Galactic Unicorn offers 53x11 bright RGB LEDs driven by Pico W's PIO in addition to a 1W amplifier + speaker, a collection of system and user buttons, and two Qw/ST connectors for adding external sensors and devices. Woha!
Galactic Unicorn ships with MicroPython firmware pre-loaded, but you can download the most recent version at the link below (you'll want the galactic-unicorn image).
The easiest way to start displaying cool stuff on Galactic Unicorn is using our Galactic Unicorn module (which contains a bunch of helpful functions for interacting with the buttons, adjusting brightness and suchlike) and our PicoGraphics library, which is chock full of useful functions for drawing on the LED matrix.
Modified clock example by @PaulskPt, using timed NTP synchronization. You can adjust the brightness with LUX + and -. Adjust the audio volume with VOL + and -. Resync of the time is now done at intervals determined by the value of the variable 'interval_secs' in main(), line 648, default 600 seconds. Button A re-arranged. Buttons B, C and D added. Button A: increase hours; button B: decrease hours; button C: increase minutes; button D: decrease minutes. When you change hours and/or minutes, using buttons A thru D, the NTP syncing will be halted. This is done to prevent that a next NTP sync will undo your time alteration.
Added Global variables:
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'classic': (default False) If True: the color scheme of the the original Pimoroni clock script version for the Galactic Universe device is used. If False you have an option: see 'use_fixed_color' below.
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'use_fixed_color: (default: False) (line 96). If True, set your favorite color with variable 'clr_idx' (line 171), e.g.: 'clr_idx = pink_'. If True. One color (defaults: foreground: red, background: black) is used. If False: color change at intervals. The color changes after an NTP sync moment. All foreground colors go with a black background color, except when foregrond color is black, the background will be white.
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'my_debug': (default False) If True more information will be printed to the REPL.
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'do_sync': (default True) this boolean variable is used to inhibit NTP sync after an hour/minute change by the user.
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The following global variables are taken from the file 'clock_mod_secrets.py':
+------------------+---------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Global | value from key ... | |
| variable: | in 'clock_mod_secrets.py' | use: |
+------------------+---------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| country | COUNTRY | to replace decimal '.' by ',' if country != "USA" |
+------------------+---------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| utc_offset | TZ_OFFSET | to calculate the localtime. Offet in hours e.g. N.Y should be -5 |
+------------------+---------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ntp_server | NTP_SERVER | define here your NTP server. Default is set to "pool.ntp.org" |
+------------------+---------------------------+---------------------------------------------------------------------+
This example uses different character definitions. The characters are defined in the file 'clock_mod_digits.py'. At the end of this file is defined a 'img_dict', which contains info about the defined characters, all except one are digits, as well as the 'width' each of them occupies. The use of a different character set in combination with other color schemes gives you a more 'quiet' view experience. The original version is very nice, colorful and adjusted to ambient light, however that example gives a 'nervous' experience because pixels of the background colours surrounding and in between the digits are frequently moving. This 'effect' I didn't like. It was one of the reasons for me to write the 'clock_mod' example script. I also didn't like the way the 'colon' character was defined' (too much shifted upwards). I made the colon also wider.
Removed function:
- adjust_utc_offset()
Added functions:
- play_tone();
- double_tone();
- my_dev(): collects the os.uname() into global 'dev_dict' dictionary. Data as: 'machine', (micropython) release and version;
- blink(): blinks a 2x2 pixel square in the top-left corner to indicate WiFi connected (green), WiFi disconnected (red). sync_time (blue).
- is_connected: prints to REPL info about the WiFi connection status (connected/disconnected);
- epoch(): returns number of seconds derived from: time.time() + (utc_offset * 3600) value. It is used in main() for time-controlled actions.
- adjust_hour(): self evident;
- adjust_minute(): same;
- hdg(): prints a header to the REPL. Prints also clock, time_to_sync and percent_to_midday values.
- main(): contains the main loop
Modified functions:
- outline_text();
- sync_time();
- redraw_display_if_reqd():
Compared to the original clock.py example, this example prints more info to the REPL. Info like 'WiFi connected/disconnected'. Other info to REPL as: 'NTP sync in... secs', Clock time and '% to midday' are printed in a table format. Added a main() function with a try...except KeyboardInterrupt block, so the user can interrupt the running script by typing 'Ctrl+C'.