Instructions | DIY ESP8266 Led Matrix Clock Kit

1

Start by checking all parts are present

Make sure that all parts came in good shape and no apparent damage is done on the way.
2

Solder two 5-pin male headers to the screen

Disconnect 2 edge led matrix modules from the screen. Be careful not to bend the pins, otherwise it would be a lot of dancing to put them back later on. Don't worry about orientation, they have markings on one side
3

Solder Wemos D1 module - headers to module first

Solder headers to the Wemos D1 module. Long part of the header should be directed to the motherboard. Make sure to align them right, use motherboard as an aligning tool.

Start with just one pin each side and double check your work. Then you can proceed to other pins
4

Solder Wemos D1 module headers - motherboard side

Solder headers to the motherboard. Use just soldered Wemos module as aligning tool
5

Solder 5-pin female headers

Now solder screen headers. They will go the opposite side of the motherboard. Again, use screen as aligning tool.
6

Solder buzzer

Solder buzzer on the same side where Wemos headers are. Make sure to note polarity.
7

Assemble it all together

Mount brass stands to the screen, use 4 bolts first

Then finish the other side. Make sure to connect the screen in the right direction. Check DIN and DOUT pins on the screen and motherboard connected to each other.
8

Connect power to test the screen

Connect power to Wemos' USB port either from laptop or powerbank. At this stage clock will turn on and show "Loading" screen.
9

Configure Wi-Fi

When ESP starts for the first time, it will configure AP point named ESPXXXXXX. Connect to it using your phone and you will be redirected to WiFi captive portal, where you can provide WiFi network credentials. After that Clock will connect to known WiFi automatically

How to configure time zone

All Clocks are shipped with pre-installed firmware. Unfortunately, timezone settings are hardwired in the firmware (one day I will rewrite it to be able to change it without re-flashing). So unless you order from Europe, chances are you need to reconfigure timezone are pretty high.

After you install vscode and Platformio, and hopefully able to build firmware, you just need to chang single line in the platformio.ini file

build_flags =
    ${env.build_flags}
    '-D TIMEZONE="CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3"'

Tricky part is to know the right value to replace. tz.h file will give you more than 200 common examples

//*********************************************************************************************************
//    Examples for time zones                                                                             *
//*********************************************************************************************************
//    UTC                       GMT0
//    Africa/Abidjan            GMT0
//    Africa/Accra              GMT0
//    Africa/Addis_Ababa        EAT-3
//    Africa/Algiers            CET-1
//    Africa/Blantyre, Harare   CAT-2
...
//    US/Michigan               EST5EDT,M3.2.0,M11.1.0
//    US/Samoa                  SST11
//    US/Los Angeles            PST8PDT,M3.2.0,M11.1.0
//    US/Houston                CST6CDT,M3.2.0,M11.1.0

and this website will give few more on top of that.

When the right value is found, rebuilding and flashing firmware will finish the quest.

Discussions

Shourov Paul wrote 09/19/2023 at 17:17

How i can change the time formate 24 hours to 12 hours?

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Robert White wrote 06/10/2023 at 09:27

Thank you that's a great help

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Robert White wrote 06/08/2023 at 21:59

Hi Arantansi

Built the clock and think its great. I have two questions

1) How can I limit the maximum brightness of the display?

2)How can I handle the change to/from daylight saving without changing the timezone and reload the program in the clock?

Thanks

Regards

Robert

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andriy.malyshenko wrote 06/08/2023 at 22:58

Hey Robert

1. You're looking for this line: https://github.com/anabolyc/esp-led-matrix-clock/blob/master/firmware/esp8266-led-clock/src/renderer/AutoBrightness.h#LL8C9-L8C30

2. When it will synchronize the clock it will take into account DST. That's the whole beauty of having internet connected clock :)

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dekinter wrote 04/25/2023 at 21:39

I cannot find the clock on my network after setup and would like to know how to go back to the AP start

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Serge Ménard wrote 04/11/2023 at 20:10

Following instruction above to connect to connect to ESP_209581, I have an ip address of 192.168.4.2. Using the browser on my phone with that address, I am returned with an error code err_connection_timed_out or err_connection_refused. Any idea ?

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andriy.malyshenko wrote 04/15/2023 at 21:13

Usually you will get redirected by your phone automatically, I'm not sure it should respond on the root address. I will double check with my clock and get back to you

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Serge Ménard wrote 04/15/2023 at 21:17

OK. When trying to access the clock from my PC, not my phone, I get 192.168.4.1. That worked just fine. Thanks for your reply.

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aratansi wrote 04/01/2023 at 19:55

Thanks

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aratansi wrote 04/01/2023 at 12:45

How to configure for 12h mode

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andriy.malyshenko wrote 04/01/2023 at 19:24

please remove this line from platformio.ini

-D SCREEN_FORMAT24H

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DIY ESP8266 Led Matrix Clock Kit

Discussions

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