Open-source pixel art OS

OpenDMD is free software for the display. It plays the GIFs already on your SD card, and adds a web app for your phone or computer: skip and pause, build playlists, set the brightness and colour, and dim the panel at night by itself.

Install OpenDMD Try the demo

~4 minto install, from your browser
~1 minto update over WiFi

Your SD card and its GIFs work as they are
Free, and you can go back to DMDoS any time

Endless road, one of the animations that come with OpenDMD.

Control it from your phone

Open opendmd.local on any phone, tablet or computer on your WiFi. Skip, pause, or step back through what just played, and see what's coming next. Recently played lists the last GIFs on the panel: tap one to see it again.

On a computer, Space pauses and the arrow keys skip and go back. A tour of the web app

Now on a phone: the panel's GIF, Skip, Pause, Previous and Replay, the brightness, and Recently played — Now, on a phone.

Follows RePlayOS

Play games on a RePlayOS box, and the display can follow it. When a game starts, the panel shows the console's logo or name, a title card, then GIFs of that console, with the game's own coming up most. In the menus it plays a playlist you pick.

Nothing is installed on the box: turn on its NET CONTROL, then type its address and code into Settings. When the box is off, the display plays as usual. Set it up

Now while following RePlayOS: the panel plays a GIF of the game on the box, and the line under the title names the console and the game — Now, while a game plays on the box.

Playlists

Tick GIFs in the Library, or a whole folder, and add them to a playlist; the one playing comes first. Or fill one by platform, category and words in the title.

Reorder, rename and duplicate playlists, mark favourites to play more often, and switch the panel to another in a few seconds. More about playlists

The Library with two GIFs ticked, and the menu to add them to a playlist: the one playing first, then the others, then New playlist — Two GIFs ticked in the Library, on their way to a playlist.

Brightness and colour

Set the brightness from Now or Settings, with a maximum so the panel stays within what its power supply can give.

Show everything in full colour, or in one colour like a classic dot-matrix display: amber, red, green, blue or white. Add a soft phosphor glow, and choose how the panel moves from one GIF to the next. The Panel settings

Settings, Panel: brightness, maximum brightness, colour set to amber, and phosphor glow — Settings › Panel, with amber and a short glow.

Night mode and schedules

Night mode dims the panel or turns it off every night: between times you choose, or from sunset to sunrise where the display is, following the seasons by itself. Wake for an hour from Now when you want it back.

Schedule rules pick a playlist or a brightness for certain days and times, and for part of the year if you like. If your card has the Halloween or Christmas playlist, one press adds a rule that plays it in its season. The schedule

Settings, Schedule: a Christmas rule from 1 to 26 December, a weekday evening rule, and night mode dimming the panel from sunset to sunrise — A Christmas rule, weekday evenings, and night mode by the sun.

Get started

Install

Plug the display's board into a computer, click Install, and pick your WiFi. It takes about four minutes in Chrome, Edge, Opera or Firefox 151+.

Install OpenDMD →

Using it

The web app view by view, playlists, Follow RePlayOS, the SD card, updates, and what to do when something isn't right.

Read the guide →

What you need

A DMDoS displayTwo LED panels, an ESP32 board and a microSD card. dmdos.net has the parts list and a build guide with photos.
A computer, onceChrome, Edge, Opera or Firefox 151+ and a USB cable, to install OpenDMD.
Your WiFiThe display joins your 2.4 GHz WiFi, and you use it from any browser on the same network.

More about what you need

Explore more

Formulas

Animations written in a few lines of maths: clocks, plasma, starfields, and looks to lay over your GIFs. Add one from the gallery, or write your own.

Open the gallery →

Create Art

Turn a title screen, box art, an old GeoCities GIF or your own picture into a GIF made for the panel.

Open Create Art →

For developers

Build OpenDMD from source, see how it works, or drive the display from your own scripts with its HTTP API.

For developers →

OpenDMD and DMDoS

DMDoS is a community project from Spain. The display, its board by MORTACA, the build guide and the GIF pack all come from dmdos.net. OpenDMD only replaces the software on the display's ESP32 board, and the original DMDoS software can be put back from the Software section of dmdos.net.

OpenDMD is an independent project, not made by or affiliated with DMDoS or MORTACA. To build it yourself or see how it works, read For developers.