B0RD

Chapter 09

Networking modes

B0RD signs use two cooperative Wi‑Fi roles: a local setup network (SoftAP) and a client connection to your home or lab network (STA).

Comparison: SoftAP B0RD-suffix at 192.168.4.1 for local setup versus STA home Wi-Fi for LAN HTTP and outbound HTTPS.
Fig. 2 — SoftAP (A, dashed) versus STA (B, thick frame). Letters and borders mark roles.

SoftAP — B0RD-<suffix>

  • Always available when the sign is unconfigured; remains up after STA join.
  • Portal and API at http://192.168.4.1/.
  • Best for human first setup and local troubleshooting.
  • Does not provide internet access to the sign by itself.
  • Cannot reach NTP — SoftAP-only first boots show SET TIMEuntil home Wi‑Fi (SNTP) or USB / POST /api/time. After a prior good set, reboot may show an approximate clock from flash (net.time.last_unix) until SNTP corrects it (drifts while powered off). Status / /api/health exposetime_set and wall_unix.
  • Suffix is the chip MAC or a friendly-name slug fromdevice.name — not a fixed B0RD-AP string.

Home Wi‑Fi (STA)

  • Outbound HTTPS for live launch data and future updates.
  • LAN HTTP at the DHCP address — preferred for agents and scripts.
  • USB remains the most reliable control path regardless of Wi‑Fi.

Finding the LAN address

  1. Over USB, read status / health — the reply includes the station IP when associated.
  2. From SoftAP Status after the sign has joined home Wi‑Fi (your phone is still on SoftAP for that view).
  3. On the same LAN, browse http://<that-ip>/ or call/api/health.
  4. Or use the advertised LAN name:http://<hostname>.local/ (see below).

Guest networks with client isolation often block phone-to-sign access — use the main LAN or stay on SoftAP / USB.

Friendly name browsing (.local)

After the sign joins home Wi‑Fi, it advertises a multicast DNS (mDNS) hostname derived from the same identity as SoftAP: lowercaseb0rd-<slug|mac4>. SoftAP Status, USB status /wifi status, and /api/health expose thehostname field — openhttp://<hostname>.local/ on the same LAN (for examplehttp://b0rd-kitchen.local/).

.local is human convenience. Agents should still prefer USB and the numeric STA IP. Multicast can fail on guest/isolated VLANs and some Windows setups — try a trailing dot (http://b0rd-kitchen.local./) or fall back to the numeric IP from status. SeeTroubleshooting.

Related: Troubleshooting ·USB control plane ·Get started