Setting Up Accent
Learn more about the project at Accent.ink. This document is describing how to set up a prototype version without battery and frame.
Step 1: Connect to power
Connect the power adapter with the Micro USB cable to the socket on the back side of Accent. This will turn the device on.
Step 2: Connect to the setup access point
The first time Accent starts up, it will show a screen with the information you need to connect it to the Internet.
Find the Wifi access point called “AccentSetup” on your computer, phone, or tablet and connect to it. It may take a few seconds to appear.
Step 3: Enter your Wifi credentials
Take a web browser to http://1.2.3.4/go and enter the name and password of your own Wifi access point, then press the “Save” button and close the window.
After pressing the button, it will look like the page is still loading. You can ignore that and just close the window. The “Not Secure” warning is because HTTPS isn’t implemented yet. Fixing these two issues is being tracked here.
Step 4: Update your personal settings
Once connected to the Internet, Accent will show a URL where you can change your settings. It will look similar to the one below, but with a different code.
I may have already set this up for you, in which case you can skip this step. I sent you the code if you want to change your settings later.
Open the URL in a browser and enter your home address. This is used for the local time, weather, and schedule, so just the city is enough. If you want to use the commute feature, then use a more precise location and also add a work address. You can leave that field empty otherwise.
The schedule lets you set which content to show at what times. Each entry has an arbitrary name, a cron expression describing the time, and an image that’s one of “artwork”, “city”, “commute”, and “calendar”.
Press the “Save” button to apply any changes.
If you want to use the calendar feature, press the “Connect” button to authenticate with Google Calendar.
You can come back to these settings at any time. Accent will pick up any saved changes the next time it wakes up.
Step 5: Enjoy
Now, just put Accent on a shelf or mount it on a wall and let it do its thing.
Troubleshooting
Some things may go wrong. Here’s what to do.
If you ever see an error screen like this, try pressing the reset button to have Accent try again. The reset button is also useful if you want Accent to update immediately, either because you changed the settings or because it appears to have stopped updating.
Accent will try to connect to the saved Wifi access point every time. If you changed your Wifi password or want to use a different access point, you can reset the device to setup mode: Connect the two bottom-right pins (marked xx in the picture below) with a piece of metal while pressing the reset button.
