# Sensor Panels

The `asterctl` tool is started in sensor panel mode if the `--config` command line option is specified.

Sensor panels are dynamic screens showing various sensor values. Multiple rotating panels are supported. 
The sensor values must be provided in simple key-value text files from external scripts or tools. The `asterctl` tool
is only responsible for rendering the panels on the embedded screen.

Example panels from the AOOSTAR-X software, rendered with `asterctl` using dummy sensor values:

<img src="img/sensor_panel-01.png" alt="Sensor panel 1">

<img src="img/sensor_panel-02.png" alt="Sensor panel 1">

## Supported Features

- One or multiple panels rotating in configurable interval (configuration value `setup.switchTime`).
- Each panel can be configured with multiple sensor fields.
  - Text sensor value fields are supported (`sensor.mode: 1`), but there are still some text size and positioning issues.
  - Fan (2), progress (3) and pointer (4) sensor modes are being worked on and not all configuration options are working yet.
- Each sensor field can be customized with an individual font, size, color and text alignment.
- Panels are redrawn at a configurable interval (configuration value `setup.refresh`).
  - Only the updated areas of the image are sent to the display for faster updates.

## Panel Configuration File

Specify configuration file to use:
```shell
asterctl --config monitor.json
```

- The configuration file is loaded from the configuration directory if not an absolute path is specified.
- The default configuration directory is `./cfg` and can be changed with the `--config-dir` command line option.

The original AOOSTAR-X json configuration file format is used, but only a subset of the configuration is supported:

- Setup object fields:
  - `switchTime`: Optional switch time between panels in seconds, string value interpreted as float and converted to milliseconds. Default: 5
  - `refresh`: Panel redraw interval in seconds specified as a float number. Default: 1
- Panel object fields in `diy[]`:
  - `img`: Background image filename. Loaded from the specified configuration directory if not an absolute path is specified.
  - `sensor`: Array of sensor objects.
- Sensor object fields:
  - `label`: label identifier, also used as sensor value data source identifier
  - `integerDigits`: sensor value format option: number of integer places. Value is 0-prefixed to number of places and set to `99` if overflown.
  - `decimalDigits`: sensor value format option: number of decimal places.
  - `unit`: optional unit label, appended after the sensor value
  - `x`: x-position
  - `y`: y-position
  - `fontFamily`: Font name matching font filename without file extension. Fonts are loaded from the configured font directory.
  - `fontSize`: Font size
  - `fontColor`: Font color in `#RRGGBB` notation, or `-1` if not set. Examples: `#ffffff` = white, `#ff0000` = red. Default: `#ffffff` 
  - `textAlign`: Text alignment: `left`, `right`, `center`
  - Fields used for the fan (2), progress (3) and pointer (4) sensor modes:
    - `min_value` and `max_value`
    - `width` and `height`
    - `direction`
    - `pic`: progress image, loaded from the specified configuration directory if not an absolute path is specified.
    - `min_angle` and `max_angle`
    - `xz_x` and `xz_y`

Example configuration file: [cfg/monitor.json](../cfg/monitor.json).

Sensor values are not read from the configuration file (the `sensor.value` field is ignored). See data sources below.

More options might be supported later.

See [custom sensor panels](sensor_custom_panel.md) for including custom panels.