Back button (new GPIO0, POST /frame/back): the server now tracks a
bounded history of previously-current photos (photo_queue.py), pushed
to on every advance (auto or forced) and popped by back_forced() --
symmetric with advance, so pressing next afterwards returns to right
where you were. frame_client.c's force_advance bool becomes a 3-way
fetch_action_t (NORMAL/ADVANCE/BACK) threaded through the whole fetch
path.
Also folds the separate reset and manage buttons onto one pin
(combo_button.c, replacing reset_button.c/manage_button.c entirely),
disambiguated by hold duration: quick press shows the management menu
(unchanged), ~3s hold-then-release soft-resets (esp_restart(), config
kept -- new), ~15s hold factory-resets (today's old reset behavior,
extended from 10s for clearer tier separation). Driven by a production
board (Seeed XIAO ESP32-C6) exposing only 3 of the ESP32-C6's 8
deep-sleep-wakeup-capable GPIOs -- next/back keep their own dedicated
pins where instant response matters most, everything else shares the
third pin via timing instead of needing its own. Same three-pin layout
now works on both the dev board and the production board.
Fixed a fast-tap bug in combo_button_check() before shipping: it only
did a live gpio_get_level() read to decide whether the button was
pressed at all, so a press fast enough to already be released by the
time boot reached that check was missed entirely (treated as "never
pressed" rather than "quick press"). Added the same latched
esp_sleep_get_gpio_wakeup_status() check the other buttons already use
for exactly this reason.
The management token only gated / and /api/* -- every device-facing
/frame/* endpoint (including /frame/image, which serves the actual
photo bytes) stayed open regardless. That was fine while the server
was assumed LAN-only, but defeats the point now that HTTPS exists
specifically to let this sit behind a public hostname.
build_url() (frame_client.c) is the one chokepoint all firmware-side
URL construction already went through, so it now appends ?token= to
every request it builds -- device fetches and QR-embedded links alike
-- instead of that being bolted on per-callsite. Server-side, the
former require_management_token dependency (renamed require_access_token)
is applied to /frame/config, /frame/image, /frame/advance,
/frame/photo-info, /frame/face-labels, and /frame/share/{asset_id} too.
/health stays open -- pure liveness, nothing sensitive to protect.
ESP32 side can now reach the tools server over HTTPS: the Tools Server
field accepts an https:// address for a TLS-terminating reverse proxy
in front of the server (which still only ever speaks plain HTTP
itself), trusting Cloudflare's Origin CA root (embedded at build time)
since that's the common way to get a real cert on a private origin.
Every URL the device builds -- image fetch, config check, manage-menu
data, the QR codes' own links -- goes through one build_url() helper
that picks the scheme from what's configured.
Also adds an optional MANAGEMENT_TOKEN (docker-compose.yml) that gates
the web UI (/, /api/*) behind a shared secret -- unset by default, so
existing trusted-LAN deployments are unaffected. The same token is
entered once during the ESP32's captive-portal setup and gets baked
into the manage-menu's QR code (?token=...), so scanning it just works;
visiting the page without a valid token shows a plain entry prompt
instead of the config UI, and a valid query-param hit sets a cookie so
the page's own fetch()/<img> calls stay authorized for the rest of the
visit. Device-facing /frame/* endpoints are unaffected -- a separate,
already-documented trust boundary.
A plain read-only key (per the original setup instructions) 403s on
POST /api/shared-links -- confirmed against the live instance's
permission enum in /api/spec.json.
Two rounds of follow-up work on the manage-button overlay:
1. Location formatting: US/Canada now show abbreviated state/province
("CA", "ON") instead of the full name, other countries show the full
country name, and each is its own line (was one line, now wraps to
two) so longer international place names have more room without
threatening to overlap the top-right QR box. The bottom-left share QR
also gets a "SCAN TO DOWNLOAD" caption.
2. Escalating menu: pressing the manage button again while its overlay
is already up adds a second level -- each Immich-identified person's
name labeled next to their face in the photo (using Immich's own
face recognition/People data, no detection/recognition added to this
project). A third press exits immediately instead of waiting out the
30s auto-revert timer. No new Immich API needed -- GET /api/faces
already embeds a nullable person.name per face; new
server/app/face_labels.py maps a named face's box into the final
800x480 frame's pixel space (reusing crop-box math extracted from
image_pipeline.py's face-aware cropping). Capped at 4 named faces,
sized to a real firmware RAM budget: each label is its own malloc'd
overlay region on the device, alongside the 4 fixed corner regions
already in use. New GET /frame/face-labels returns a flattened
fixed-slot JSON shape (not a real array) so firmware's existing
flat-scalar parser can read it without needing an actual array
parser. No persistent state needed for the escalation itself -- it's
all local control flow within one continuous awake session
(frame_client.c's run_management_menu()).
Two changes, bundled since they landed in the same session and touch
overlapping files:
1. Fix: "Show next" sent the browser's full queue snapshot to
POST /api/queue/reorder, which hard-rejected if the server's queue
had shifted since the last fetch (e.g. right after a queue-length
trim). New POST /api/queue/promote moves one photo to the front
authoritatively, with no dependency on client staleness. /reorder
itself is now tolerant too -- unrecognized IDs are dropped and
missing ones appended, instead of rejecting the whole request.
2. Feature: the manage button's overlay now also shows the photo's
location (top-left, only if Immich reverse-geocoded it from GPS
EXIF), the date it was taken (bottom-right), and a QR code (bottom-
left) linking to a 30-minute public Immich share link -- created
lazily when someone actually scans it, not when the button's
pressed. New server endpoints GET /frame/photo-info and
GET /frame/share/{asset_id} (scoped to the frame's current/queued
photos, not any arbitrary Immich asset). Firmware-side, the overlay
mechanism generalizes from one spliced region to up to four
(manage_qr_overlay.c), each its own small buffer, still never
holding the full frame in RAM.
