EHVC is meant to be used on ESP-based VFD (Vaccuum Fluorescent Display) Clocks using ESPHome. So far, it works with the appropriately named VFD Clock but it can probably be adapted for use with other SPI character-display clocks (especially the Fubata 16-bit display). And, of course, it's ESPHome, so it's only limited by your imagination and skill.

A lot of inspiration is taken from the EHMTXv2 project... but with an 8-character VFD display.

Using this clock requires the 8-MD-06INKM display to be supported by an external component which is included in this repository. I suspect that other Futaba VFD displays can also be supported, especially if they use the Hitachi HD44780U interface.

Skip down to the Custom Component Driver section below if you're just here for the driver.

Due to memory constraints on the ESP8266 these clocks use, I've decided to split the functions by how you may choose to use the clock. Read below for more details.

This is the link on Aliexpress I have personally used but I am sure there are others: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005899159729.html

Don't forget to connect GPIO0 to GND when first connecting to your serial flasher! You can also hold the button while powering-on.

This is ESPHome, so it's not pretty but very functional. You should set your wifi information in the YAML and edit it carefully.

If using this device on a network outside your usual, ESPHome will, after 10 seconds (set by the YAML), give up trying to connect to its "home" network and enter AP mode. You should then connect to the hotspot (with a mobile phone) and then go to 192.168.4.1 in a browser to select which local wifi network you would like it to connect to. The clock will display its IP address on boot and also by holding down the set button for more than 1 second. When returning home, you will have to go through this process again. Be sure if you are using this clock as a travel clock to NOT use Home Assistant as a time source (the non-HA version uses SNTP by default).

There does appear to be some errors with "Component preferences took a long time for an operation" but it only happens when saving persistent variables to flash and doesn't seem to affect functionality, unless you try to change a variable during this moment.

Both versions of the YAML files will connect to the Home Assistant API if available. Both can be controlled via device integration in HA.

The Non-HA version will function completely without Home Assistant and can still be controlled by accessing the WebUI via its IP or mDNS address.

There's only one useable button on this clock but thanks to multi-click, we can use it for a few functions.

Of course, this is ESPHome, so you can change the button functions by editing the YAML if you wish.

The clock can display the date at configurable intervals. The display interval checks how long the clock was displayed for and then displays the date for the specified time (in seconds). Keep in mind that displaying the message from the Home Assistant integration will not interrupt this count, so I recommend choosing sane and even numbers.

Since ESPHome can't seem to use any locale for time other than English, I have added an option to substitute the time and date text to something else. In the text_sensors section, you can find filters that allow substitutions.

In my YAML, you will see those filters are able to localize time into Korean Hangul. You can change this to anything you like. Be sure that the text to be substituted matches the output of strftime (which will be the default) and be sure to make sure any characters you need are included in the glyphs section, or those special characters will not be displayed!

There is also an option called Replacement Interval by which you can make your clock bilingual. It will automatically turn on/off the substitution every number of times the date is displayed, if the date is displayed. If the date display is off, the automatic replacement will be made after the time specified by Date Display Time (multiplied by the Date Display Interval).

Check the language_filters folder for some examples. So far there is: Korean & French & Greek & Chinese

Please note that because this clock does not use fonts, you may have to design your own. The function to create your own characters is part of the VFD custom component. Read more in the Custom Component Driver section.

Time can be synced to the Internet at configurable intervals between 1 - 24 hours, provided the wifi network is connected.

The file EHVClock.yaml contains functions useful for using the clock as... mostly just a clock but with some power-saving functions. It includes all of the functions above as well as these below. This version has a WebUI which can be accessed via it's IP after connecting the clock to Wifi. So if you need a travel clock, this may be the ideal one for you. It can still be controlled by Home Assistant as well but is not dependent on it to function.

Please note that unlike LED-based clocks, a VFD uses a significant amount of power, so it would be very unwise to run this clock from a battery with the display always-on. Take a look at power consumption in the Power Consumption section below.

It's up to you how to handle time offset. It will affect the main time zone as well as the alternate time zone You can set an offset with a number that is a positive or negative value with decimal places (ie. 2, -2, 12.5).

