Updating listener clients from the UI

[MatteoGheza]

I think that we can use https://esphome.github.io/esp-web-tools/ for updating listener clients, since it's production-ready, it's used by other awesome FOSS projects and it's maintained by NabuCasa.
I tested this and it's working well.
Example manifest file:

{
  "name": "Tally Arbiter M5Atom Listener Client",
  "builds": [
    {
      "chipFamily": "ESP32",
      "improv": false,
      "parts": [
        {
          "path": "tallyarbiter-m5atom.ino.bin",
          "offset": 0
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

@hrueger what do you think about using this lib?

[josephdadams]

Wow. This is cool.

[JTF4]

What would you think about making the flashing software a separate component? That way you don't have to connect to the server to flash clients. (For people who may be running an off site or RPi server)

[hrueger]

@MatteoGheza The lib looks great.
@JTF4 I'd prefer to add the functionality to TallyArbiter and not create a separate application.
Then, we only have one app to maintain, people who use the desktop version can update their clients without installing another app and those who only have a remote server running will need to download something anyway - why not TallyArbiter again?

Edit: I just took a closer look at the lib and realized that the update works with WebUSB directly in the browser. That means that you only need to connect the listener client to a computer where you can access the web UI. That works with an instance running on a pi, too. You don't need to connect the client to the pi physically.

[JTF4]

Well if you can do it from the browser then I'm all for that.

[hrueger]

I just saw electron/electron#14545 . But as a workaround until that issue is fixed, we can detect if we're in the electron window and then open a Chrome window.

[MatteoGheza]

I think we can use https://thegecko.github.io/webusb/docs/index.html in Electron

[wrldtvlr]

Excited to see the release of TA 3.0 imminent, but a bit confused. We're running TA Server on a Pi 4 with four M5 Atom Matrix clients. I've read that the clients have been updated to work with TA 3.0, but I don't see any code changes in the M5 Matrix repository. I've also seen some discussion about embedding the client update process in the new TA 3.0 server, but it's not clear how that would be initiated. Through the server web interface?

[josephdadams]

All of the individual repositories for listener clients are going away and they are now all a part of the primary repo. Github will build binary files for us that you can flash directly to your atom. It’s covered in the documentation once we merge all those PR’s.

[josephdadams]

Just FYI I've marked all of the various listener client repositories under my Github as public archive and added a note to the readme stating that those versions are only compatible with TA < 3.0 and that all future requests, bug reports, and PR's should be made against this main repo.

[wrldtvlr]

Hmmm. There have been some significant code changes to the Matrix client from v2 to v3. I'm trying to compile the v3 info file in the Arduino IDE, but not getting past the include for WiFiManager.h. I suspect I may not have grabbed the correct WiFiManager library (which wasn't in the V2 client), as I get an undefined reference to ESP8266WiFi.h, which it shouldn't be calling as the Matrix is an ESP32. Any pointers to the correct libraries to load?

[wrldtvlr]

Disregard. Must have had some outdated libraries. Updated those and it compiled clean.

[wrldtvlr]

Next problem - Matrix client works, but the colors are really strange. The background is kind of a lavender color. I think what's happening is that the server "bus" colors are being used, but while the names of those are fine (red & green), the hex representation is nothing like what the matrix needs or is defined in the client code.

I definitely could be misunderstanding how

colors work in V3 though

.

[hrueger]

Makes sense 👍 Thanks

[wrldtvlr]

I'll play with it in a few hours. It seems the only way to charge the color is with the picker, and not direct entry of the hex color number.

[wrldtvlr]

Sigh. Disregard again. Looked a little closer in the color picker and found how to enter the hex values. Working fine now.

[wrldtvlr]

Little more testing - I think the Pgm and Pre colors are flipped. The web interface shows Red for Pgm, and Green for Preview, as expected. The M5 colors are reversed.

[wrldtvlr]

Just in case anyone misses the other thread. Red & green were reversed in the draw pixel call. Corrected in latest build.