Adds "Upcoming photos to show" to the config UI (queue_target_len, 5-50,
default 20, replacing the hardcoded QUEUE_TARGET_LEN constant). Lowering
it trims the queue immediately on next page load rather than waiting for
enough advances to consume the excess naturally; raising it tops back up
the same way, via a new photo_queue.sync_queue_length() called from
GET /api/queue.
Replaces the up/down-button vertical list with a responsive photo grid
(native HTML5 drag-and-drop between cards, reusing the existing
POST /api/queue/reorder endpoint -- no new server route needed). Each
card also gets a "Show next" button that jumps it straight to the front
of the queue.
Also bumps the queue lookahead from 10 to 24 photos (QUEUE_TARGET_LEN in
photo_queue.py) now that the grid has room to show more at once.
Factory-reset (GPIO3, hold 10s): clears stored WiFi/server config and
restarts into provisioning -- the deliberate, USB-free replacement for
the earlier reverted RST-based auto-reprovisioning idea.
Next-photo (GPIO2, tap): wakes the device and forces the server to
advance immediately via a new POST /frame/advance, instead of waiting
for the refresh interval. Both buttons arm themselves as deep-sleep GPIO
wakeup sources so a press is noticed promptly even while asleep.
Also makes GET /frame/image side-effect-free: it now only advances once
refresh_interval_s has elapsed since the current photo was set (tracked
server-side), so a device reboot for any reason just redisplays the
current photo instead of silently skipping ahead. The server maintains a
small reorderable upcoming-photos queue, viewable and rearrangeable from
the web UI.
- LICENSE: MIT, with attribution notes for the vendored qrcode/epaper_fonts/
dns_server code and the epd7in3e driver's transcription of Waveshare's
register sequence.
- Top-level README.md: project overview, hardware list, quick-start
pointing at firmware/ and server/, repo layout, license, Claude Code
attribution.
- firmware/README.md: full rewrite (was still the stock ESP-IDF captive
portal example's README) -- build/flash instructions, Kconfig reference
table, first-boot walkthrough, and how to reset to provisioning mode via
NVS erase (the only way in right now; a proper reconfigure trigger is a
future addition).
- docs/hardware.md: wiring table + parts list + strapping-pin/SPI-speed notes.
- docs/architecture.md: sequence diagram and walkthrough of the full
provision -> connect -> fetch -> display -> sleep cycle, plus the
reasoning behind doing image processing server-side and reusing Immich's
face detection instead of bundling a detector.
- server/README.md: fixed stale endpoint docs (missing GET /frame/config,
POST /api/config still describing removed immich_url/api_key fields).
docker-compose.yml is tracked in a repo meant for publishing, so it can't
hold a real API key. Renamed it to docker-compose.yml.example (placeholder
values, safe to commit) and gitignored the real docker-compose.yml --
deploying is now "cp the example, fill in real values, docker compose up",
no .env file needed.
config.load() now reads IMMICH_URL/IMMICH_API_KEY from the environment
and applies them on top of whatever's in config.json, so setting them in
the compose file's environment: block takes effect without ever touching
the web UI. Env vars always win over the UI-saved values when both are
present -- verified they survive a save() with different UI-entered
values still in place.
- pillow==11.1.0 has no prebuilt wheel for Python 3.14, so pip fell back
to building from source and failed without libjpeg dev headers
installed. Bumped to 12.3.0 (has wheels); re-ran the local test suite
against it with no other changes needed.
- The local-dev uvicorn command in the README was missing --host 0.0.0.0,
so it defaulted to 127.0.0.1 -- unreachable from the ESP32 on the LAN.
The Docker image already binds 0.0.0.0 correctly; only the doc'd local
command was wrong.
Builds server/Dockerfile and pushes to this repo's Gitea Container
Registry (git.thumeit.com/tfaour/espresso-frame-server) on every push to
main that touches server/, tagged both latest and the commit SHA.
docker-compose.yml now sets both image: and build: -- deploy hosts can
docker compose pull to grab the CI-built image without needing this
repo's build context, while local dev can still docker compose build
against Dockerfile changes directly.
Implements the server side of the architecture decided on: the ESP32-C6
has no PSRAM and a tight RAM budget, so all the heavy lifting (JPEG
decode, resize, Floyd-Steinberg dithering, 6-color quantization, 4bpp
packing) happens here instead of on-device. The frame just does a single
GET and streams the response straight to SPI.
- GET /frame/image: looks up the current cursor's asset in the configured
Immich album, downloads its preview thumbnail, and returns it packed
into the panel's exact 800x480/4bpp/2px-per-byte format
(application/octet-stream, always exactly 192,000 bytes).
- GET / + POST /api/config + GET /api/albums: a small web UI for entering
the Immich URL/API key and picking an album, rather than cramming that
into the ESP32's captive portal form.
- Config (Immich creds, selected album, cursor) persists to a JSON file
via a docker-compose volume mount.
Verified locally with a venv (Docker isn't available in this environment):
unit-tested image_pipeline against a synthetic image (exact byte count,
valid panel color codes only), and ran a full end-to-end pass against a
mock Immich HTTP server exercising the real /frame/image path.
Pinned dependency versions in requirements.txt after hitting a real bug
with unpinned floors: the latest starlette (1.3.1) resolved by `pip
install fastapi` breaks Jinja2Templates outright.
Not yet wired to the ESP32 side (task 6) or authenticated -- /frame/image
is unauthenticated for now, fine on a trusted LAN but worth revisiting
once the firmware sends a shared device token.
tfaour