Display Settings

Configure LED matrix hardware settings and display options.

{# Marks this post as the whole form, so an unchecked box saves as false. Without it the save endpoint treats absent keys as unchanged (FORM_SECTION_FIELD in api_v3/config.py). #}

Hardware Configuration

Rows{{ ui.help_tip('Number of LED rows on a single panel.\nCommon: 16, 32, 48 or 64. Default: 32. Must match your panel and be an even number from 8 to 64, the most the rgbmatrix library drives per panel.', 'Rows') }}

Columns{{ ui.help_tip('Number of LED columns on a single panel.\nCommon: 32, 64, 96 or 128. Default: 64. Must match your panel. At least 16, with no upper limit.', 'Columns') }}

Chain Length{{ ui.help_tip('How many panels are wired end-to-end in one chain.\nDefault: 2. Example: two 64×32 panels chained make a 128×32 display. 1 to 255; longer chains lower the refresh rate.', 'Chain Length') }}

Parallel{{ ui.help_tip('Number of separate chains driven in parallel from the HAT.\nDefault: 1. Up to 3, and the hardware mapping needs that many outputs: Regular and Classic have 3 (e.g. the Adafruit Triple LED Matrix Bonnet); Adafruit HAT, Adafruit HAT PWM and the Pi1 mappings have 1.', 'Parallel') }}

Your display: — (columns × chain length wide, rows × parallel tall)

Brightness{{ ui.help_tip('Overall LED brightness (1–100%).\nLower is dimmer, higher is brighter. Recommended: 70–90 indoors, 90–100 in bright rooms.', 'Brightness') }}

Hardware Mapping{{ ui.help_tip('How the LED panel is wired to the Pi.\nUse "Adafruit HAT PWM" for an Adafruit RGB Matrix HAT/Bonnet with the PWM solder mod; "Adafruit HAT" without it (no hardware pulsing, so expect a little more flicker); "Regular" for direct GPIO wiring and for the Adafruit Triple LED Matrix Bonnet.', 'Hardware Mapping') }} {#- Saving posts what is selected, so a stored value must render selected even when it isn't one of the usual choices. The library matches names case-insensitively and reads an empty name as "regular". -#} {% set stored_mapping = main_config.display.hardware.get('hardware_mapping', 'adafruit-hat-pwm') %} {% set mapping_key = (stored_mapping or 'regular')|lower if stored_mapping is string else stored_mapping|string %} {% set mapping_labels = {'adafruit-hat-pwm': 'Adafruit HAT PWM', 'adafruit-hat': 'Adafruit HAT', 'regular': 'Regular', 'regular-pi1': 'Regular Pi1', 'classic': 'Classic (legacy wiring)', 'classic-pi1': 'Classic Pi1 (legacy wiring)'} %} {% set mapping_values = ['adafruit-hat-pwm', 'adafruit-hat', 'regular', 'regular-pi1', 'classic'] if is_pi5 else ['adafruit-hat-pwm', 'adafruit-hat', 'regular', 'regular-pi1', 'classic', 'classic-pi1'] %} {% if mapping_key not in mapping_values %}

Your saved hardware mapping ("{{ stored_mapping }}") isn't one the installed rgbmatrix library {% if is_pi5 and mapping_key in mapping_labels %}can use on a Raspberry Pi 5{% else %}has{% endif %}, so the display won't start with it. Choose your board's mapping before saving.

{% endif %}

Panel Orientation{{ ui.help_tip('Rotates the rendered image to match how the panel is physically mounted.\nUse "Upside Down" if you flipped the panel 180° to move the Raspberry Pi / wiring to a more convenient side. 90° and 270° are for a panel mounted on its side, and swap the display width and height.', 'Panel Orientation') }}

LED RGB Sequence{{ ui.help_tip('Order the panel expects color channels in.\nChange this only if reds/greens/blues look swapped (red shows as blue: try BGR). Default: RGB. The Waveshare 96x48 V2 needs BGR.', 'LED RGB Sequence') }}

Vegas Scroll Mode

Combine all plugin content into one continuous scrolling ticker display.

