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Funkelfetisch/MoonLight: monthly activity digest

What landed on Funkelfetisch/projectMM (earlier named Funkelfetisch/MoonLight), month by month. External-context reference, a factual log of a friend repo's activity, not MoonLight's own history or roadmap. Newest month on top. The reusable prompt that generates these lives in index.md.

This is a fork of this project building commercial products on it: HELIO, a physical "infinity sphere" lamp (a warm-white 3000 K RGBW strip inside a clear acrylic shell), and since November 2026 NEBULITE, a line of LED garments (a Croptop and a Jacket on the ESP32-S3, 2021-era ESP32 jackets and bags, and a HELIO necklace) controlled from a phone over BLE, with battery controllers, signed firmware updates over BLE and a migration path from WLED. The firmware carries three product variants (helio1, nebulite-s3, nebulite-esp32), built with one flag that leaves out the modules no product uses, a product dashboard at / beside our generic editor at /modules, and a src/helio/ product directory. The README is unchanged from ours, so this is MoonLight plus a product layer rather than a rebrand.

Branch note: the work is not on the default branch. main tracks our upstream and has not moved since 2026-07-09. Since November 2026 every change lives on one branch, nebulite-helio-7, cut from our main of 2026-10-28; the earlier codex/* branches are deleted from GitHub, their commits archived on a private remote the author names nebulite-firmware. The repository has issues disabled and publishes no releases.

November 2026 (to date)

Seventy-one commits on one new branch, nebulite-helio-7, all between 2026-11-03 and 2026-11-09, adding NEBULITE beside HELIO.

  • The whole product layer re-based onto our tree as one commit (414 files, about 60,000 added lines, 2026-11-03): BLE control independent of WiFi, a battery service, a BH1750 light sensor, a preset store, a product dashboard, twelve WLED-faithful NEBULITE effects (Blink, Firefly, Flow Stripe, Noisefire, Palette, Plasmoid, Rainbow, Sine, Snowflakes, Solid, Washing, Waterfall), src/helio/ and 41 bench scripts.
  • BLE control, third protocol revision: an MTU of 517 so a request fits one write, replies as notifications, list operations that stream every page from one request, a timer that retries a reply the stack had no buffers for, and an ambient-light operation for the phone. Each controller advertises its own name; an unnamed garment is NEBULITE- plus four MAC digits.
  • Firmware updates over BLE, signed by the publisher: a P-256 key compiled in, claims (target, size, security version, image SHA-256) and a signature checked before the update slot opens, the image streamed on its own characteristic and acknowledged per window; a signing script prints the release manifest the phone app bundles.
  • WiFi setup from the phone over BLE, credentials only over an encrypted link, and a handset remote; garments boot with WiFi off.
  • A 2025 WLED S3 controller moves to MoonLight without USB: a migration image WLED's own update page accepts saves WLED's networks, takes the signed MoonLight image from the phone in chunks, rewrites the partition table and starts MoonLight, resuming after a cut. A 2021 classic ESP32 image ends on a short packet so the old BLE updater finishes installing it.
  • Fixes found on the boards: a failed new (std::nothrow) aborted the ESP32 instead of returning null, now replaced with malloc; control descriptors shrink to 40 bytes with flags as bits, about 9 KB back on the classic ESP32; the HTTP listener retries a refused port and follows a port change live; the product dashboard loads three to four times faster.
  • Product firmware leaves out what no product uses: one build flag drops MoonCloud, Devices, Hue, the SD card, HUB75 and the parallel LED outputs, helio1 from 2.81 MB to 2.63 MB.
  • The S3 garment's battery controller stays on through an update's restart, a reboot and a crash, its power pins held by the pad hold; each product's boot pins print at boot and are pinned by tests, and an onboard LED shows whether a phone or a network reaches the controller.
  • The browser preview as the lights emit it: a frame over a slow BLE link finishes, and each light shows only the channels its outputs carry, so RGB strips show no white.
  • Smaller generic touches: brightness shown as a percentage while the value stays 0 to 255, the Network card saying whether the local name answers and why not, mdns pinned to 1.14, a clean checkout stamping a clean build id, a restart keeping the chosen scene.
  • A branded NEBULITE dashboard: the app's palette from the first paint, animation cards that play by themselves, Static and Music groups, garment illustrations; the import of historical WLED looks was removed.
  • Process: the docs gate taken from 835 errors after the port to 0, eight MIGRATING entries, seven plans under docs/work/present/. Every commit carries an agent co-author trailer; 20 of the 71 commit messages report a test on hardware.
  • PR #158 closed: the author closed MoonModules/MoonLight#158, the BLE transport, on 2026-11-04 without merging; the fork's BLE plan records lighting control without mandatory pairing as the product's choice.
  • Branches: nebulite-helio-7 is new (2026-11-03, head 289d1931 on 2026-11-09), based on our main at 04472e0d with 71 commits on top and 66 behind. The codex/* branches are deleted, main stays at 2026-07-09 and feature/gyro_module at 2026-06-05.

Checked: after git clone and fetch, commits on origin/main for 2026-11-01..2026-11-09 (0); commits on all 3 remote branches vs MoonModules/MoonLight@main for the same window (71, all fork-authored, all on nebulite-helio-7; 0 fork commits for 2026-10-28..2026-10-31); three-dot diff against our main 486 files, +69,492/-1,032; releases published (none); issues disabled (has_issues: false), so no issue search.

October 2026

One fork commit, on a new branch cut from our main late in the month.

