The Ticker
Owner's Manual

Getting started

Meet your Ticker

Your Ticker is a small display for your desk. It shows live prices, clocks, weather, news and more, and it runs on your home Wi-Fi.

There are no buttons on the Ticker. You set it up and change everything from your phone or computer, in a web browser. There's no app to install and no account to create.

What's in the box

• The Ticker display in its enclosure
• A USB-C wall adapter and cable
• This guide

Turning it on

Plug the adapter into the Ticker and into a wall outlet. The screen lights up by itself within about a minute and briefly shows Starting Ticker….

The very first time, the Ticker isn't on your Wi-Fi yet, so it shows instructions for setting it up. That's the next section.

Setup, step by step

Connecting to your Wi-Fi

The Ticker needs your home Wi-Fi to fetch live data. To get it there, the Ticker first makes its own small Wi-Fi network called Ticker-Setup. You join that, tell the Ticker which Wi-Fi to use, and then it moves over to your network.

1. Look at the Ticker's screen

   When the Ticker isn't on any Wi-Fi, it shows these instructions.

   

   What the Ticker shows when it's waiting to be set up.

2. Join the Ticker-Setup network

   On your phone or computer, open your Wi-Fi settings and choose Ticker-Setup. It has no password.

   Your phone may warn that this network has no internet. That's expected - stay connected to it for now.

3. The setup page opens

   Most phones open the setup page by themselves and call it something like Sign in to Ticker-Setup. If nothing opens, open your web browser and go to http://ticker.local.

   During setup the page shows just two sections, Network and System. Everything else appears once the Ticker is on your Wi-Fi.

   

   The setup page. The box at the top shows what's on the Ticker's screen right now.

4. Choose your Wi-Fi

   Tap Network. Pick your home Wi-Fi from the list, type its password, and tap Join network. To check what you typed, tap the eye icon in the password box.

   

   Pick your Wi-Fi, enter its password, and tap Join network.

5. Wait a moment

   The Ticker switches to your Wi-Fi. Its screen says Joining your Wi-Fi network.

   

   The Ticker moving over to your Wi-Fi.

   Because the Ticker has left Ticker-Setup, your phone drops off it too. Reconnect your phone to your normal home Wi-Fi.

6. Finish on your home network

   When the Ticker is connected, its screen says so and tells you what to do next.

   

   Connected. Now open the settings page from your home network.

   With your phone back on your home Wi-Fi, open http://ticker.local. Set your location first (that sets the clock and time zone), then choose your first screen.

Everyday use

Your settings page

Everything about your Ticker is controlled from its settings page. Open a web browser on your phone or computer and go to:

http://ticker.local

Bookmark it, or add it to your home screen - it's your remote control.

The top of the settings page. The picture shows exactly what's on the Ticker right now.

The live preview

The box at the top of the page is a live copy of the Ticker's screen, refreshed about once a second - the same picture, whatever is showing. Tap it to fill your screen; tap again to go back.

The preview pauses when you switch to another app or tab, and picks up again when you come back.

How the page is laid out

Below the preview, each setting has its own section: Network, Location, Display, Screens, Photos, Instruments, Refresh rate, Alert threshold and System. Tap a section's name to open it; tap it again to close it.

At the very bottom: support emails us, TICKER.BOX opens our website, and ? opens this manual.

It only works on your home network

ticker.local is a name that only exists inside your own Wi-Fi network. Your phone or computer has to be connected to the same Wi-Fi as the Ticker for the page to open. It won't open:

• When you're away from home, or out of range of your Wi-Fi
• Over mobile data (4G/5G) - turn Wi-Fi on and join your home network
• From a guest Wi-Fi network - many keep guest devices apart from your own
• Sometimes with a VPN switched on - turn it off while you use the page

Your network also needs its router running: if the router is off or restarting, the page won't open, even if your Wi-Fi name still appears.

None of this affects the Ticker itself. It keeps running and updating on its own; you just can't change settings until you're back on its network. If the page stops responding while you're using it, check your phone is still on your home Wi-Fi.

Settings

Location and time

Your location does three things: it sets the Ticker's clock, its time zone, and the place its weather screens show. Set it once, right after setup.

The Location section.

Setting your location

Open Location and start typing your city in Search for a city. Choose it from the list that appears. The Ticker applies it straight away.

Or tap Detect from IP to let the Ticker work out roughly where it is from your internet connection. That's usually accurate to your city.

Use this device asks your phone for its location. Most browsers refuse on a plain http:// page like this one; if yours does, the page tells you, and the city search works just as well.

