ESP32 Box3 - Smart Display with WiFi Status

A professional ESP32-S3-BOX-3 project featuring Material Design WiFi status indicators, intelligent reconnection logic, and animated robot eyes display.

ESP32 Box3 showing the animated robot eyes with time, date, and WiFi status

🙏 Acknowledgments

RoboEyes Library

This project uses the excellent RoboEyes library by FluxGarage for the animated robot eyes display.

• Library: FluxGarage RoboEyes for OLED Displays
• Creator: FluxGarage
• Repository: https://github.com/FluxGarage/RoboEyes
• Features: Realistic eye movement, blinking animation, idle behavior

Special thanks to FluxGarage for creating this delightful library that brings personality and charm to embedded displays! 🤖👁️

🌟 Features

📡 Intelligent WiFi Management

• Smart Reconnection: 10 attempts every second, then once per minute
• Visual Status: Material Design icons (green=connected, red=disconnected)
• Real-time Logging: Comprehensive serial console output
• Automatic Recovery: Seamless reconnection with NTP time sync

🎨 Professional Display

• Time & Date: 12-hour format with custom orange color (#f6b26b)
• Anti-flicker: Selective rendering for smooth updates
• Robot Eyes: Animated eyes with idle movement and auto-blinking
• High-Quality Icons: 16x16 anti-aliased Material Design bitmaps

🔧 Development Pipeline

• SVG to Bitmap: Automated conversion from Material Design SVGs
• Python Environment: Virtual environment with all dependencies
• Cross-platform: macOS support with Homebrew integration

🚀 Quick Start

Prerequisites

# Install PlatformIO
pip install platformio

# For icon generation (optional)
brew install cairo pango gdk-pixbuf

Build & Upload

# Clone and navigate to project
cd ESP32-Box3

# Build and upload firmware
pio run --target upload

# Monitor serial output
pio device monitor --baud 115200

WiFi Configuration

1. Copy the WiFi configuration template:

cp include/wifi_config.h.template include/wifi_config.h

2. Edit include/wifi_config.h with your actual WiFi credentials:

const char* ssid = "YourWiFiNetwork";
const char* password = "YourPassword";

Note: The wifi_config.h file is excluded from Git to keep your credentials private.

📁 Project Structure

ESP32-Box3/
├── README.md                    # This file
├── platformio.ini              # PlatformIO configuration
├── src/main.cpp                # Main ESP32 firmware
├── include/MaterialDesignIcons.h # Generated WiFi icon bitmaps
├── lib/                        # Arduino libraries
├── test/                       # Test files
└── assets/                     # Development assets
    ├── docs/                   # 📄 Documentation
    │   ├── SIMPLIFIED_CHANGES_SUMMARY.md
    │   ├── DISPLAY_MOCKUP.md
    │   ├── WIFI_ICON_MOCKUP.md
    │   └── VERSION_ROLLBACK_GUIDE.md
    ├── scripts/                # 🐍 Development scripts
    │   ├── svg_to_bitmap.py    # SVG to C bitmap converter
    │   └── requirements.txt    # Python dependencies
    ├── icons/                  # 🎨 Source SVG files
    │   ├── wifi.svg           # Material Design WiFi icon
    │   └── wifi-off.svg       # Material Design WiFi-off icon
    └── backups/               # 🗂️ Project backups

🔄 WiFi Reconnection Logic

Connection States

• Connected: Green WiFi icon, real-time NTP sync
• Disconnected: Red WiFi icon, automatic reconnection attempts

Reconnection Strategy

1. Quick Mode: 10 attempts, 1 second intervals
2. Slow Mode: Continuous attempts, 1 minute intervals
3. Auto-Recovery: Returns to quick mode when connection restored

Serial Console Output

📡 WiFi CONNECTION LOST!
   Starting reconnection attempts (quick mode - 10 attempts every 1 seconds)

🔄 WiFi RECONNECTION attempt 1/10 (quick mode - 1 second interval)
   Connecting to SSID: YourNetwork
   Attempting connection..........
❌ WiFi reconnection FAILED
   Next attempt in 1 seconds

✅ WiFi CONNECTED successfully!
   IP Address: 192.168.1.100
   Signal Strength: -45 dBm
   Re-syncing NTP time...

🎨 Icon Generation

Regenerate WiFi Icons

# Activate Python environment
source .venv/bin/activate

# Set library paths (macOS)
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/cairo/lib:$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH"

# Generate new bitmaps
python assets/scripts/svg_to_bitmap.py

Custom Icons

1. Replace SVG files in assets/icons/
2. Run the generation script
3. New bitmaps will be written to include/MaterialDesignIcons.h

🛠️ Hardware

• Board: ESP32-S3-BOX-3
• Display: ILI9341 320x240 TFT
• Features: WiFi, Bluetooth, Touch screen
• Power: USB-C

📊 Display Layout

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│             01/26/2025                                    📶    │ ← Date & WiFi Status
│             07:57 PM                                            │ ← Time (12-hour format)
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                                 │
│                        👁️   👁️                                │ ← Animated Robot Eyes
│                          ─                                     │
│                                                                 │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

🔧 Technical Specifications

Performance

• Memory Usage: 14.2% RAM, 14.3% Flash
• Update Frequency: 5 seconds (time/date), 20ms (eyes - 50 FPS optimized)
• WiFi Check: Every loop cycle (~20ms)
• Eye Clearing: Optimized selective clearing (no more slow sweeping)
• Anti-flicker: Selective rendering

Colors

• Background: Black
• Time/Date: Orange (#f6b26b / RGB565: 0xFD60)
• WiFi Connected: Green
• WiFi Disconnected: Red
• Robot Eyes: Blue

📝 License

This project is open source. Feel free to modify and distribute.

🤝 Contributing

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Make your changes
4. Test thoroughly
5. Submit a pull request

Material Design Icons

WiFi icons are based on Google's Material Design icon set, converted to high-quality bitmaps for embedded use.

� Support

For issues or questions:

• Check the documentation in assets/docs/
• Review the serial console output
• Verify WiFi credentials and network connectivity

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Built with ❤️ for the ESP32 community