Firmware for ESP32-based Clock and Weather Forecast

Used hardware:

• ESP32 MCU (WiFi required)
• MAX7219 – the main display
• APDS‑9960 – proximity-based switching of display pages

Used software:

• PlatformIO for building
• Arduino framework
• ESP-IDF framework with utilization of underlying FreeRTOS

Features

• Time is synchronized every hour using Simple NTP. This should sufficiently mitigate the imprecision of the built-in RTC.
• Fetches weather forecast from api.open-meteo.com every hour.
• Uses a popular 32x8 MAX7219 LED matrix display to show data.
• Uses an APDS‑9960 proximity and gesture sensor to switch displayed pages; only proximity is used for page switching.
• Advertises its config.h:DEVICE_NAME via mDNS.
• Available pages (from furthest to closest):
  • Current time (%H:%M) and day of the week.
  • Weather forecast – minimal and maximal temperature for the next FORECAST_HOURS.
  • Weather forecast – temperature chart.
  • Weather forecast – precipitation probability chart.
• Uses both the Arduino and ESP-IDF frameworks, with additional direct calls to the FreeRTOS API.

Technical info

• This is a PlatformIO project (this may change in the future).
• Both Arduino and ESP-IDF frameworks are used, with many direct calls to FreeRTOS.
• The code is primarily C-style, written using C++17 syntax.

Setup

Copy src/secrets.cpp.dist to src/secrets.cpp and fill in your WiFi credentials.

Edit include/config.h to configure options, especially the location for the weather forecast.

Todo

• Nicer fonts – already started, currently based on https://github.com/mfactory-osaka/ESPTimeCast.
• Adapt display brightness depending on ambient brightness.
• WiFi provisioning with BT app.
• OTA firmware update.
• MQTT interface.
• Remove the Arduino loop and rely on FreeRTOS tasks only (almost done).
• Remove dependency on the Arduino framework.