver implementing the USB Bulk-Only Transport (BOT) protocol. Handles endpoint claims, packet wrapping (CBW/CSW), and converting HTML5 Canvas 32-bit RGBA buffers to 16-bit big-endian RGB565 format.
• stats.js: Standard system resource monitor. Gathers real-time CPU load, memory utilization, disk usage, and network RX/TX bandwidth bytes.
• media.js: Integrates native OS scripting (such as Windows PowerShell WinRT, macOS AppleScript, or Linux playerctl and xdotool) to extract active foreground window titles and current music player status.
• providers.js: Scrapers for local development workflows:
  • Claude Code: Safely checks ~/.claude/.credentials.json to extract current token quota usage.
  • Antigravity: Audits local processes to find running Antigravity Language Servers, checks CSRF flags, and checks active ports to monitor Gemini and Claude token quotas.
• index.html: The dashboard layout, designed with inline Lucide vector SVGs, telemetry cards, and connection configuration toggles.
• style.css: Glassmorphic dark theme stylesheet. Coordinates layouts, states, micro-animations, and SVG icon sizing.
• renderer.js: Runs on the Electron frontend. Renders dashboard telemetry readouts, manages client settings in local storage, handles screen rotations, and performs 2x supersampled drawing on an offscreen canvas (960x640) for anti-aliasing before sending frame data to the USB driver.

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How the USB Driver Works (BOT Protocol)

The AX206 display runs a customized mass storage firmware that listens to SCSI command blocks on raw USB endpoints.

1. Endpoint Map

• Out Endpoint: 0x01 (Bulk Transfer)
• In Endpoint: 0x81 (Bulk Transfer)

2. CBW & CSW Wrapping

Every command sent to the display must be wrapped in a 31-byte Command Block Wrapper (CBW) structure, and must wait for a 13-byte Command Status Wrapper (CSW) block back from the display:

• CBW Structure (31 bytes):

  • USBC (4 bytes): Signature 0x43425355
  • Tag (4 bytes): Transaction identifier (we use 0xdeadbeef)
  • Data Length (4 bytes): Size of payload to be transferred
  • Direction (1 byte): 0x00 (Host-to-Device) or 0x80 (Device-to-Host)
  • LUN (1 byte): Logical unit number (0x00)
  • CDB Length (1 byte): Command descriptor block length (usually 0x10)
  • CDB (16 bytes): Actual command payload (e.g. initialize, set cursor, write buffer)

• CSW Structure (13 bytes):

  • USBS (4 bytes): Signature 0x53425355
  • Tag (4 bytes): Transaction identifier (matches the CBW tag)
  • Residue (4 bytes): Bytes left untransferred
  • Status (1 byte): 0x00 indicates success, 0x01 / 0x02 indicates a phase/hardware error.

3. Image Packing (RGB565 BE)

The display expects pixel colors in 16-bit Big-Endian RGB565 format (5 bits red, 6 bits green, 5 bits blue). The driver converts canvas pixels in a fast loop:

const rgb565 = ((r & 0xF8) << 8) | ((g & 0xFC) << 3) | (b >> 3);
outBuf[i * 2] = (rgb565 >> 8) & 0xFF; // High byte
outBuf[i * 2 + 1] = rgb565 & 0xFF;    // Low byte

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Setup & Prerequisites

This application runs on Node.js. Because it communicates directly with USB hardware via node-usb, some platform-specific drivers are needed.

Windows Setup

1. USB Driver: The AX206 screen must be associated with the WinUSB driver. Download Zadig, select your AX206 device (usually identified as a bulk storage device or custom display), and install/replace the driver with WinUSB.
2. Node.js: Install Node.js 18 or later.

Linux / Raspberry Pi Setup

1. libusb: Install the libusb library dependencies:

   sudo apt-get install libusb-1.0-0-dev udev

2. udev Rules: To access the USB device without root permissions, create a udev rule at /etc/udev/rules.d/99-ax206.rules:

   SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="1908", ATTR{idProduct}=="0102", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"
   

   Reload udev rules:

   sudo udevadm control --reload-rules && sudo udevadm trigger

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Running the Application

1. Install Dependencies

Run in your project directory:

npm install

2. Start the Application

Run:

npm start

This launches the Electron GUI dashboard. The manager will automatically look for connected AX206 screens, initialize them, and start rotating through active telemetry panels.

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Troubleshooting & Maintenance

• "AX206 display not found":
  • Check the physical USB connection.
  • Verify that the Zadig WinUSB driver is successfully installed (on Windows) or that the udev rules are loaded (on Linux).
• USB Write Collisions / Blit Stalls:
  • The driver contains an isWriting guard in main.js to prevent overlapping frame writes.
  • If a USB transmission fails, the driver executes a Bulk-Only Transport (BOT) reset to clear the endpoints and attempts recovery automatically.
• Claude or Antigravity Quotas not updating:
  • Ensure the local Antigravity Language Server is running on your machine.
  • Check that the Claude Code CLI tool is authenticated and that ~/.claude/.credentials.json exists.