DEVLOG 002 — Firmware & Making It Actually Look Good

First thing I tackled was getting the core firmware
structured properly. Built out the full mode switching
system FACE, CLOCK, WEATHER, and CALENDAR all
cycling on a single small capacitive touch sensor.

Then got into the connectivity side of things:

◆ WiFi connecting on boot automatically

◆ NTP time sync so the clock always pulls real
time without me hardcoding anything

◆ OpenWeatherMap API hooked up parsing
temperature, humidity, wind speed, and condition

◆ Calendar built from the actual current date with
a real day grid and event highlights

Everything was working at this point but honestly
it looked terrible just white text on a black
screen, nothing impressive at all. It was functional
but it didn’t feel like anything yet.

So I basically tore everything out visually and
rebuilt every screen from scratch.

That’s where it started actually feeling like a
real product.

◈ Gradient header bar across every screen

◈ Weather display completely redone color coded
temperature + pixel art icon system that draws
different visuals depending on the condition
(sun, clouds, rain, thunderstorm, snow, fog
all drawn in code, no images)

◈ Calendar got a proper grid with weekday headers,
today highlighted, and event colors

◈ Clock got a big clean digital readout with a
seconds progress bar filling across the screen
in real time

◈ Scrolling agenda strip at the bottom of the
calendar showing the next upcoming event

Going from plain text to all of that in one session
was a big jump. That was the moment it started
looking like something I’d actually want on my desk.