  • An optional BLE control transport (codex/moonlight-ble-transport, 2026-10-25, 399 added lines across ten files): an encrypted control channel for a controller outside WiFi range.
  • The peripheral is a native NimBLE one with GATT attributes for identity, state and commands, and pairing with persistent bonds.
  • A bounded 512-byte line reassembler applies backpressure and recovers after rejected input, and the exchange with the scheduler is non-blocking.
  • The caller owns startup, identity and request dispatch. Desktop, Teensy and BLE-disabled ESP32 builds share one stub, and shipping firmware defaults are unchanged.
  • Provenance: the commit message says the hardware test ran on the HELIO prototype before the transport was extracted, and that Codex wrote the contribution at the author's request.
  • Status: offered to this project the same evening as MoonModules/MoonLight#158, open at month end.
  • Branches: codex/moonlight-ble-transport is new (2026-10-25), based on our main at abcdaec9 with one commit on top. Nothing else moved: codex/helio-private-wip stays at 2026-08-21 and main at 2026-07-09.

Checked: after git fetch --all --tags, commits on origin/main for 2026-10-01..2026-11-01 (0); commits on all 10 remote branches for the same window (182, all on codex/moonlight-ble-transport: 181 upstream MoonModules/MoonLight carry-forward, 1 fork-authored, f5a244a9); releases published (none); issue search repo:Funkelfetisch/projectMM is:issue created:2026-10-01..2026-10-31 and the same with closed: (0 results each; the repository has issues disabled).

September 2026

Dormant month: no commit on any branch.

  • Branches: none moved. The most recent activity anywhere is codex/helio-private-wip on 2026-08-21, and main last moved 2026-07-09.

Checked: after git fetch --all --tags, commits on origin/main and on all 9 remote branches for 2026-09-01..2026-10-01 (0); releases published (none); issue search repo:Funkelfetisch/projectMM is:issue created:2026-09-01..2026-09-30 and the same with closed: (0 results each). The repository now answers to Funkelfetisch/projectMM, and Funkelfetisch/MoonLight no longer resolves through the API.

August 2026

  • HELIO product layer, stabilised. One large commit ("Stabilize HELIO scenes, previews, output, and onboarding", 147 files vs our main) covering scene playback, the browser preview, LED output and first-run onboarding for the sphere product.
  • A browser-side optical simulation of the lamp (helio-preview.js, heliotrace.js, ~2,000 lines) renders internal reflections and an optional wall bounce, so the dashboard preview resembles the physical object rather than a flat grid.
  • A Pixelblaze pattern interpreter (PixelblazeCompatEffect.h, ~1,300 lines) runs Pixelblaze-style patterns on the device.
  • An ambient-light service (BH1750 over I2C) publishes a brightness target that drivers consume, for automatic brightness.

  • A curated WLED preset player keeps source effect IDs, names, speed/intensity values and playlist order as data, rendered through this project's own palette and light-buffer primitives.

  • Branches: only codex/helio-private-wip moved (2026-08-20). The other seven have been dormant since July.

Checked: commits on main for 2026-08-01..2026-09-01 (0; main last moved 2026-07-09); commits on all 9 branches for the same window, filtered to fork-authored work (1: a649bd47 on codex/helio-private-wip, 2026-08-20, 139 files; the branch's other August commits are upstream MoonModules/MoonLight carry-forward); no commit on any branch between 2026-08-21 and 2026-09-01; releases published (none); issue search repo:Funkelfetisch/MoonLight is:issue created:2026-08-01..2026-08-31 and the same with closed: (0 results each, the repository has no issue tracker activity).

July 2026

Six feature branches opened, none merged to the fork's main, alongside a carry-forward of our own next-iteration. Each is a self-contained proposal against this project rather than product work:

  • Automatic firmware updates, the device polls a JSON manifest, checks the advertised version, chip family and flash offset against its own build info, and starts an OTA with SHA-256 and expected-size verification. Manifests over plain HTTP or without a declared size are refused.
  • BLE WiFi provisioning, credentials over Bluetooth using Espressif's wifi_provisioning component, gated to run only while the device is in access-point fallback, in its own firmware variant (it costs roughly 320 KB of flash).
  • WiFi reconnect handling, a debounce before applying typed credentials, and repeated station retries before falling back to an access point.
  • RMT LED output over DMA, enables the DMA backend for WS2812 transmission on chips that have it, with a completion callback instead of a blocking wait, so a delayed interrupt under network load cannot stretch a bit cell into visible flashing.
  • RGBW color correction, a wider set of channel-order presets, and an explicit white channel taken from the source when the layer carries one.

  • Frame pacing, a target-frame-rate cap on the scheduler, work-time metrics, and a periodic-tick sweep spread across ticks rather than run in one burst.

  • Branches: codex/upstream-auto-update-manifest (07-11), codex/upstream-network-sta-reconnect (07-10), codex/upstream-rmt-rgbw-performance (07-10), codex/performance-frame-pacing (07-11), codex/universal-ble-provisioning (07-13), codex/helio-private-wip (07-10, initial WIP), next-iteration (07-10, a carry-forward of our upstream branch). main last moved 2026-07-09.

Checked: commits on main for author-date 2026-07-01..2026-08-01 (2, both upstream carry-forward); commits on all branches vs MoonModules/MoonLight@main for the same window (11); releases published (none); issue search repo:Funkelfetisch/MoonLight is:issue created:2026-07-01..2026-07-31 and the same with closed: (0 results each).

June 2026

  • Gyro / IMU input, an MPU6050 accelerometer and gyroscope read over I2C, publishing angular rate plus pitch and roll as read-only values, with a desktop simulation so the interface shows live numbers without the hardware attached.

  • Branches: feature/gyro_module (06-05). No other branch activity.

Checked: commits on all branches vs MoonModules/MoonLight@main for author-date 2026-06-01..2026-07-01 (1); releases published (none); issue search repo:Funkelfetisch/MoonLight is:issue created:2026-06-01..2026-06-30 and the same with closed: (0 results each).