I have allowed steps of 0.25 (equal to 15 minutes) but I notice ESPHome does not enforce those steps. It is possible to set an offset like 0.01 (which would be 36 seconds). Be careful.

This is disabled by default but by turning it on, the clock will disable its wifi radio after a configurable time if the network connection is dropped. Note that this does not turn wifi off if connected, it's merely a timeout for when the configured wifi connection cannot be made. This is meant as a power-saving feature in the event of a power blackout.

Under normal conditions, when an ESPHome device loses wifi connectivity, it will continuously seek out a wifi connection or activate a hotspot to allow configuring a wifi connection. While in this non-connected state, the clock will use more power than usual. If you have a coin-cell battery that maintains the RTC during a blackout, you could re-connect the clock to a powerbank or some other power source and it will continue to function.

Please note that this also means that the clock will not try to connect to wifi again (this will be indicated on the screen as "Wifi Off" when long-pressing the button), unless you reset the power, which just means unplugging it and plugging it back in again.

Do not set this time too short. I have allowed 60 seconds minimum in the options but this could mean your clock stops trying to connect to wifi just because your router rebooted or the wifi was a bit sketchy. The default is 120 seconds which I think is enough time for even the slowest router to reboot, but it's your choice. Also keep in mind that this time will affect how long the configuration hotspot is available for. The hotspot will activate after 10 seconds (lowered from 60 seconds which is ESPHome default) but will be deactivated when the Wifi Stop Seek Time has elapsed.

You can enable or disable this mode by holding the button for 5 seconds to toggle the function. The wifi will be turned on again if it has been turned off.

There are two options to turn off the display. One is to turn off the display after a configurable time when the clock is not being used (in minutes). The other is to turn off the display when there is no Wifi connection (in seconds). The display may be turned on again by pressing the button.

2024.11.11 Version, 1 hour each mode, measured with a FNIRSI FNB-58 powered externally

On maximum power savings, you could power the clock from a 5000mAh powerbank for a day and a bit: 5000mAh / 143mA ≈ 34.9 hours...

This is NOT a power-efficient clock. If you would like a clock that consumes less power, I'd recommend something that uses an LED Display like EspHome-Led-Clock or EspHome-Led-PixelClock.

While the clock is attempting to connect to wifi or while in hotspot mode, the blue LED will pulse on or off every 1 second.

If Stop Seek is enabled, then the LED will pulse on or off every 2 seconds during connection attempts instead.

If connected to Wifi or Stop Seek has activated, the LED will turn off completely.

ESPHome devices usually rely on the Internet to be available to access a Javascript file that formats the web UI. Specifically, the device will look for https://oi.esphome.io/v2/www.js but this file can be made available on-device with this included in the webserver: section. This is added to the non-HA version by default.

  local: true

If you don't mind the device's WebUI being dependent on the Internet, you could remove this line. You could consider hosting the file on another machine in-house, too by using something like:

  js_include: ""
  js_url: "http://192.168.1.1/esphome-www/www.js"

Please note that for some reason, I'm not sure that the UI can be viewed from an Chrome-based mobile browser. Maybe my phone has an issue. It seems to work fine when viewing on a computer or an Apple phone. If you have information to share, I'd be glad to know why this is.

The file EHVClock-HA.yaml contains functions useful for using the clock with Home Assistant. It does not include the WebUI, Time Zone Offset, or Wifi Stop Seek but it does includes all of the functions below.

This option is to allow displaying a Time Zone other than your "home" time zone. It can be activated permanently.

Please note that the time zones MUST be in POSIX format instead of the usual Olsen type (Asia/Seoul).

POSIX formats look like: KST-9 or PST8PDT,M3.2.0/2:00:00,M11.1.0/2:00:00 or AST4ADT,M3.2.0,M11.1.0.

They include daylight savings and time-switches in the formatting. So, there is no reliance on the ESPHome Olsen database to be current. You can view a lot of the time zones in the world in POSIX format here or here. If you need to make a custom POSIX format you can look here or even better, use this POSIX Generator courtesy of TopYuan.

