April Release! New Patreons please start here

• Welcome, this is the April release mail.  For those here from March, this is a re-release from March with the blocking bugs we found fixed and some networking re-work.  We fixed the following blocking bugs from that release:
  1) Video Freezing
  2) Network/DNS issues
  3) Overlay text settings not appearing
  
  What we still need to patch (Planned for May release):
• There are audio oddities with videos and the audio settings. We're investigating this. Sometimes setting the volume down to zero doesn't take
• The webUI usability needs improving. Red buttons, when pressed to set wifi and such, will reboot the frame without any further warning
• Setting the timezone doesn't show right away
• Pictures sometimes end up 'zoomed' in.  
• Documentation updates are underway
  

I'd like to thank the following for going above and beyond with feedback, support, and helping us test this build and get this release out!
Andrew Crider
Daren Westman
Norbert Weber
Matt Landon
Jan Borghoff
ThatOtherGuy
kingaffiliation
jawadajedi

Release links:

Upgrade Code (for those on prior releases), you can use the store to upgrade in place. Simply enter this into the store and hit go and you'll be upgraded.

piAprDFP-958d92a

Full Images (If you're unsure, please use the windows zip version)

Latest Release - Windows Zip version- 

DynaframeApr2023.zip (2.6GB) Zip:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AUcxESKY9kh4r8mnp_ujjFcEWZjMt7ww/view?usp=share_link

April Release - 7zip version (smaller download, requires 7zip) 

DynaframeApr2023.7z  (2.1GB)  7zip.org: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ylx5H15f3PnoGRGHt-r4pmj-gNNZfcRN/view?usp=sharing

Notes on the release, please read:
  This release is a very very large change to how the system works.  Before doing a store upgrade please back up anything on your frame or backup your sd card if you're worried about losing any items.  If you've done work on the frame in linux, we can't guarantee the upgrade will succeed...for instance if the hostname was changed internally, you may want to start with a fresh image.  We always strive to make the upgrade path work, but sometimes the changes are simply too great, but we need to keep making progress and improvements.


Instructions/quickstart (Important info like the password are in this):
Note: This is in the progress of being updated, and the setup portion is outdated...I'll provide quick notes below for the startup:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qwQxV47mJHz7DZQ9IeVmd6n_vVxxrJTZ/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=102220822686216322441&rtpof=true&sd=true

Setup notes / instructions

When you first image your frame and it comes up, there will be a screen to fill in your wifi password, frame name, and set the date/time.  Note that if you setup the wifi, the frame will reboot immediately for it to take effect.  Hitting the 'i' key on the keyboard will show the ip address.

You can still set it up remotely by connecting a wifi device such as a phone or tablet to 'DynaframePro'.  From there the home page will have a 'system configuration' link at the top...you can use that to configure the frame.  Once you've configured it on that page, please hit the 'hide configpage' button to hide the page at startup.  Note that any red buttons may reboot the frame..this is normal as it means a change has happened that requires a reboot to take effect.

Discord link
(https://discord.gg/FVAn6DyjG8)

Discord is where we discuss bugs, issues, feature requests, show off our frames, discuss ideas, share art sources, and in general discuss things and you can chat with the team.  We're a friendly bunch and love any discussions about Dynaframe. We also help with projects as well.
This is also where the 'codes' go for the store to get to beta and alpha builds which have more features that we haven't fully released yet.

Midjourney Plugin:
This post is a great one if you're looking to integrate some art from the web...a community member wrote a plugin to integrate the Midjourney AI gallery into Dynaframe.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/midjourney-72550007

Dynaframe Pro Public github for issues

https://github.com/Geektoolkit/DynaframeProIssues

This is where you can directly file issues you hit, suggestions, feature requests and such and then track the progress on them.

What's new?
So much.  The big ones are:

• Wifi system update - We now have a new setup system. This allows for 'offline' modes so that a gifted frame  or a frame in a gallery can be used without having to setup wifi at all.  
• Adhoc control - This is part of the new wifi system...if a frame isn't on wifi, you can connect to the 'Dynaframepro' access point and control the frame. Note if you rename the frame this access point will rename as well.  Please use http://10.41.0.1 for the ip once connected to see the control page
• Overlay support - Overlays are now customizable, and can be created and arranged in many ways.  This is a first iteration of this, but it will evolve to be easier as we get better at the design. For now this will allow for all sorts of clock/exif data overlays to be created.  
• Ordering of playlists - You can now alphabetize images and sort them to control the display order
• Store update - The view and content of the store has been updated, though we have more (and much better) content on the way for April

The team learned alot from the last release, and is moving to a smaller bugfix mode.  You'll likely see me talk about features less until we have them at least into our beta branches that way things I announce will have a much more consistent release period.  All of the features I've talked about in these posts are on the list of things we can achieve, but I have to back off my ambition a bit and focus on delivering, so you'll see some changes there. We appreciate all of you that have supported us and provided feedback, and we're very proud of where the project is right now.  We know it's only going to get better this year and that's very very exciting!

Thankyou!  If you hit issues, please let me know. If something doens't make sense, please reach out to me via patreon or discord so we can continue to improve.

Joe Farro
Geektoolkit