It’s been a busy few weeks behind the scenes at Helioclock, and I wanted to take a moment to walk through what’s changed, and what’s new in today’s release.
Keeping disks healthy
A sharp-eyed customer (thank you, Don!) discovered that Chromium; the web browser some early Raspberry Pi units shipped with, can quietly accumulate temporary telemetry files over time, eventually eating into a unit’s available disk space. We traced this down, built an automatic daily cleanup into the software itself, and it’s been running quietly in the background on every updated unit since. If your Helioclock has been running for a while without issue, this is one of the reasons why.
The move to Google Chrome
When I first built the Raspberry Pi version of Helioclock, Google Chrome wasn’t available for the Pi’s processor type at all, so we used Chromium; a close cousin of Chrome, but not quite the same thing. In September, we found a way to bring real Google Chrome to the Pi. Chrome has proven to be more stable on this hardware, and it doesn’t have the gradual file buildup Chromium can create.
I’ve spent the past several weeks building, testing, and re-testing a safe path to move every Pi unit over, on real hardware, under real conditions, including some genuinely difficult edge cases we’re glad we caught before they ever reached a customer’s unit. Today’s release, v3.7.92, is step one of that process for any Pi unit still running Chromium. A second update completing the switch will follow in the coming days, with its own announcement explaining exactly what to expect.
Updates now always happen right on your Helioclock’s screen
As part of this work, we made a firm decision: every Helioclock update, of any kind, should always be completable directly from Settings → Admin on your Helioclock’s own screen: never by needing to find another device or type an address into a separate browser. If an update ever needs your administrator password, you’ll be walked through it right there, with a clear on-screen indicator showing it’s actively working.
What’s new in v3.7.92
Beyond the groundwork for the Chrome switch, this release includes a number of real improvements:
- More reliable WiFi setup. If you’ve ever had your Helioclock’s WiFi fail to connect on the first try during setup, only to succeed the moment you clicked Connect again, that’s fixed: the connection process now retries automatically.
- More control over your Markets panel. DOW, NASDAQ, Gold, and Silver can each be shown or hidden individually from Settings → Data Sources. Market data also now only updates during actual trading hours; more accurate, and lighter on your data provider’s usage limits.
- A safer first-time setup for new Raspberry Pi units. New Pi units now walk through a quick hardware check — heat sink, cooling fan, and proper power supply: before setup begins, helping make sure every unit starts on solid footing.
- A number of smaller fixes and refinements throughout the application. All improve reliability.
What’s next
We are all caught up with orders. New orders typically ship the same day, except for weekends. And, after two months of working nearly 24/7 including weekends, I’m now going to take weekends off.
Also: I’m looking to provide a download only image for people who prefer not to buy SD cards or USB sticks. A customer imager is forthcoming.
I’m also continuing to work on deeper reliability improvements for Raspberry Pi units; including measures aimed at protecting SD card health over the long run, which I’m planning to bring to a future release once they’ve been through the same thorough testing as everything above. I have a lot of new features planned.
As always, your Helioclock checks for updates automatically from Settings → Admin, and I recommend applying this one at your earliest possible convenience.
Thank you, as always, for being part of the Helioclock community. And, I thank many of you for your patience while I killed bugs.
— Anthony KA9NWM