Units

Choose Celsius, km/h, mm or Fahrenheit, mph, inches. This changes how the weather screens show temperature, wind and rain. Screens that need a location - weather, and some entertainment screens - say No location set until you choose one.

Other time zones for your clocks

Clocks can also show the time in up to four other cities. Under Other time zones, type a city in Add a city and choose it from the list. Tap its ✕ to remove it. Once you have four, remove one to add another.

With other cities added, every clock rotates through your own time and theirs, moving on each time the screens refresh (see Refresh rate) and showing the city's name. With none added, clocks show your time alone. The Ticker works out each city's time itself, daylight saving included, so this needs no internet.

Making it yours

Choosing screens

A screen is one thing for the Ticker to show - a price chart, a clock, the weather. You can show one screen, or rotate through several with a playlist.

Screen categories

Putting a screen on the Ticker

1. Open Screens, then a category

   Open Screens. You'll see the categories, each with how many screens it holds. Tap a category to open it; tap it again to close it.

   

   Screens, with its categories closed.

2. Tap the screen you want

   Each screen shows a small preview and its name. The one currently on the Ticker is marked ON AIR, and its category opens by itself.

   

   Chart styles open. Classic is on air.

3. Tap Apply

   A bar appears at the bottom with the screen you picked. Tap Apply. The Ticker changes over within a few seconds.

   

   The selected screen is outlined; Apply puts it on the Ticker.

Making it yours

Playlists: rotating screens

A playlist shows several screens in turn - say, a chart for a minute, then the clock, then the weather. It can include photo albums too.

The playlist page: available screens on the left, your running order on the right.

1. Open the playlist page

   In Screens, tap Create A Playlist at the bottom.

2. Build your running order

   Drag a screen from the list into a slot in Running order. Or tap a screen, then tap the slot. Add as many as you like.

3. Set how long each stays up

   The number between two slots is how many seconds that screen stays on before the next one - anything from 10 seconds to an hour.

4. Save and put on air

   Tap Save and put on air. The Ticker starts the rotation right away and loops it forever.

Screens that rotate within a playlist

Some screens rotate on their own: charts step through your instruments, clocks through your time zones, and the news, sports and on-this-day screens through their pages. In a playlist, that rotation only moves on while the screen is showing. When the screen comes back round, it resumes where it left off - the next instrument, time zone or page - so everything gets its turn.

Making it yours

Adding your own screens

A screen is a single web page file ending in .html. If you've made or been given one, you can add it.

Adding a screen

In Screens, open Add custom screen. Drag the file onto Drop a .html screen here, or tap it to choose the file. It can be up to 4 MB.

Add custom screen, with its drop area.

The start of the file's name decides its category: chart-, clock-, entertainment-, news- or weather-. For example, clock-sunrise.html appears under Clock styles as sunrise. A file named any other way goes under Other.

Removing a screen

Every screen except the one on the Ticker has a small ✕ in its corner. Tap it, and confirm when asked "Are you sure? Deleting this screen will remove it from your choices".

Making a screen that uses the Ticker's data

Every screen gets a small built-in object, TICKER, carrying the Ticker's prices, settings and timing. A screen that uses it follows the owner's instruments, symbols, refresh rate, time zones and Display switches, like the screens that come with the Ticker. A screen that doesn't is shown exactly as written.

TICKER.quote() - the instrument on air now: its one-minute candles, oldest first, as {t, o, h, l, c, v}, plus price, prev (the close a minute earlier), instrument (name, symbol, unit and more) and session (after hours or pre-market, otherwise null)

TICKER.market() - the same instrument in full: exchange, previous close, extended-hours trading and volume

TICKER.every(fn) - runs fn now and at every refresh, on the Ticker's clock

TICKER.price(v) - a price with the instrument's symbol and suitable decimals: $86,408.29, 4.29%, $0.00000450

TICKER.now() - the time a clock should show, moving through the owner's time zones

TICKER.page() - which page a paging screen is on; in a playlist it carries on where it left off

TICKER.prefs, .location, .refreshMs - the Display switches, the owner's location and units, and the refresh rate

The Ticker also fills in and hides marked parts of a screen. An element with data-tk="name" gets the instrument's name, shrunk to fit its box; data-tk="base" and data-tk="quote" get the two halves of its symbol; data-tk="session" gets the after-hours line; data-tk="zone" gets a clock's city; and data-tk="bar" becomes a progress bar that fills over each refresh. An element marked data-tk-pref="marquee", "bar", "yaxis" or "xaxis" hides when the owner switches that element off in Display.

Making it yours

Prices: instruments, refresh and alerts

Which prices to show - Instruments

The chart screens show the instruments you list here: the coins and stocks to follow.

The Instruments section.

