New Alpha released!

Note: If you're new to Dynaframe, we release three types of updates...alphas, betas, and official.  Alphas and betas are updates which require enrolling in the Alpha program via Discord (this is mainly so we can seperate feedback of alphas vs. releases). Official releases are done once we've promoted the build based on functionality and stability.  We work hard to make official releases stable, so they may only come out every few months between the work we do.

The latest Alpha is out, and it's a BIG one. It's so big we're going to switch focus to stabilizing it for this month vs. releasing a bunch more features (though one or two may slip in).  This alpha includes feedback for overlays, plus a totally revamped way of handling Wifi, offline modes, and networking in general.  Let's get into the changes:

Network Rewrite

This is by far the biggest. The entire networking statck we used we tossed out, and rewrote from scratch. This was almost big enough to be it's own project.  In the end, what we developed will allow a user to connect 'ad hoc' to the frame via a wifi network called "DynaframePro".  You can then control the frame without adding it to wifi at all.  This allows for gallery scenarios, or 'show floor' scenarios where you want to control a frame without wifi.  If the frame boots and it is not connected to wifi, it automatically starts the adhoc wifi network.  An Adhoc wifi network is one where the frame provides the wifi name (access point) and you can connect directly to it from a computer/phone which can connect to wifi.

This CAN be disabled...if you hit 'O' on a keyboard it'll go to full offline mode, which means there is no adhoc wifi access, and it can only then be controlled via a keyboard.

You can now go to the new 'configuration' menu while connected to adhoc to then enter your wifi credentials.  The frame will reboot in this case to allow it to reliably connect to your wifi.  You can also switch wifi connections in the configuration app without needing to reboot.   Further, you can now hit escape to close the app with a keyboard and mouse, and then access the Raspbian wifi if you choose (You'll see the icon in the upper right) and use that to connect.   

One further change...the wifi connection requires the 'country' you're in.  This country code is used by the wifi radio to select channels/frequencies.  For those of you that had issues connecting to wifi, we are expecting this to fix that. Please let us know if you are still unable to connect.

If you connect via LAN, it should 'just work'.  If you hit 'i' on a keyboard you'll see both IP addresses, lan and wifi if you connect to both.  

Note: if you're not connected to anything, the frame will no longer show a dialog to connect.  It'll just show whatever pictures are in the playlist.  For those bringing frames to loved ones, you can now configure the frames at your place, bring it to theirs and it should 'just work'.

First Run Experience

First Run, or "Out of box experience" is a user interface concept that helps a user setup a machine.  We used to have a user connect via wifi to do this, and didn't provide near enough options for configuration.  The new experience allows a user to immediately configure the name of the frame (hostname), the system password (for those that remote in or ssh), the wifi networking, and also the time/date (no more needing to go into linux to set the date!).

Uh note: The time/date UI is there, but may not function this alpha, but we'll have a refresh soon that will fix it. The concepts there though :) )

This first run experience will pop up once and once only...if you don't have a keyboard attatched and want to get past it, simply reboot the pi and it'll go away.

If you need it to come back to change a setting, you can go to 'configuration' on the web UI menu, or you can hit the 'A' key on a keyboard.  

Either way, this should help solve a ton of issues users had where they had to go to linux to do things that should've been in the UI.

Feedback and features

Some features from feedback thanks to YOU are now in. 

• The playlist now has various sorting options for alphabetical, by date modified, and more.  
• The overlay system has time formatting for created by and other date formats. 
• There's now settings to rotate and stretch graphics in the overlay system.  
• The store was revamped, with a new UI and more entries added
• Web UI now supports an extended Unicode character set (no more question mark characters for things that aren't ASCII such as umlats)

What didn't make it

The automation UI hasn't made it in yet. Neither has frame sync.  I have to push those out sadly so we can get this to release quality, then we can jump on those fixes.  Both are very important for unlocking some next gen functionality we have planned, along with 'per playlist overlays', playlist saving/loading, and a few others we're not ready to share just yet.  For now we want to slow down, get feedback, fix bugs, and get to release.

Thankyou all for the support.  Remember I'm available via the discord, email (joe@geek-toolkit.com, or you can message me on Patreon).   We're hoping for a healthy amount of testing on the alpha so we can drive that to Beta, and then release.  

When I look at the above post, I realize that the entire thing is thanks to feedback and feature requests from supporters, and that's amazing.  You're helping make this project better, and we appreciate it!

Joe Farro - Geektoolkit

On behalf of the Dynaframe Team