Recovery and credits
Going back to stock
Section titled “Going back to stock”Keep a stock-backup.bin from before your first flash and you can always return the device to factory.
- Re-flash anything (your stock backup or this firmware) with the method for your board, described in Flashing.
- Factory reset in the System tab wipes saved settings and restarts in SETUP MODE. It does not change the firmware.
- On the ESP32 boards, a bad flash never bricks the device: it still enters download mode, so esptool can rewrite it — over USB on the C2 and the NM-TV-154, or over the internal UART header on the SmallTV Pro (no USB-serial chip; see Flashing).
Notes and limitations
Section titled “Notes and limitations”- 2.4 GHz WiFi only. WPA2. For an AP password use at least 8 characters, or leave it blank for an open hotspot.
- The web server is single-threaded, so the UI may pause briefly during a data poll.
- HTTPS works on the ESP8266 but is RAM-tight. Prefer plain HTTP on your LAN for a webhook if you see instability. The ESP32 boards have more headroom.
- The GitHub self-update works on every board from 2.7.0. The ESP32 boards download in place; the ESP8266 updates at boot (two reboots — see Flashing). ESP8266 devices still on 2.6.1 or older have a broken updater and need one manual upload in the System tab to get current.
- Fonts are the built-in bitmap font, scaled, chosen for reliability and the retro look. No external font files are needed.
Credits and references
Section titled “Credits and references”- GeekMagic SmallTV and SmallTV-Pro, the original product and stock firmware (GeekMagicClock/smalltv-pro).
- Pin maps and hardware notes from the ESPHome and Tasmota communities:
- ViToni/esphome-geekmagic-smalltv
- Times-Z/GeekMagic-Open-Firmware
- Installing ESPHome on a new smart weather clock (HA community), which documented the ESP32-C2 pin map
- Puddle of Code, My Own GeekMagic SmallTV
- NMMiner’s NM-TV-154 custom firmware guide, which documents the NM-TV-154 pin map
- The plane radar’s look reimplements MatixYo/ESP32-Plane-Radar, a sonar-style ADS-B radar for a 1.28” round display: heading triangles, speed vectors, callsign and altitude tags, and rim dots for out-of-range traffic all come from that design.
- Claude usage mode reimplements clawdmeter for this hardware, over HTTP and WiFi instead of serial. The mascot frames come from claudepix.
- Libraries: Arduino_GFX, ArduinoJson.
License
Section titled “License”WTFPL. Do What The F*ck You Want To Public License.