Put one instrument per line, in this form:

Coins use exchange pairs like BTC-USD or ETH-USD. Stocks use their market symbol, like AAPL or MSFT. The name after the last colon is optional - see Instrument names below.

Showing a symbol other than $

Prices show with a $ unless you say otherwise. To use a different symbol, put it before the name:

Any single character that isn't a letter or number works: $, €, £, ¥, ₿, % and so on. The symbol is optional, and so is the name after it.

Instrument names

Leave the name off and the Ticker uses the instrument's own name from its source when you save: Yahoo Finance's for stocks - SLV:stock becomes iShares Silver Trust - and Coinbase's for coins - BTC-USD becomes Bitcoin. You'll see the name filled in. Give a name of your own and that's shown instead, on every screen. Long names shrink to fit their space on each screen; one still too long ends in “…”.

Coins in other currencies

Coins marked crypto come from Coinbase, which doesn't offer every coin in every currency. Bitcoin in Canadian dollars, BTC-CAD, is one it doesn't have.

Instruments marked stock come from Yahoo Finance, which does list many coins in other currencies. So for Bitcoin in Canadian dollars, mark it as a stock:

If a coin never appears when its turn comes, its price source doesn't have it. Try it the other way - as stock instead of crypto - and check the symbol's spelling.

With more than one instrument, the Ticker takes turns. Seconds per instrument sets how long each one stays up. Tap Save instruments; the line underneath shows which one is on now.

After hours and pre-market

Stocks keep trading before and after the regular session. Outside regular hours, the charts carry on through that trading: the chart runs past the close, the price is the latest trade, and a line beneath it reads After hours: 7:59 PM EDT - or Pre-market: - in the exchange's own time. Coins trade around the clock, so they never show one.

What the change figure shows

On most chart styles, the change beside the price - ▲ $12.50 +0.0146% - is the instrument's latest one-minute move: its last price against the minute before. It's the same move a price alert watches. A few styles show a longer change instead: since the start of their chart, or since the previous close.

How often prices update - Refresh rate

Choose how often the Ticker fetches new prices and redraws its charts: every 15, 20, 30, 40, 50 or 60 seconds. The thin bar along the bottom of a chart screen fills up until the next update. The same pace turns the pages of screens that page through stories or scores, and moves clocks on to your next time zone.

The Refresh rate section.

Tap Save and restart display. The Ticker's screen goes dark for a few seconds while it restarts with the new timing.

Price alerts

When a price moves sharply in one update, the chart screens flash a banner - for example Bitcoin Pumping! for a jump, or Bitcoin Dumping! for a drop.

The Alert threshold section.

In Alert threshold, set how big a move counts, as a percentage - anything from 0.01 to 100. The Ticker ships at 2%. Tap Save threshold.

Making it yours

Photos and albums

Your own pictures, shown as a slideshow. Photos are kept in albums, and an album goes on the Ticker just like a screen.

The Photos section with one album.

1. Make an album

   In Photos, tap New album and give it a name - "Family", "Holiday", anything you like.

2. Add photos

   Tap Photos on the album to open it. Drag pictures onto Drop photos here, or tap it to choose them from your phone or computer. JPG, PNG, WebP and GIF pictures work. Your phone or computer shrinks each picture to 1,920 pixels on its longest side before sending it - still sharper than the screen - so uploading and framing are quick. GIFs are sent as they are, so animations keep moving; they can be up to 12 MB. Add more whenever you like.

   

   Inside an album: your photos, the drop area, and Apply.

3. Frame each picture

   The Ticker's screen is wider than most photos. Tap CROP on a photo to choose how it fits:

   Fit wholeshow the whole picture, with bars at the sides if needed Fill screencrop the picture so it fills the screen Zoomdrag the slider, or the picture itself, to choose what stays in frame Originalundo your changes and go back to the photo as you uploaded it

   Tap Save crop to keep it, or Cancel to leave it as it was.

   

   Framing a photo. Drag to move it, use the slider to zoom.

4. Put it on the Ticker

   Tap Apply at the bottom of the album. The slideshow starts, moving to the next photo each time the prices refresh (see Refresh rate).

To remove a photo, tap the ✕ on it. To remove a whole album, tap the ✕ on its tile in Photos - you can't remove the album that's currently showing.

Comfort

Display: brightness and screen elements

Open Display to adjust how the screen looks.

The Display section.

Screen brightness

Drag the slider to make the screen brighter or dimmer. The Ticker follows the slider as you move it - there's nothing to save. At 0% the screen is completely black.

Screen elements

Four switches, all on to start with. Each takes effect the moment you tap it: the Ticker redraws its screen with the change.

