Introduction¶

Here is the explanation of all programs.

What arguments you can give when you execute them
How to use them

To execute a file, you must be in the folder clock/ of the project and do ./<file> in a terminal.
Replace <file> by the python file you want to execute in the clock/ folder.

Programs¶

Clock
File: clock.py
Binary clocks
Files: binary_clock_block.py and binary_clock.py
Digital clock
File: digital_clock.py
Menu config
File: menu_config.py
Diaporama
File: diaporama.py

Clock¶

The clock is the main program of the project.

Colors¶

First, I'll explain you the colors.json file (located in the clock/ folder).

This file is a json object. Keys are colors names and values are the RGB color value as a list. The list contains three integers (between 0 and 255).

{
   "color_name": [<red_value>, <green_value>, <blue_value>]
}

To see an example of what the colors.json should contain, you can look the content of that file on GitHub.

This file is made for people who want to add their custom colors.

Arguments¶

Here I'll explain all argument you can give to the clock program.

To get help on the clock program and see what arguments it take, call it with the -h or --help argument as follow ./clock.py -h.

-h or --help → Show the help.
-fg or --foreground with one of the color name which is in the colors.json file → Set the foreground color.
-bg or --background with one of the color name which is in the colors.json file → Set the background color.
-r or --rotation with the rotation angle (0, 90, 180, 270) → Set the rotation of the LED matrix.
-b or --brightness with a float number between 0 and 1 → Set the brightness, higher is brighter.
-l or --location with a string which is the name of the location you want the weather → Set the location you want the weather.
-i or --interactive → Launch the program in interactive mode.
-s or --speed with any int of float number higher than 0 → Set the scoll speed and refresh rate, lower fastest.

Config¶

I'll now explain how configuration this program work and his default values.

The clock program has 4 configuration type:

The defaults configuration. This is the configuration used in last resort
The config file. This configuration file is persistent.
The arguments given. This is configuration given when you start the program.
The interactive mode. This mode asks you each value which can be confugured at the program start.

The priroty of configuration is like this:

Very Prior	Prior	Less Prior	Not Prior
Interactive mode	Arguments	Config file	Defaults

defaults¶

Defaults values are used when:

The config.json file is not found.
No arguments are given.
The interactive mode is not used.

Defaults values are:

Parameter	Default value
foreground	white
background	black
rotation	0
brightness	1
location	None
speed	0.1

config file¶

Values in the configuration file are used when:

The file config.json is present.
The value for a setting is valid.
No arguments are given.
The interactive mode is not used.

You can change the configuration in this file:

By hand (not recommended).
By using the Menu config program and copying the output in the config.json file.
By accessing the Menu config feature while the clock is running (recommended). To know how to do that, see the usage section.

Warning:
Using the Menu config feature of clock program will overwrite the previous config in the config.json file.

arguments¶

Values in arguments are used when:

The argument is present.
The value of the argument is valid.
The interactive mode is not used.

To know available arguments and their values, refer to the Arguments section.

Giving arguments will not overwrite the config.json file.

interactive¶

Values given in interactive mode are used when:

The interactive mode is used.

Using the interactive mode will not overwrite the config.json file.

Usage¶

When the clock is started (it may take a little time to display things on the LED matrix) use the joystick to navigate.

Joystick action	Action
Pushing Right	Switch to the next feature
Pushing Left	Switch to the previous feature
Pushing Up	Nothing
Pushing Down	Nothing
Pressing it	Start the menu config (press agait to exit)

Each config work exactly the same as when they are started as the main program.
To know how to use features, see below.

Binary clocks¶

The two binary clocks both don't take any arguments. They just display the time in binary.
The time is continuously displayed.

Time is displaied as explained in the feature section.

Block mode¶

The rotation is set to 0° (that mean the up is up and the down is down).

Hyphen mode¶

The rotation is set to 180° (that mean the up is down and the down is up).

Digital clock¶

The digital clock program take no arguments. It just displays the time.
The time is continuously displayed. The rotation is set to 0° (that mean the up is up and the down is down).

Time is displayed as explained in the feature section.

Menu config¶

The menu config program is used to make the config.
The rotation is set to 180° (that mean the up is down and the down is up). The foreground color is set to blue while the background color is set to yellow.

When you execute the program you'll first can change the brightness.
Pushing the joystick on the left you'll can change the text scroll speed (lower is speediest, highest is slowest).
Pushing the joystick on the left again, you'll can change the rotation.
Pushing the joystick on the left again, you'll can change the background color.
Pushing the joystick on the left again, you'll can change the foreground color.
Pushing the joystick one last time on the left you go back to the brightness settings.

Pushing the joystick to the right will browse settings in the reverse order.

To change value of a setting, push the joystick up or down.
For example, pushing down the joystick on the brightness settings will reduce it, while pushing it up will increase the brightness.

Changes take effect immediately.

When you set the rotate, only the display rotates.
The joystick directions don't change.

When you have configured your settings as you like, press the joystick to quit the program. It will print on screen you json configuration.
You can copy it to the config file of the clock program.

Diaporama¶

The diaporama program takes no arguments. It just pass images.
Images are displayed 1.5 seconds. The rotation is set to 180° (that mean the up is down and the down is up).

You can add your custom images in the folder clock/pictures/. Images you add should have a size of 8 by 8 pixels.