A recap of Wise Clock 4 features

The list of code changes and new features at the top of the source files (see WiseClock.cpp, for example) grows longer and longer. I thought of getting this list out in the open, for the people who are not particularly interested in the C++ code or just don't want to look at the source code (or release notes file for that matter, not updated in a long while though) to find out what Wise Clock 4 can do.

1. First and foremost, Wise Clock 4 displays quotes retrieved from text file(s) stored on SD card, with both  FAT16 or FAT32 file systems being supported. This piece of functionality is still the core of the software.

2. Secondly, Wise Clock 4 displays the time retrieved from DS3231 extremely accurate real time clock chip. (These first two features inspired its name: "wise" and "clock" :)

3. The display is tri-color (red, green, orange) LED matrix with a minimum resolution of 16x32 and a maximum of 16x128. Currently, the resolution is hard-coded, meaning that the software is compiled and built for a specific display and it cannot be changed dynamically (by the user, from buttons or configuration settings, although this may be a future enhancement);

4. Time can be shown in:

• various display modes:
• Pacman;
• Pong;
• Words;
• TIX;
• Unix;
• binary;
• BIG;
• Quotes (time displayed along with scrolling text);
• "close enough" (approximate), showing passed minutes pie-chart;
• dual time-zone analog display, with hour and minute hands "rotating" inside round face;
• most formats:
• just hours and minutes or
• hours, minutes and seconds, or
• even tenths of a second for chronometer;
• 12 or 24 (military) hour format;
• different sizes:
• medium, on the bottom half of the screen;
• big, scrolling across or rolling digits or
• tiny, when more digits need to fit on the screen.

5. Beside clock, Wise Clock 4's other time-related functions:

• alarm;
• stop watch (chronometer);
• count down timer;
• project time clock;
• GPS-based time synchronization (requires GPSBee module to be installed);
• NTP-based time synchronization (requires Esp8266 Wee/WiFly module to be installed);
• scoreboard (as a separate, independent, standalone, software);
• time lived since birth;
• chime every half hour;
• show night and day on a global map (requires map overlay, see this post);
• show the current time at up to ten different cities, cycling through each city;
• show messages predefined for specific days (e.g. birthday/holiday wishes, event reminders etc.) recorded in message.txt file on SD card;
• automatic, configurable (in SD file) "night" mode for display (saves power and LEDs, produces less light at night);
• automatic and configurable (SD file) Daylight Savings Time;

6. Wise Clock 4 functions not related to time:

• keeping a simple 2-player score for a game;
• statistics and event (temperature etc) logging on SD card;
• display messages sent from smart phone or tablet (through Bluetooth);
• animations;
• display temperature, in either Fahrenheit or Celsius, and/or atmospheric pressure (requires I2C barometer);
• Tetris (as a separate, standalone, software), commands from smart phone/tablet;

7. Other Wise Clock 4 features:

• manual (press "Plus" button) or auto dimming (with LDR) of the display brightness;
• manual (press "Set" button) adjustment of the speed for text-scrolling;
• remote control using 4-button keyfob;
• uses different colors to indicate how close the alarm is to go off (red two hours before, orange before that);
• define and display quotes, partially or entirely, in different colors;
• select a mode ("app") to start at power on;
• select one of the many different fonts;
• post sensor data to monitoring web site;
• display info retrieved from the web (through WiFi), e.g. stock quotes, weather data etc.
• can be used as electronic commercial signage for advertisement, news, announcements etc. due to its high visibility/readability and ease to set up and configure;
• can be used in competitions or sporting events, to display timing and/or info, visible from both sides of the finish line (see Kandisky clock).

8. A vast tree of menu items, allowing the user to access its many functions easily, to choose the time-display mode, to set values (e.g. time) and/or parameters (e.g. amount of time for a countdown) and to save settings (e.g. the app running at power on).

The menu is split into two loops: one for settings, the other one for apps.

• Settings menu items are: APPS, ALARM, AL+/AL-, DATE+/DATE-, REMI+/REMI-, TEMP+/TEMP-, MESG+/MESG-, CHME+/CHME-, FONT+/FONT-, CELS/FAHR, 24H+/24H-, DST+/DST-, TIME, Y M D, DAY, NGHT+/-, LOG+/-, ANIM+/-, PWRON.
• Apps menu items are: SETUP, QUOTE, BIG, TIX, CNTDN, STOPW, WORDS, SCORE, PONG, PACMN, CHRON, RACER, UNIX, LIVED, TCLOK, UTC, LIFE, DEMO, STATS, NEWSD.

Selecting the "SETUP" menu entry will take you to the Settings menu loop, selecting the "APPS" menu entry will take you to the Apps menu loop.

Each app can use the buttons "Plus" and "Set", with button "Menu" always being used to trigger the display of the menu.
The buttons "Set" and "Plus" have different functions for different apps. For example, in SCORE, one of the simplest apps, each button increments the score for one side/player; in CHRON, "Set" moves from one function to the other, with "Plus" triggering that function (e.g. increment the number of hours).
Menu navigation is intuitive and easy to understand after playing with the buttons a little bit.

9. From the source code perspective, the Wise Clock 4 software is modular, flexible and extensible (see this mod, for example), based on a framework (implemented in WiseClock.cpp) and multiple "applications" (files named App*.cpp) that can be enabled/disabled (included in/excluded from the software) at build-time by macro definitions (e.g. #define) and activated/executed at run time.