This example will send a message that will display for 3 seconds before reverting to the clock for 5 seconds, and repeat until 20 seconds is finished (if it is displaying the message, it will finish that last 3 seconds). Unfortunately you are limited to what the display can actually display so you should probably test it out before adding it to an automation. This is related to the Custom Component Driver.

This will allow the clock to display information screens, following a single interval of clock and date screens. You can display all screens at once or one per interval. They are all treated as sensors, similarly as my ESPHome-eInk-Boards projects.

Put something like this in your configuration.yaml:

template: !include template.yaml

Anything in configuration.yaml under the template: heading must now be moved to template.yaml. Take a quick look here for some examples on an easy way to format template.yaml.

The file template.yaml contains several examples how to add sensors that can be automatically shown by the clock. I personally use only one sensor in my Home Assistant and 2 clocks in the house get data from the same sensor but you can (of course) create a sensor for each individual clock.

I could not find any custom component to support the VFD 8-MD-06INKM Display that is part of this clock. I found more than a few Micropython and Arduino drivers including sfxfs's driver which formed the foundation of the lower functions of my driver I also had to look at the official drivers for Max7219 and Max7219Digit because this clock includes both inbuilt fonts and the ability to use the dot-matrix.

This driver may actually support more Futaba VFDs than the 8-MD-06INKM, but certain parts may need updating to function correctly.

Please note also some of the sections of this driver are untested. For example, the displays have a reset pin and I'm not entirely certain what it actually does, despite being in the code. The connection exists as a solder point on the VFD Clock but it is open.

Click here to read the notes on characters. Even if you only use English, you may need some special characters.

Please note that non-Unicode characters are dropped by default. If you experience any weird characters displayed, then it is imperative to read the notes.

external_components:
  - source:
      type: git
      url: https://github.com/trip5/vfdclock
      ref: main
    refresh: 60s
    components: [ vfd8md06inkm ]

spi:
  clk_pin: GPIO12
  mosi_pin: GPIO14

display:
  - platform: vfd8md06inkm
    id: vf_display
    cs_pin: GPIO13
    update_interval: 1s # optional (ESPHome default: 1s)
    reset_pin: GPIO15 # optional, attached to reset pin of display (default: unused)
    en_pin: GPIO10 # optional, provides power to display (default: unused)
    intensity: 200 # optional, initial brightness 0 to 255 (default: 200)
    digits: # optional 6, 8 and 16 possible but have not been tested (default: 8)
    scroll_delay: "500, 500" # optional initial & subsequent delays when scrolling (in milliseconds) (default: 1500, 500) (first text = both numbers combined)
    remove_spaces: "true" # optional, remove leading or trailing spaces (default: false)
    # Replace characters: Unicode character:Fubata byte (characters that already exist on the device, can use decimal, hex, or binary in MSB-LSB order)
    replace: "°:0b11101111"
    # Custom characters: Unicode character:column1,column2,column3,column4,column5 (binary painting from bottom to top)
    custom: "₿:62,107,42,107,20"

The following functions are available as lambdas:

it.print(uint8_t pos, const char *str);
it.print(const char *str);

it.printf(uint8_t pos, const char *format, ...) __attribute__((format(printf, 3, 4)));
it.printf(const char *format, ...) __attribute__((format(printf, 2, 3)));

it.strftime(position, ESPTime time) __attribute__((format(strftime, 3, 0)));
it.strftime(const char *format, ESPTime time) __attribute__((format(strftime, 2, 0)));

What started my curiousity (a long discussion on ESP-based 7-segment clocks): arendst/Tasmota#15788

Where I found the specification sheet for the 8-MD-06INKM: https://en.sekorm.com/doc/3669013.html

Some spec sheets on other Fubata displays can be found here: https://www.datasheetarchive.com/?q=futaba+display+vfd

One of many Chinese Micropython programs here: https://www.eeworld.com.cn/RDesigns_detail/61016

This clock also made the unusual choice to use an RX8025 RTC. I made an ESPHome Component for that too!

It's here: https://github.com/trip5/esphome-rx8025

EspHome-Led-Clock: https://github.com/trip5/EspHome-Led-Clock

EspHome-Led-PixelClock: https://github.com/trip5/EspHome-Led-PixelClock