kolkman / cinematrix

Matrix led display with webinterface

CineMatrix Display Web Server

What is it

A matrix display driver that is configurable through a web interface.

How to use

Connect your ESP-32 Dev Kit C to your MAX72XX Matrix array: the following defaults: DATA_PIN 25, CS_PIN 26, CLK_PIN 27. Make sure tho select the 5V terminal on the ESP32 and connect ground to a ground terminal.

After powering up the ESP32 it will set up a wireless access point. The matrix display will show its name and password on first start up and print some instructions on how to connect your browser.

Installing

The distributed binaries are build for an ESP32 dev board with a display of twelve 8x8 matrix elements of hardware type MD_MAX72XX::FC16_HW.

If you have have the same hardware then you can follow this installation procedure.

Pick the latest release from GitHub and install using the Espressif esptool.py script as follows:

 
    tar -xvzf /path/to/release.tar 
    esptool.py --chip esp32 --port "/dev/tty.usbserial-0001" --baud 460800 --before default_reset \
   --after hard_reset write_flash -z --flash_mode dio --flash_freq 40m  --flash_size 4MB \
     0x1000 bootloader_dio_40m.bin 0x8000 partitions.bin 0xe000 boot_app0.bin 0x10000 firmware.bin

Note that on Mac OS X you might experience that the serial to USB interface does not work. In those cases these drivers may offer a solution.

Building

If you have another board or a different size or type of display you have to build the code from source (using PlatformIO in Visual Studio (preferably with MinifyAll extentension enabled).

Security

The security is based on the ability to connect to the access point and thus on wireless security protocols.

Acknowledgements

This code was developed for Filmtheater Gerrit on Visual Studio Code for Mac OS X with PlatformIO. It relies heavily on the Parola for Arduino Library and borrows code fragment from ESP32ressoMachine, one of my other projects.

Screenshots