PulsPI

PulsPI is a Raspberry Pi Pico–based environmental and system monitoring project focused on real-time telemetry, local display output, and extensible control logic for embedded monitoring tasks. It is designed to run reliably on both Pico W (with optional networking) and standard Pico hardware.

At its core, PulsPI behaves as a small, stateful monitoring appliance rather than a one-shot display script.

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Features

• Realtime Temperature & Humidity Monitoring
  Uses a DHT11 sensor with non-blocking reads and cached values to avoid UI freezes.

• Local LCD Output (16×2 I²C)
  Flicker-free display updates using differential line writes instead of full clears.

• Runtime Command Interface (USB REPL)
  Interactive, non-blocking command input supporting:

  • Live value overrides
  • Multi-command input
  • Semicolon-delimited commands
  • Built-in help documentation

• Override Pipeline (First-Class Data)
  Command overrides are treated identically to real sensor readings, allowing realistic testing and future control logic validation.

• Min / Max Tracking (Since Boot)
  Tracks minimum and maximum temperature and humidity values and displays them inline.

• Uptime Tracking with Day Conversion
  Converts long uptimes into Xd HH:MM format for readability.

• Optional Networking (Pico W only)
  Networking and ICMP ping functionality are loaded conditionally and fail gracefully on non-Wi-Fi hardware.

• Debug Visibility

  • Sensor vs override source tracking
  • Runtime state inspection via CLI

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Current Display Pages

Page 1

Up: 1d 04:17
T 32/41 H 38/62

Page 2

Temp: 36 °C
Humid: 45 % RH

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Architecture Overview

Core Data Flow

High-level view of how sensor data and runtime overrides flow into shared state and are consumed by outputs.

Main Loop Execution

Shows how the main loop polls inputs, updates state, and drives consumers without blocking.

For deeper wiring-level diagrams and alternate views, see ARCHITECTURE.md.

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Command Interface

Available at runtime over the USB serial console.

Examples

temp 42
hum 55
time 3d 04:17

Multiple commands per line:

hum 50 temp 30 time 2d 01:00

Semicolon-delimited:

temp 35; hum 60; time 5:00:00

Help:

help
help time

Debug:

status
sensor
minmax clear

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Planned Features

• Temperature-based fan control (PWM / relay output)
• Rolling averages and trend data
• Bar-graph / history display page
• Flash-backed persistence for min/max values
• Optional button input for page control

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Hardware Requirements

Required

• Raspberry Pi Pico or Pico W
• 16×2 I²C LCD (HD44780 compatible)
• DHT11 sensor
• MicroPython

Optional

• Wi-Fi network (Pico W only)
• External fan or relay hardware (future work)

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Installation

1. Clone the repository:

   git clone https://github.com/yung-megafone/PulsPI.git
   cd PulsPI

2. Flash MicroPython to your Pico using Thonny or your preferred tool.

3. Copy the contents of src/ to the Pico (main.py, config.py).

4. (Optional) Configure Wi-Fi credentials and ping target in config.py.

5. Power the device and open the serial console to interact with PulsPI.

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Project Philosophy

PulsPI is intentionally built as:

• A single-file, inspectable system
• Hardware-aware (no unnecessary abstractions)
• Resistant to UI jitter and blocking behavior
• Extensible without refactoring core logic

Safety mechanisms and control logic (fan control, alarms) are implemented as downstream consumers of validated state, not as ad-hoc logic attached to sensor reads.

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License

PulsPI is source-available software.

You may use, modify, and deploy this project freely, including for internal commercial purposes.
Resale, sublicensing, or monetization of PulsPI or derivative works is not permitted without explicit permission from the author.

Full license terms are available in LICENSE.md.

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Third-Party Libraries

PulsPI includes the following third-party components, used unmodified:

• pico_i2c_lcd — MIT License
• lcd_api — MIT License