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Support · Operator guide

Operator guide

The control window on the PC holds every setting. The phone panel holds the ones you use day to day. This page goes through both, in the order they appear.

Day to day

  • Change a message: Messages row, type, switch on. From the phone: the same card, the same switch.
  • Load a look: Scenes row, pick the scene, Load now.
  • Hold a look for a couple of hours: Schedule page, Hold 2 h. Back to the timetable when you are done.
  • Turn the band off early: Display hours, or load a scene with nothing on it.
  • See why the band is dark: Status window. Licence state, display hours and output position are the three usual answers.

The control window, row by row

Messages

Each message is a card. Type it, pick colour and size, switch it on. Edit opens a pop-up box with paste and a visible caret. Deactivate a card to edit it; cards are read-only while they scroll. Pictures are cards too: a logo, a product shot, a sponsor.

Markets

Search for a symbol and add it. Each card shows price, change, arrow and logo. The Chart control sets Off, 1 h, 4 h or 1 day for every symbol, with style (Line, Area, Candles, Bars), width and high and low marks; a per-stock Chart choice overrides it. Large-number precision sets how market caps and volumes are shortened.

News and RSS

Add a feed address. The software adds https:// if you leave it off. Choose how many headlines to show and the refresh interval. Headlines carry the story’s picture when the feed supplies one.

Fonts, size and speed

Five bundled fonts, or upload your own; active windows refresh without a restart. Size is a percentage of the row: 100 % fills it. Speed is the scroll speed. Layout is light or dark; rows and row height set how many bands and how tall.

Background

One row, five choices. Plain: a colour. Weather (add-on): enter the site’s location, or pick a scene and its intensity; the band shows live weather for your town. AI image (add-on): describe a picture, press Generate, pick one of three; generated pictures are kept on the PC. Your picture: choose a file or send one from your phone. Your video: an MP4 or WebM clip, muted and looped, across the whole band.

Fit controls how a picture sits on the band: whole, or a slice; repeated along the band with a mirrored or seamless join. Background behind headlines puts the picture behind the news cards as well. Card tint sets how solid the cards are over the background, from transparent to solid. Test connection checks the service from this row.

Display hours

6 AM to 10 PM, 5 AM to 6 PM, None, or Custom with Display on and Display off to the minute. Overnight spans are allowed. The row shows On until or Off until. Display hours always win over the timetable.

Scenes

Save this scene captures everything switched on, including the background, under a name. Load now, Update, Rename, Delete. Up to twenty scenes.

Schedule page

One button, on the PC and on the phone, opens the page.

  • Now showing tells you which scene is on and why.
  • Hold 2 h keeps the current scene for two hours; Back to the timetable ends the hold.
  • Add to the timetable: pick a scene tile, pick Every day, Weekdays, Weekend or single days, pick Morning, Lunch, Afternoon, Evening, Overnight or your own times, save. One rule per save.
  • The week view draws Monday to Sunday minute by minute: scene colours and times, the default in grey, display-off periods striped. Tap a block to change it or take it off.
  • Conflicts are said plainly, for example “Happy Hour already runs 18:00 to 23:00 on Fri”, with Replace or Keep both.
  • The default row is what plays when no rule matches. Display off sits underneath everything and always wins.

If a change made on the phone did not reach the PC, the page says so and puts the phone’s copy back.

Output position

X, Y, width and height of the output on the extended desktop, a display dropdown, Identify and Reset. Set once at commissioning. Bands that fold across several rows are mapped here.

Display protection

Shows whether Windows is set so nothing can appear over the band: updates held to the night, no sleep, notifications off, auto start. Re-apply puts the settings back if something has changed them. Restart PC appears in this row; it asks you to confirm and warns that the band will be dark for about a minute. Restart only happens when a person asks for it.

Remote control

Allow on the local network opens the panel to browsers on the same Wi-Fi: show the pairing code or its QR, enter it on the phone, done. Allow from anywhere (add-on) reaches the panel over the internet through Dynamo’s service: scan the QR once and the phone stays signed in for months. A signed-in phone can invite another phone with a one-time link. Remove any phone from this row. Network and pairing settings can only be changed here, at the PC.

Updates

New versions arrive signed from Dynamo. Choose the night window, or Install now, or hold updates for manual install. If a new version fails to start, the previous one is put back.

Add-ons

What is on, what is available, and Buy. Pay by card in the browser or on your phone via the QR; the add-on switches on within minutes.

Status window

Licence state, device code, last renewal, Import licence file. Send the device code with any support question.

On the phone

The panel shows the rows you use day to day: messages, markets, news, background, scenes and the Schedule page, hold, and Restart PC with its confirmation. Pairing, network settings, output position, fonts and licence import stay on the PC on purpose, so nobody can let themselves in from outside.

Keeping the display up

Dynamo Ticker is built around a band that is seen all day. Windows is set so set-up screens, notifications and error boxes never appear over the output, the screen never sleeps, and the ticker starts by itself when the PC starts. A watchdog restarts the output within seconds if it ever freezes. Feeds reconnect on their own. If the internet drops, the licence lasts the rest of its week. A domain Group Policy always wins over Dynamo’s settings, and every setting can be reverted in one step.

Best practice on a site PC

  • A dedicated standard Windows account for the display, with automatic sign-in agreed with your IT team.
  • The PC on mains power with sleep disabled; display protection sets this and checks it daily.
  • The band as a second display, with the output position set and Identify used to confirm it.
  • A data cable rather than Wi-Fi.
  • The device code written in the site’s records.

Need more?

Email support@dynamo-led-displays.co.uk with the site name and device code. → Support