Drives multiple USB AX206-based LCD screens (the common 3.5" 480x320 "USB LCD monitor" panels and similar), each with its own independently configured widget layout: system monitoring, images/GIFs, a clock, weather (Open-Meteo), Pi-hole, UniFi, and Proxmox status.
It runs two ways:
- Windows: a system-tray app with a desktop Widget Designer.
- Linux / Raspberry Pi: a background service you manage from a web page
in any browser on your network. See
docs/raspberry-pi.md.
The AX206 USB protocol is not publicly documented by its vendor; this project
reverse-derives it from public reference implementations - see
docs/protocol-spec.md for the full write-up,
citations, and known gaps.
Everything is on the Releases page. Every release has a Windows and a Linux version. Neither needs .NET installed separately.
| You're running | Download | Then |
|---|---|---|
| Windows 10/11 (install it) | Ax206Display-<version>-win-x64.msi |
Run it. Adds a Start Menu shortcut and upgrades cleanly next time. |
| Windows 10/11 (portable) | Ax206Display-<version>-win-x64.zip |
Unzip and run Ax206Display.exe. Keep libusb-1.0.dll next to it. |
| Raspberry Pi OS 64-bit (Pi 3, 4, 5, Zero 2 W) | ax206display-<version>-linux-arm64.tar.gz |
Unpack and run sudo ./install.sh. |
| Raspberry Pi OS 32-bit | ax206display-<version>-linux-arm.tar.gz |
Same as above. |
| Other Linux PC (x64) | ax206display-<version>-linux-x64.tar.gz |
Same as above. |
Not sure which Pi build? Run dpkg --print-architecture on the Pi: arm64
means the 64-bit one, armhf the 32-bit one. Each file has a matching
.sha256 checksum.
The Pi setup, from a blank SD card to a working screen, is in
docs/raspberry-pi.md.
The Windows app has shipped since v1.0.0: multiple displays, the Widget Designer, clock, text, stat and gauge widgets, backgrounds, and Pi-hole, UniFi and Proxmox integrations.
The Linux/Raspberry Pi service is new in v1.1.0. It covers the same widgets and integrations through a web UI and has been tested under emulation and in CI, but not yet on a wide range of Pi hardware. Reports welcome.
Open http://<your-pi>:8206 from any browser on your network.
Displays. One tab per screen, with a green dot when it's connected. Drag widgets around the live preview, then press Save to display.
Integrations. Set up Pi-hole, Proxmox and UniFi. Each one is tested against the live service before it's saved, and passwords are never sent back to the browser.
Settings. Change the web password and check which version is running.
| Project | TFM | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
Ax206Display.Protocol |
net8.0 | AX206 command/CBW/CSW byte-level protocol, no I/O |
Ax206Display.Transport |
net8.0 | IAx206Transport + a mock, a LibUsbDotNet-based transport, and a WinUSB P/Invoke fallback |
Ax206Display.Rendering |
net8.0 | SkiaSharp-based widget compositor and pixel-format conversion |
Ax206Display.DataSources |
net8.0 | System sensors (LibreHardwareMonitorLib on Windows, /proc and /sys on Linux), Open-Meteo weather, Pi-hole, UniFi, Proxmox clients |
Ax206Display.Config |
net8.0 | JSON config models/service; secret store backed by DPAPI on Windows, an AES-GCM key file elsewhere |
Ax206Display.Engine |
net8.0 | What both front ends share: the device supervisor, data pump services, widget catalog, integration setup, and one DI registration (AddAx206DisplayCore) that picks the right platform pieces |
Ax206Display.App |
net8.0-windows | The WPF tray app: tray icon/menu, Task Scheduler auto-start, widget-designer window |
Ax206Display.Server |
net8.0 | The Linux service: ASP.NET Core host with the web UI (wwwroot, no build step), cookie login, systemd integration |
Ax206Display.Tests |
net8.0 | xUnit tests for every project above except App |
All USB I/O goes through the IAx206Transport interface so
rendering/config/data-source code is fully testable without hardware (see
Ax206Display.Transport.Mock). Device discovery never hardcodes a USB
VID/PID: it probes candidate devices with the protocol's own
GetLcdParameters command and accepts whichever respond plausibly.
Requires the .NET 8 SDK.
# Everything except the WPF app, including the Linux server (works on Linux/macOS/Windows):
dotnet build Ax206Display.CrossPlatform.slnf
dotnet test Ax206Display.CrossPlatform.slnf
# Everything, including the WPF app (Windows only):
dotnet build Ax206Display.sln
# A Linux release tarball (any OS with the SDK; cross-builds for ARM fine):
packaging/linux/build-release.sh linux-arm64 1.0.0CI (.github/workflows/ci.yml) mirrors this split: a Linux job builds and
tests the cross-platform projects and test-publishes the Raspberry Pi
tarball, and a windows-latest job builds the full solution including the
WPF app.
Releases come from .github/workflows/release.yml. Run it from the Actions
tab with a tag like v1.2.0 (or push that tag): it builds the signed Windows
MSI and zip, then the three Linux tarballs, and attaches all of them to one
GitHub release.
TLS to UniFi/Proxmox uses certificate pinning
(IntegrationConfig.PinnedCertificateSha256Thumbprint), not a blanket
"accept any certificate" bypass, since both commonly serve self-signed
certs on a LAN. Secrets are DPAPI-encrypted at rest on Windows and
AES-256-GCM-encrypted with an owner-only key file on Linux
(Ax206Display.Config.Secrets), and their in-memory buffers are zeroed after
use. The Linux service's web login, sandboxing and network exposure are
covered in docs/raspberry-pi.md.
The Windows app currently runs elevated (requireAdministrator) for USB/Task Scheduler access; see
docs/privilege-separation.md for a proposed
design to shrink that to a minimal elevated broker process in a future
milestone.
UniFi login needs a local-access-only admin account - a cloud/SSO-linked
account can fail to authenticate through the API in confusing ways (e.g. a
generic "invalid credentials" response even with the right password) that
have nothing to do with this app. If Test & Save keeps failing, check
Settings → Admins → the account in question and confirm it's set to
local access rather than linked to a Ubiquiti cloud account. If you'd rather
keep 2FA enabled on that account instead of switching it to local-only, the
app supports that too (IntegrationConfig.TotpSecretKey, computed via
Ax206Display.DataSources.Auth.TotpGenerator) - enter the base32 setup
key/secret from when you enabled 2FA, not a live 6-digit code.
The build enforces TreatWarningsAsErrors with
AnalysisLevel=latest-recommended, pins the full dependency graph via
packages.lock.json + Directory.Packages.props, and gates CI on
NuGetAudit/dotnet list package --vulnerable.