Enable

Scroll Speed (pixels/second){{ ui.help_tip('How fast the Vegas ticker scrolls (10–200 px/s).\nDefault: 50. Higher is faster but harder to read. Only some speeds look perfectly smooth on a given panel; the note below the slider shows which.', 'Scroll Speed') }}

{{ main_config.display.get('vegas_scroll', {}).get('scroll_speed', 50) }}

Separator Width (pixels){{ ui.help_tip('Blank gap where one plugin hands off to the next (0–128 px).\nDefault: 32. Larger values make the boundary between plugins clearer. This does not apply between rows of the same plugin — see Row Gap for that.', 'Separator Width') }}

Row Gap (pixels){{ ui.help_tip('Extra gap always added between rows contributed by the same plugin (0–128 px).\nDefault: 8. This is a floor on top of Row Separation below, which does most of the work. Set both to 0 to butt rows directly together.', 'Row Gap') }}

Row Separation (pixels){{ ui.help_tip('Blank space guaranteed between rows of the same plugin, measured from the actual content rather than added blindly (0–256 px).\nDefault: 24. Rows already carrying wide margins get nothing added; rows drawn right up to their own edges — sports score cards, for instance — get the full amount, so they no longer look like they are touching. Raise it if items still feel cramped.', 'Row Separation') }}

Plugin Render Width (%){{ ui.help_tip('How much of the screen width each plugin is told it has while drawing for the ticker (10–100%).\nDefault: 100 (unchanged). Lowering it makes plugins choose a tighter layout rather than being cropped — a weather forecast becomes narrow cards instead of five columns spread across the panel. Useful on wide displays. Override per plugin with the vegas_width_pct setting in that plugin\'s own configuration.', 'Plugin Render Width') }}

Target FPS{{ ui.help_tip('Only used when Smooth motion is off; with it on, the panel refresh sets the frame rate.\nFrames per second the Vegas ticker aims to render. Default: 125.', 'Target FPS') }}

Buffer Ahead{{ ui.help_tip('How many upcoming plugins to pre-render so the scroll never stalls.\nDefault: 2 (recommended). More uses extra memory; less saves memory but risks hitches.', 'Buffer Ahead') }}

Cycle Pacing

How long one pass through the ticker lasts, and how many plugins it covers.

Scroll continuously between groups{{ ui.help_tip('Keep one endless strip, extending it with the next group of plugins as the scroll approaches the end, so they simply arrive from the right. Default: on.\nWith this off the ticker builds a fresh strip and swaps it in, which stops the motion, replaces everything at once and restarts with the screen already full — a freeze, a flash and a jump.', 'Continuous Scroll') }}

Smooth motion{{ ui.help_tip('Move the ticker a whole pixel at a time in step with the panel refresh, so every frame moves the same distance and text stays sharp. Default: on.\nThe scroll speed snaps to the nearest speed the panel can show this way: on a 100Hz panel, 100 px/s is one pixel every refresh and 50 px/s one pixel every second refresh. The real refresh rate is measured once scrolling starts, since a long chain often cannot reach its refresh cap.\nWith this off the ticker moves by elapsed time instead, which drifts against the refresh and judders.', 'Smooth Scrolling') }}

Update live content while it scrolls{{ ui.help_tip('For plugins that support it (scores, the flight map), change what is already scrolling when their data changes: a score updates on a card already crossing the screen, and aircraft move on the map. Default: on.\nWith this off every card shows what it was when it was drawn, which can be a minute or more old by the time it scrolls past.\nAlways off with multi-display sync or with Continuous Scroll off.', 'Live Updates') }}

Keep live games in the ticker{{ ui.help_tip('While a game is live, keep the ticker running and give the live scoreboard extra turns in it (Live Weight). Default: on. With this off a live game takes over the whole display with the full-screen scoreboard until it ends, and the ticker stops.', 'Live Games') }}

Extend When (screens left){{ ui.help_tip('How much unscrolled content triggers loading the next group, measured in screen widths (1.0–10.0).\nDefault: 2. Higher loads earlier and leaves more slack, at the cost of holding more content in memory. Only applies when Continuous Scroll is on.', 'Extend Threshold') }}

Plugins Per Cycle{{ ui.help_tip('How many plugins are composed into one pass of the ticker (1–50).\nDefault: 6. Higher means more variety before the ticker restarts, and fewer recompose pauses. Lower means each plugin comes around sooner.', 'Plugins Per Cycle') }}

When A Plugin Is Too Wide{{ ui.help_tip('What to do when a plugin has more content than its width allowance.\nRotate through it: show a different slice each time round, so everything is seen eventually. Right for interchangeable items like news headlines, odds or stock prices.\nShow the start only: always display from the beginning and drop the rest. Right for ordered content — a league table that shows ranks 1-6 and then resumes at 7 two rotations later reads as out of order.\nDefault: rotate. Override for one plugin with vegas_overflow in its own settings.', 'Overflow Handling') }}

