Vault-Tec PiPDash System Monitor / Hardware Monitor

A retro-styled, green-on-black system dashboard / inspired by the Fallout Pip-Boy.
Runs on Windows/Designed for a 5″ portrait display (480×800) and just as happy on a laptop. It shows:

• Three gauges (top): CPU Load, GPU Load, RAM Usage (0–100%)
• Disk usage bars (middle): one per drive
• Network graph (bottom): upload spikes up, download spikes down, autoscaled
• Scrolling ticker (very bottom): recent Windows System log events (last 2 hours) via pywin32 Any ERROR or CRITICAL system events in the last 1 hour will activate RED ALERT mode.

ANY RELEASE IS A DOWNLOADABLE SELF CONTAINED .EXE APPLICATION, NO CODING OR ASSEMBLY REQUIRED

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Contents

• Features
• Quick Start
• Requirements
• Installation
• Run
• Command-Line Options
• Data Sources
• Windows System Log Ticker
• Layout & Styling Knobs
• Design Notes
• Raspberry Pi & Case-Mod Ideas
• Troubleshooting
• Roadmap
• License

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Features

• Fallout-style UI: scanlines, glow text, mono font, gauge needles tapered to a point.
• Centered network graph: zero line in the middle; ↑ upload above, ↓ download below.
• Event ticker: pulls last 2 hours of important System events (Errors, Warnings & Critical Events) For Errors and Critical, red alerts display for 1 hour and scrolls them.
• Smooth gauges: optional throttling/EMA smoothing to avoid jitter.
• Portrait-first: defaults to 480×800 window for 5″ screens; easy to resize.

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Quick Start

IF DOWNLOADING SOURCE CODE

# 1) Install Python 3.10+
# 2) Install deps
pip install pygame psutil

# Optional: NVIDIA metrics
pip install pynvml

# Optional (Windows only): Event Viewer ticker
pip install pywin32

# 3) Run
python pipboy_ui_events_bidir_net_needles.py         # real stats (best effort)

# Or: simulated data for development
python pipboy_ui_events_bidir_net_needles.py --demo

Escape (Esc) quits. Touch/click starts from the START screen.

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Requirements

• Python: 3.10 or newer
• OS: Windows 10/11, macOS, or Linux
• Libraries:
  • Required: pygame, psutil
  • Optional: pynvml (NVIDIA GPUs), pywin32 (Windows Event Log ticker)

Fonts: the app requests "Courier New"; if unavailable, Pygame falls back to a system monospace.

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Installation

pip install pygame psutil
pip install pynvml         # optional for NVIDIA GPU load/VRAM
pip install pywin32        # optional, Windows System log ticker

Windows PowerShell equivalent:

py -m pip install pygame psutil
py -m pip install pynvml
py -m pip install pywin32

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Run

python pipboy_ui_events_bidir_net_needles.py          # window 480×800 portrait
python pipboy_ui_events_bidir_net_needles.py --demo   # fake data to design UI

If you’re on a small display and want true fullscreen:

# change the window creation line if you want fullscreen later:
# screen = pygame.display.set_mode((WIDTH, HEIGHT), pygame.FULLSCREEN)

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Command-Line Options

--demo          Use simulated stats (works everywhere; great for UI iteration)
--icon PATH     Use a custom window icon (.ico). Defaults to 'pippy.ico' if found.

Planned: ``> --fullscreen Fullscreen kiosk mode --scale 1.25 UI scale factor (fonts, spacing) for larger panels

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## Data Sources

- **CPU Load / RAM** / **Disk usage** / **Network throughput** → `psutil` (cross-platform)
- **GPU Load / VRAM** (optional) → `pynvml` (NVIDIA)
- **System Events** (optional, Windows) → `pywin32` (Event Viewer API)

> CPU temperature is intentionally out of scope on Windows without a sensor driver. This project opts to avoid a resident helper app and focuses on stats available from the OS + optional vendor SDKs.

