flatpanel/CHANGELOG.md

Changelog

All notable changes to this project are documented here.
Format follows Keep a Changelog.

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1.1.0 — 2026-05-17

Added

Dew heater

• 12V PWM-controlled dew heater output on D5 via a second IRLZ44N MOSFET
• applyDewHeater(int pct) firmware function maps 0–100% to 8-bit LEDC PWM
• Non-standard Alpaca GET/PUT endpoint dewheater for direct polling and control by the Python app and INDI driver
• Dew heater exposed as SupportedActions entries SetDewHeater / GetDewHeater for full Alpaca Action compatibility
• Custom Alnitak extension commands: >T (set percent) / >U (get percent)
• Dew heater number property in the INDI driver (MAIN_CONTROL_TAB)
• Dew heater slider + On/Off buttons in the Python controller

USB / Alnitak serial mode

• Full implementation of the Alnitak Flip-Flat serial protocol on the ESP32 USB CDC port (9600 baud)
• Supports all standard Alnitak commands: P ping, S state, B/J brightness set/get, L/D light on/off, O/C/H cover open/close/halt
• Compatible with N.I.N.A., Sequence Generator Pro, Astro Photography Tool, and INDI indi_flipflat out of the box — no additional driver required
• SERIAL_DEBUG compile flag in config.h: set false to silence all debug output and use the serial line exclusively for the Alnitak protocol
• Serial baud rate set to 9600 to match all consumer Alnitak software defaults

Python desktop controller (controller/flatpanel_controller.py)

• Dark-themed PyQt6 application suitable for night-time observatory use
• Supports both WiFi/Alpaca and USB/Alnitak connection modes selectable at runtime
• AlpacaBackend — HTTP via requests.Session, full Alpaca property access including custom dewheater endpoint
• AlnitakBackend — pyserial serial communication with timeout handling and response validation
• PollWorker — QThread subclass polling device state every 1 second without blocking the GUI
• Cover panel: status dot (colour-coded by state), Open / Close / Halt buttons
• Flat panel: brightness slider linked bidirectionally to a spinbox, Light On/Off
• Dew heater panel: power slider (0–100%), Heater On/Off, live % status indicator
• Scrolling, timestamped log panel (500-line cap)
• QSettings persistence for connection mode, host, port, serial port, last brightness, last dew %
• Auto-discovery of available serial ports with refresh button
• requirements.txt added: PyQt6, requests, pyserial

INDI driver enhancements

• USB serial mode added alongside existing WiFi/Alpaca mode; switchable via a Connection Mode switch property in the driver UI
• Serial port text property (/dev/ttyUSB0 default) shown when USB mode is selected
• POSIX serial port implementation using termios / select with 2-second read timeout
• Alnitak helper methods: openSerial, closeSerial, sendAlnitak, alnitakGetBrightness, alnitakSetBrightness, alnitakGetCoverState, alnitakGetDewPercent, alnitakSetDewPercent
• DewHeaterNP number property (0–100%, step 5) exposed in MAIN_CONTROL_TAB
• Dew heater control routes through Alpaca dewheater PUT (WiFi) or custom Alnitak >T (USB)

Documentation

• docs/system-diagram.svg — architecture block diagram (800×520, browser-renderable SVG)
• docs/wiring-diagram.svg — colour-coded component wiring diagram (960×640, browser-renderable SVG), includes build-order warning panel and legend
• docs/BUILD_NOTES.md — full step-by-step assembly guide with BOM, dew heater sizing table, LM2596 calibration procedure, MOSFET wiring, 7-step first power-on checklist, software setup for all platforms, and troubleshooting table

Changed

• Serial.begin() baud rate changed from 115200 to 9600 to match Alnitak software defaults (USB CDC baud rate is virtual and has no real-world effect, but driver compatibility requires this)
• supportedactions endpoint now returns ["SetDewHeater", "GetDewHeater"] instead of an empty array
• description endpoint updated to mention dew heater
• driverversion bumped to 1.1.0
• WIRING.md updated: second MOSFET added to wiring diagram, dew heater element sizing table, USB/WiFi mode comparison table, pin summary table, PSU rating increased from ≥3A to ≥4A

Fixed

• Cover haltcover Alpaca route now correctly reads current servo position via coverServo.read() before holding, preventing a potential servo jitter on halt

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1.0.0 — 2026-05-17

Initial release.

Added

Firmware

• ASCOM Alpaca CoverCalibrator device type implemented natively on the ESP32 (no PC-side COM driver needed)
• All standard CoverCalibrator properties and methods:
  • GET: coverstate, calibratorstate, brightness, maxbrightness, connected, name, description, driverinfo, driverversion, interfaceversion, supportedactions
  • PUT: connected, calibratoron (with Brightness parameter), calibratoroff, opencover, closecover, haltcover
• MG995 servo cover mechanism on D9; non-blocking state machine with configurable movement timeout (COVER_MOVE_TIMEOUT_MS)
• 8-bit LED brightness PWM on D3 via LEDC channel 0 (5kHz, above visible flicker)
• WiFi connection with 30-second boot timeout and 10-second watchdog reconnect loop
• mDNS advertising as esp32-flatpanel.local with _alpaca._tcp service record
• Alpaca UDP discovery on port 32227 — responds to alpacadiscovery1 broadcasts with {"AlpacaPort":11111}
• config.h with all user-configurable settings in one place

INDI driver (WiFi / Alpaca mode)

• INDI::DefaultDevice + INDI::LightBoxInterface + INDI::DustCapInterface
• AlpacaBackend using libcurl for HTTP, nlohmann/json for response parsing
• 1-second state polling via TimerHit()
• LightBoxInterface: SetLightBoxBrightness(), EnableLightBox() wired to Alpaca calibratoron/calibratoroff
• DustCapInterface: ParkCap() → closecover, UnParkCap() → opencover
• Host / port text properties in CONNECTION_TAB
• INDI device XML descriptor for indiserver auto-registration
• CMakeLists.txt with FetchContent fallback for nlohmann_json

Documentation

• WIRING.md — wiring diagram, BOM, component roles, MOSFET pinout, servo colour codes, ASCOM and INDI setup instructions

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