OpenDMD is open-source firmware and a web app for the DMDoS display: a 128x32 LED
dot-matrix display, two chained 64x32 HUB75 panels driven by an ESP32, that plays animated GIFs
from a microSD card, like the "DMD" in a pinball machine. DMDoS is a community project from
Spain, and dmdos.net is where to get the hardware, build the display
and find GIFs. OpenDMD is an alternative firmware for the same board: it plays a DMDoS card as
it is, and adds a web app to manage it.
- The firmware runs on the display's own ESP32 board. It plays the card and serves the web
app over WiFi.
- The web app at
http://opendmd.local/ works in any browser, on a phone or a computer.
Previews and GIF preparation run right in the browser, using the same engine as the display.
- The simulator plays a card in a desktop window, drawn as LEDs rather than flat pixels
(for developers: build it from source; everyone else can try the
web demo).
OpenDMD and DMDoS
OpenDMD only replaces the software on the ESP32. The hardware, the build and the GIFs come
from DMDoS:
- The hardware: the parts list, with where to buy each one, is in the Hardware section of
dmdos.net. The DMDoS Board V3 is made by
MORTACA. What you need sums it up.
- Building it: the Assembly section of dmdos.net walks through it
step by step, with a photo for each.
- A frame: a 3D-printable frame by Janibol of
Retromojones is on
Thingiverse. The Frame section of dmdos.net has
printed kits and wooden frames.
- GIFs: the DMDoS GIF pack is in the Software section of dmdos.net.
A card set up with it plays on OpenDMD as it is.
OpenDMD is an independent project, not made by or affiliated with DMDoS or MORTACA. The
original DMDoS firmware can be put back at any time from the Software section of dmdos.net.
Install
Open the installer in Chrome, Edge, Opera or
Firefox on a computer, plug the
display's ESP32 board into your computer by USB, and click Install. When it's done, the
installer asks for your WiFi and puts the board on it; the web app is then at
http://opendmd.local/. (Skipped that? The display opens a WiFi network called
OpenDMD-Setup to set it up from instead.) Install has the details.
From source: make fw-release && make flasher (see For developers).
What it does
- Library: search, browse by category and platform, preview each GIF with the panel look,
send it to the panel, and add, rename or delete GIFs.
- Playlists: build them by platform, category and title words, then reorder and switch
between them live. A GIF can be a favourite in one playlist and play less often in another.
- Create Art: find game screenshots, boxes and logos, or GeoCities GIFs, or use your own
picture. Frame it, recolour it, add text, trim frames, and save it as a GIF ready for the panel.
- Smooth motion: adds the in-between frames to GIFs that move in jerky steps, without
changing the file.
- Formulas: a few lines of maths that draw the panel's pixels. Ten come with the panel (a big
clock, Matrix, a starfield, an endless synthwave road, a time gate, and five looks to draw over
any GIF: scanlines, an old TV, a vignette, an old photo, glitter); the online gallery has the
rest (plasma, fire, rain, a tunnel, Mode 7 rotozoom, a wireframe cube, …) and the ones people share.
Remix one, drag a number and watch, submit it to the gallery, or save it as a GIF.
- Looks: full colour or a single amber, red, green, blue or white, with optional phosphor glow.
- Schedules: a playlist or brightness for parts of the week or of the year (Halloween and
Christmas playlists that come on by themselves), and a night mode that turns the panel off
or dims it, between set times or from sunset to sunrise.
- Smooth playback: the display gets each GIF ready in the background, so GIFs start
quickly and play smoothly.
Screenshots
| Library | Create Art |
|---|
| |
| Now playing | Formulas |
| |
| Playlists | On a phone |
| |
The demo card in these screenshots holds OpenDMD's own Formulas and the
Kenney Pixel Platformer sprites (CC0);
make screenshots takes them again (tools/screenshots.py).
Documentation
The documentation is also at opendmd.dev.
Development
Everything builds from this repository with make; For developers lists
the toolchains, the common targets and the crates.
License
Either Apache 2.0 or MIT, at your option. Contributions are
dual licensed the same way.
The headings use Silkscreen by Jason Kottke, a
pixel font under the SIL Open Font License 1.1. A small
subset of it is bundled with the web app and the setup page, so they work without the
internet, and published with the site.
The firmware and the web app are built on other open-source software (ESP-IDF, FreeRTOS,
lwIP, Mbed TLS and the Rust crates among it), listed with each licence's full text in
the firmware's and
the web app's third-party notices. Each release and
the web app itself carry them (Settings › Device › About › Open-source licences).
OpenDMD comes with no GIFs. The animations on a DMDoS card are third-party content that this
project can't relicense or redistribute: get the DMDoS GIF pack from
dmdos.net, or make your own with Create Art. The animations on the
OpenDMD site are OpenDMD's own Formulas, recorded from the simulator, and the
CC0 Kenney Pixel Platformer sprites.