### Smoothing & Sample Rate

Two simple controls (add/adjust near the top if you want calmer needles):

```python
STATS_INTERVAL = 1.0      # seconds between snapshots (global throttle)

CPU_SAMPLE_SEC = 0.5      # CPU % sampling cadence
CPU_SMOOTH_ALPHA = 0.35   # EMA smoothing; lower = smoother

Exponential moving average and 1 Hz sampling keep CPU % from “hummingbird jitter.”

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Windows System Log Ticker

The ticker shows ALL INFO & CRITICAL/ERROR/WARNING from the System log in the last hour for these sources:

• Kernel-Power (unexpected shutdowns)
• Disk / Ntfs (I/O anomalies)
• WHEA-Logger (hardware corrected errors)
• Common NIC sources (Intel/Realtek/Killer; resets/timeouts)
• Service Control Manager (service start failures)

Install pywin32 and run on Windows:

pip install pywin32
python pipboy_ui_events_bidir_net_needles.py

If pywin32 isn’t available (or non-Windows), the ticker will display a friendly hint and the rest of the dashboard keeps working.

You can add more sources by editing EVENT_SOURCE_PATTERNS (regex list) in the code.

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Layout & Styling Knobs

Window size (portrait default):

WIDTH, HEIGHT = 480, 800

Header & gauges:

# Header divider line Y
pygame.draw.line(surface, GREEN, (12, 58), (WIDTH - 12, 58), 1)

# Gauge row Y
gy = 150
centers = [(80, gy), (240, gy), (400, gy)]

# Gauge size
GAUGE_RADIUS = 85

Bars (disks only):

TOP_BAND_H = 230        # height of top section (affects where bars start)
MID_BAND_Y = TOP_BAND_H + 10
MID_BAND_H = 360        # total bar section height
BAR_H = 28
BAR_GAP = 22

Network graph & ticker:

TICKER_H = 40
BOT_BAND_H = HEIGHT - (TOP_BAND_H + MID_BAND_H) - TICKER_H
GRAPH_Y = HEIGHT - TICKER_H - BOT_BAND_H + 6
GRAPH_H = BOT_BAND_H - 18

Needle styling:

NEEDLE_BASE_W = 14
NEEDLE_BASE_BACK = 10
NEEDLE_TIP_MARGIN = 16

Colors & CRT vibe:

GREEN = (0, 255, 70)
DIM_GREEN = (0, 120, 30)
SCANLINE_STEP = 4
FONT_NAME = "Courier New"

Tip: enable a quick layout debug overlay (boxes around bands) while tuning.

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Design Notes

• Gauges are semicircular with tapered needles (filled triangles) and a small hub ring.
• Disk bars show % used with labels below the bars for readability.
• The network graph draws a midline (0 Mb/s); upload (solid) is above, download (dashed) below.
• The ticker scrolls left to right continuously; events refresh every ~5 seconds.

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Raspberry Pi & Case-Mod Ideas

This app was designed with a 5″ 800×480 portrait touch in mind—perfect for mounting inside a custom PC case as a Pip-Boy-style status screen.

Hardware

• Pi model: Pi Zero 2 W (easy USB gadget mode) or Pi 3/4 (HDMI display).
• Display: 5″ 800×480 HDMI or DSI panel; set portrait orientation.
• Power: tap the PC PSU 5V rail (SATA/Molex → buck/USB module) to power the Pi + screen; keep USB header for data only if tethering.

Orientation

• X11 desktop: xrandr -o left for portrait.
• Console/framebuffer: set rotation in /boot/config.txt (varies by driver; e.g., display_hdmi_rotate=1).

Kiosk Boot

On Raspberry Pi OS Lite, create a systemd service to launch the app on boot (in a virtual framebuffer or with SDL on the console), or run the full desktop and autostart the script.

Data Link Options

• USB Serial Gadget (Pi Zero 2 W): Pi appears as a COM device to the PC; feed JSON lines from a tiny PC helper (optional); or run the app standalone with local stats if the Pi is the host.
• USB Ethernet Gadget: Pi exposes a virtual NIC; talk HTTP/REST if you later add a producer.
• LAN/Wi-Fi: Fetch from a local API if you set one up; not required for this repo.

This repo does not require any helper app. It displays host stats (the machine it runs on). If you embed a Pi as a remote display for a different PC, you’ll need a small bridge program to send that PC’s stats across USB/network.

Case-Mod Tips

• 3D-print a bezel with faux rivets; keep airflow clear of GPU fans.
• Add GPIO buttons to the Pi to flip pages or toggle views.
• Boot splash: show a Vault-Tec logo while the app starts.
• Easter eggs: flash “RAD DETECTED” when RAM>90% or CPU/GPU load>95%.

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Troubleshooting

AttributeError: module 'serial' has no attribute 'Serial'
You installed serial instead of pyserial, or shadowed it with a local serial.py.
Fix:

pip uninstall -y serial pyserial
pip install pyserial

Remove/rename any local serial.py file/folder.

GPU numbers are --

• Install NVIDIA drivers + pynvml.
• AMD/Intel GPUs aren’t covered by NVML; the app will just show N/A for GPU load.

No events in ticker

• Install pywin32 and run on Windows.
• Some systems require Administrator to read all sources.
• If nothing is in the last hour, the ticker will say so.

Fonts look different

• The app requests Courier New; on non-Windows it may fall back to another monospace. Adjust FONT_NAME to taste.

CPU needle is jumpy

• Use the STATS_INTERVAL global or the CPU_SAMPLE_SEC/CPU_SMOOTH_ALPHA EMA to calm it down.

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Roadmap

• Toggle pages (Process Top-Talkers, I/O rates per disk, Wi-Fi SSID/signal).
• Config file for colors/thresholds/layout.
• Optional log details page (scrollable last 50 events, color-coded).
• On-screen buttons for brightness/theme.
• Packaged Windows EXE (PyInstaller) and Pi image recipe.

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License

MIT — see LICENSE (or add one to your repo).

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Screenshots

(Add PNGs or GIFs here once you have them.)

docs/
  screenshot_start.png
  screenshot_dashboard.png
  screenshot_ticker.png