Turing Smart Screen CLI

Warning: This is an unofficial implementation; use at your own risk.

Overview

Turing Smart Screen CLI provides command-line utilities for managing the Turing Smart Screen 8.8" V1.1 USB display. All operations run on-demand—no background daemon is left running—and lower level USB/HID errors are surfaced directly to aid scripting.

Supported Hardware

• Turing Smart Screen 8.8" V1.1 (USB VID 0x1CBE, PID 0x0088)

Features

• Send sync, restart, and configuration commands to the device.
• Adjust brightness, frame rate, and persist settings to flash.
• Upload PNG/H264 assets to on-device storage and list or delete them.
• Stream PNG frames directly to the panel or play MP4 videos via FFmpeg conversion.
• Trigger playback of stored PNG or H264 assets and stop active playback.

Installation

pip install turingscreencli

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install -e .
# or grab tooling extras
pip install -e .[dev]

On macOS/Linux you may need to install FFmpeg separately (e.g., brew install ffmpeg).

Usage Examples

# Enumerate and sanity check device connectivity
turing-screen sync

# Adjust device state
turing-screen brightness --value 64
turing-screen save --brightness 96 --rotation 2

# Send media directly to the panel
turing-screen send-image --path assets/sample.png
turing-screen send-video --path demo.mp4 --loop

# Work with on-device storage
turing-screen refresh-storage
turing-screen upload --path demo.png
turing-screen list-storage --type image
turing-screen delete --filename demo.png
turing-screen play-select --filename demo.png
turing-screen stop-play

Installing the package provides a turing-screen console script.

Command Summary

• sync – Ping the panel to keep it responsive.
• restart – Reboot the panel.
• refresh-storage – Display SD card usage statistics.
• clear-image – Push a transparent frame to clear the panel.
• stop-play – Stop any active playback.
• brightness --value – Set LCD brightness.
• save – Persist brightness/startup/rotation/offline settings.
• list-storage --type image|video – List files on the device.
• send-image --path – Stream a PNG to the screen.
• send-video --path [--loop] – Stream MP4/H264 video.
• upload --path – Upload PNG/MP4 assets to storage.
• delete --filename – Delete PNG/H264 assets.
• play-select --filename – Play a stored PNG/H264 asset.

Development & Testing

Install the dev extras and run the automated checks before submitting changes:

pip install -e .[dev]
python -m compileall src
python -m pytest
python -m pytest --cov=turingscreencli
python -m ruff check src tests  # if you have ruff installed
black src tests
flake8 src tests
mypy src

Tests under tests/ rely on pytest and exercise CLI argument parsing and dispatch logic with USB communication stubbed out.

Troubleshooting

• "USB device not found" – confirm the panel is connected and powered. On Linux detach the kernel driver with dev.detach_kernel_driver(0) or configure udev rules.
• Permission errors on Linux – create matching udev rules granting access to VID 0x1CBE/PID 0x0088 or run the CLI with elevated privileges.
• FFmpeg not found – ensure FFmpeg is installed and on your PATH for video encoding.
• Playback glitches – verify assets meet the device requirements (PNG 480×1920, H264 video when stored on the device).

Device Storage Structure

• Images: /tmp/sdcard/mmcblk0p1/img/
• Videos: /tmp/sdcard/mmcblk0p1/video/

License

Released under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.