PyPortal Event Countdown Clock Mods II

I have implemented some of the items on my to do list from last week’s post and tested out a few more ideas. I have also published version 0.1 to GitHub.

• Version 0.1 – https://github.com/richteel/PyPortal_Events/releases/tag/v0.1
• Code Page – https://github.com/richteel/PyPortal_Events

I want to provide a few details on version 0.1 of the code and what is being worked for version 1.0. The two releases are very different with 1.0 being the one that I recommend you use once it is available.

Version 0.1 does automatically change the backlight brightness but it is not too dramatic therefore not very useful in my opinion. I’m disappointed by the way that turned out but plan to address it in version 1.0 with automatic and manual setting of the backlight.

Version 0.1 also freezes randomly, however I think it is a memory issue. I plan to address this by calling the CircuitPython garbage collection and/or implementing a watchdog timer. Not certain at the moment, which direction I will take but suspect that I will implement both.

Version 0.1 will also load all events, even those in the past so it is not very useful. Version 1.0 will address this by not loading past events.

The next version, 1.0, will have a different screen layout. As stated above, I wanted a way to manually control the backlighting so I have added icons at the bottom of the screen with touch target areas for increasing, decreasing, and automatic setting of the screen backlight. In order to add this as an option, I have created a 20 pixel high footer on the screen for the icons and to display brightness information. I may also display when the time is being updated as the touch interface is non-responsive during an update as it is a blocking call.

A 20 pixel header will also be included to display the time, the current event of the number of events, and a network strength indicator. The header and footer take away 40 pixels from the screen height but I think it will be worth it.

Hopefully I will finish this new version shortly and will have it available on GitHub. As you may have guessed, I will be on vacation/holiday for two weeks in about two weeks so there will not be any posts while I am away, unless it is about the vacation and I have stable enough internet to make some posts.