appdaemon_pixelt

There is a marvelous project PixelIT which is a DIY 8x32bit RGB WLAN LED matrix to display text and graphics for around 50€. The screen is more or less dumb, you have to feed it with data by a server. The original developer provides a node-red flow to do so. The hardware and firmware is original from this website. The wiki is in german, to download the firmware use this link ESP8266-Firmware

Homeassistant

I did not manage to feed data via node-red to the display so i started to develop an appdaemon class for this task. The result is in an early stage but is working. See a demo on Youtube.

Concept

The appdaemon shows a "screen" after another. A screen is assembled from a json template to set static information like colors and a "dynamic" part the message. E.g. you can design a template for temperature with a special icon or animation, text color and display duration (lifetime) and feed the actual temperature value via home-assistant. Screennames should be unique if you update data dynamicaly.

Setup

You need a running appdaemon, see e.g. tutorial Install the class to your appdaemon an configure it:

pixelit:
  module: pixelit
  class: pixelit
  ip: 192.168.178.24
  path: "/config/pixelit/"
  entitiy_id: sensor.pixelit
  debug: False

parameter	meaning
ip	ip of the pixel controller
path	the path to the json templates, this has to be outside of the appdaemon/apps/pixelit folder!!
entity_id	entity in HA to update with information about the display

Example Homeassistant config:

configuration.yaml

sensor:
- platform: rest
  resource: http://192.168.178.47:5050/api/appdaemon/pixelit_sensor
  method: POST
  headers:
    Content-Type: "application/json"
  name: Pixelit
  value_template: > 
      {{ value_json.state }}
  scan_interval: 300

notify:
  - name: pixelit
    platform: rest
    method: POST_JSON
    headers:
      Content-Type: "application/json"
    resource: http://192.168.178.47:5050/api/appdaemon/pixelit_add
    title_param_name: "title"

rest_command:
  pixelit_delete:
    url: http://192.168.178.47:5050/api/appdaemon/pixelit_delete
    method: POST
    payload: '{"title": "{{ title }}"}'
    content_type: 'application/json; charset=utf-8'

  pixelit_update:
    url: http://192.168.178.47:5050/api/appdaemon/pixelit_update
    method: POST
    payload: '{"title": "{{ title }}","message": "{{ message }}"}'
    content_type: 'application/json; charset=utf-8'

  pixelit_next:
    url: http://192.168.178.47:5050/api/appdaemon/pixelit_next
    method: POST
    payload: '{}'
    content_type: 'application/json; charset=utf-8'

switch:
  - platform: rest
    name: pixelit_sleepmode
    resource: http://192.168.178.47:5050/api/appdaemon/pixelit_sleepmode
    body_on: '{"sleepMode": "true"}'
    body_off: '{"sleepMode": "false"}'
    is_on_template: '{{ value_json.sleepMode == True }}'
    headers:
      Content-Type: application/json

use your own homeassistant ip instead of 192...47!!!

Usage

Create the templates according to the wiki of pixelit and add these two values:

    "repeat": 10,
    "lifetime": 15,

parameter	meaning
repeat	how often will this screen be shown
lifetime	how long is this screen visible

Name the json-files according to your screen an put it in the defined path.

Templates

There are some samples in the templates subdirectory. Use them as startingpoint for your own screens. You can test them in the browser in the test-area of your pixelit.

Hint Don't use position in the text-section, but set "scrollText": "auto" so text will be scrolled if to long to display at once.

Important Take care of the syntax, the screens must be valid JSON!!

To add a screen use the service:

service: notify.pixelit with e.g.

title: "alarm"
message: "Door is open!"

parameter	meaning
title	selects the "title.json" template and uses it as the screen name
message	the text to display
target	(optional) "warning" and "alert" emphasises the message by repeating it more often

To delete a screen from the playlist

service: rest_command.pixelit_delete

parameter	meaning
title	selects screen to delete first match is deleted, so unique screen names are useful

To update a screen message text

service: rest_command.pixelit_update

parameter	meaning
title	selects screen to update first match is used, so unique screen names are useful
message	new display text

service: rest_command.pixelit_next

switch to next screen. decreases the repeat counter of the actual screen!!

Sound

The new Firmware of pixelIt supports mp3 playback via a DFPlayer Module. If you use sound in your templates, the sound is only played once, directly when you add the template to the loop. Watch Out, the Awtrix Hardware uses pin D5 for RX to the DFMini, so they are not interchangeable

On screen names

You may use screen-names multiple times but if you e.g. delete a screen e.g. "data" all screens of that name will be delete.