Fast Clocks

The development of my layout has been somewhat slowed as I have sought to develop a Fast Clock for the room which is not run as a Powerpoint Presentation where one slide represents one minute which clicks over and a monitor one every 10 seconds. The at approach has served me well but I am looking for something cleaner. Enter ChatGTP.

I asked ChatGTP to design me a system that would provide me  Fast Clocks around the layout room that would display an easy to read fast clock  showing the Session being run, the time and the status of the clock indicating if it is Running or Paused. I also wanted central control so that the clocks can be stopped during a session in case of a major delay.  

The system we designed and built is based on an ESP32 Development Board running a 4 inch TFT SPI Screen. The ESP is loaded with a C++ sketch via the Arduino IDE and is linked to the PC by the internal Wifi in the Layout Room. 

The Central Control is exercised through a Python Sketch running through MS Visual Studio Code which displays a set of controls in the corner of the PC screen. I can set the session, e.g. Monday AM, the Start Time, e.g. 01:55 and the Ratio the clock is to run at. The Central control also tells me what time is displayed on each clock, its connection status and its IP address. Each clock connects via wifi with its own unique IP Address. The control Button are SET (to set the common time etc on each clock, Start to run the clocks, Pause, Resume and Reset which puts the clocks back to 00:00. The MS VS Code also shows the Message flow between the layout and the clocks which each acknowledge receipt of the data.

Here is what the latest version looks like.

The main display

The Master Control

The ESP 32 mounted on my crudely constructed perf board circuit

I am pretty pleased with the outcome and Operators will not have to look far to see a clock with the Time table time displayed clearly in a colourful easy to read display

The Commish