Max Plugin Width (screens){{ ui.help_tip('Caps how much of one cycle a single plugin may occupy, measured in screen widths (0–20).\nDefault: 0 (no limit) — every plugin shows all of its content and always starts at the beginning.\nSet a limit to stop one long ticker holding the display for minutes: it is cut to this width and the remainder shown on later cycles. The trade-off is that such a plugin then resumes mid-content on each appearance instead of starting fresh.', 'Max Plugin Width') }}

Size cycle time to the content{{ ui.help_tip('When on, each cycle runs just long enough to scroll all its content past, clamped to the min and max below.\nWhen off, the max is always used. Default: on.', 'Dynamic Cycle Duration') }}

Min Cycle Time (seconds){{ ui.help_tip('Shortest a single ticker pass may last (5–3600 s).\nDefault: 60.', 'Min Cycle Time') }}

Max Cycle Time (seconds){{ ui.help_tip('Longest a single ticker pass may last before it restarts with fresh content (10–3600 s).\nThis is the setting that caps total Vegas scroll time. Default: 240. Lower it if the ticker feels like it takes too long to come back around.', 'Max Cycle Time') }}

Dead Space

Plugins that draw onto a full-screen canvas contribute all the empty space around their content. Trimming reclaims it so the ticker stays full.

Trim empty edges from plugin content{{ ui.help_tip('Crops blank columns from the left and right of each plugin block before it enters the ticker. Space between two pieces of content inside a block is left alone, so layouts are not altered. Default: on.', 'Auto Trim') }}

Content Padding (pixels){{ ui.help_tip('Blank columns kept either side of trimmed content, so it does not butt against the separator (0–128 px).\nDefault: 8.', 'Content Padding') }}

Lead-In Gap (pixels){{ ui.help_tip('Blank space before the first plugin of each cycle (0–2048 px).\nDefault: 0. Anything approaching your screen width reads as the display switching off at the start of every cycle.', 'Lead-In Gap') }}

Trim Threshold{{ ui.help_tip('How bright a pixel must be to count as content rather than empty space (0–254).\nDefault: 10, which ignores the near-black noise left by image compression. Raise it if very dark artwork is being kept; lower it if dark detail is being cropped.', 'Trim Threshold') }}

Min Plugin Width (pixels){{ ui.help_tip('Plugin blocks narrower than this after trimming are skipped for that cycle (0–512 px).\nDefault: 8. Raise it to hide plugins showing only a tiny placeholder such as "No Data" until they have real content.', 'Min Plugin Width') }}

Min Cut Gap (pixels){{ ui.help_tip('When a plugin is too wide for its share of a cycle and has to be narrowed, the cut is only made where there is at least this much blank space (1–128 px).\nDefault: 6. The gaps between letters are about 1px wide, so a smaller value lets a cut land inside a word and orphan its last letter into the next cycle. Raise it if cuts still land awkwardly. Continuous images such as maps have no gaps and are cut to fit regardless.', 'Min Cut Gap') }}

Plugin Order

Drag to reorder plugins. Uncheck to exclude from Vegas scroll.

Loading plugins...

Double-Sided Display

Show the same content on every panel in the chain — e.g. two 64×32 panels mirrored, or four panels as two identical screens. Rendered once and duplicated, so it adds no extra CPU. Takes effect after a display restart.

Enabled {{ ui.help_tip('Show the same content mirrored across every panel in the chain.\nRendered once and duplicated, so it adds no extra CPU. Takes effect after a display restart.', 'Double-Sided Enabled') }}

Copies{{ ui.help_tip('How many identical screens to split the panel area into (2–8).\nWhen enabled, this must divide the panel evenly — e.g. 2 for a two-sided cube.', 'Copies') }}

Split Axis{{ ui.help_tip('Direction the display is divided into copies.\nHorizontal splits along the chained panels (side by side); Vertical splits along parallel chains (stacked).', 'Split Axis') }}

Multi-Display Sync

Extend scrolling content across two LED matrix display units over WiFi. Both displays must have identical rows and cols. Chain length may differ.

Role{{ ui.help_tip('This unit\'s part in a two-display setup.\nStandalone = sync off. Set one Pi to Leader (drives the scroll) and the other to Follower (receives frames). Restart required after changing.', 'Sync Role') }}

UDP Port{{ ui.help_tip('UDP port the two displays use to exchange frames (1024–65535).\nDefault: 5765. Must match on both Pis. If the ufw firewall is active, allow it with: sudo ufw allow ' ~ main_config.get('sync', {}).get('port', 5765) ~ '/udp', 'Sync UDP Port') }}

Position{{ ui.help_tip('Which side of the leader this follower display sits on.\nSets whether this unit shows the left or right half of the extended scroll.', 'Follower Position') }}