While switched on, the marquee, progress bar and axes appear on every chart screen - including charts designed without them, drawn in each screen's own colours. Switch them off for clean, full-width charts.

Screen schedule

To have the screen switch itself off overnight, tick Turn the screen off on a schedule, choose Off at and On at, and tap Save schedule. The screen goes dark at the first time and comes back at the second, every day, by your location's clock. Overnight works too: off at 11:00 PM, on at 7:00 AM. To keep the screen on all the time, untick it and save.

Settings

Changing your Wi-Fi

Open Network to move the Ticker to a different Wi-Fi, or to make it forget the one it's on.

The Network section on your home network.

Switching to another network

Pick the new network, enter its password and tap Join network. The Ticker moves over, so reconnect your phone to the same network afterwards. If it can't join, it brings back Ticker-Setup so you can try again.

Forgetting the network

Forget network makes the Ticker forget your Wi-Fi. It then brings up Ticker-Setup and waits to be set up again, as on the first day. Use this when you give the Ticker away or change your router.

Fixed address (optional)

Most people never need this. Your router normally hands the Ticker an address automatically. If you want it to keep the same address, choose A fixed address I choose and fill in the address, gateway and DNS, then tap Save addressing. ticker.local keeps working either way.

Maintenance

System: updates, restarts and reset

The System section.

The first line shows the Ticker's temperature, its processor speed right now, how much of its memory and storage is in use, and how long it has been running. It updates every second while the page is open.

Updating the Ticker

New versions add screens, fix problems and improve the Ticker. Nothing installs by itself. Under Firmware you'll see your version. Tap Check for update; if there's a newer version, tap Update. The Ticker downloads it, installs it and restarts. Your Wi-Fi, location, settings, screens you've added and photos are all kept.

Restart display

Restarts just the screen. It goes dark for a few seconds and comes back to what it was showing. Try this first if the screen ever looks stuck.

Reboot Ticker

Restarts the whole Ticker, the same as unplugging it and plugging it back in. It takes about a minute, and the settings page won't open until it's back.

Factory reset

Returns the Ticker to how it arrived. It deletes screens you added, all albums and photos, your location and other time zones, screen choice, playlist, instruments, refresh rate, alert, brightness, screen-element and screen schedule settings - and it forgets your Wi-Fi. The screens that came with the Ticker stay.

Afterwards the Ticker brings up Ticker-Setup. Set it up again from Connecting to your Wi-Fi.

Peace of mind

Power cuts and internet outages

The Ticker looks after itself. There's nothing you need to do in any of these cases.

Your internet goes down

If your Wi-Fi is still on but the internet isn't - say your internet provider has an outage - the Ticker stays on your Wi-Fi and keeps showing your screen. Prices, weather and other live information hold their last readings, and this icon appears in the top-right corner of the screen:

It disappears by itself within about ten seconds of the internet coming back.

Your Wi-Fi goes down

If the Wi-Fi itself is gone - your router or access points are off - the Ticker stops showing its screen and switches between two messages: its setup instructions, and Joining your Wi-Fi network. That's the Ticker checking whether your Wi-Fi is back. When it returns, the Ticker reconnects by itself and your screen comes back. Give it a few minutes - your phone and computer may reconnect sooner than the Ticker does.

How the Ticker-Setup network behaves during an outage

While the Ticker is off your Wi-Fi, it can't look for your network and offer Ticker-Setup at the same time, so it takes turns:

• Ticker-Setup is available for about 90 seconds, and the screen shows the setup instructions.
• Then it steps aside for about 35 seconds to check for your Wi-Fi, and the screen shows Joining your Wi-Fi network.
• The first time Ticker-Setup appears after your Wi-Fi drops, or after a power cut, it may only stay for a few seconds. Wait - it comes back within about a minute and then stays for the full 90 seconds.
• Once your phone or computer is connected to Ticker-Setup, it stays on for as long as you need it.

A Ticker with no saved Wi-Fi - brand new, after a factory reset, or after Forget network - has nothing to check for, so Ticker-Setup stays on the whole time.

A power cut

When the power returns, the Ticker starts up, shows Joining your Wi-Fi network until it's connected, and then goes back to the screen it was showing.

The Ticker has no internal battery for its clock, so it sets the time from the internet each time it starts. That's why it waits to be connected before showing your screen, rather than showing a clock with the wrong time.

You change your Wi-Fi name or password, or move house

The Ticker can't find its old network, so it brings up Ticker-Setup. Follow Connecting to your Wi-Fi to choose the new one.

Help

Troubleshooting

Still need help? Tap support at the bottom of the settings page, or email support@ticker.box.

Replacing the microSD card

The Ticker's software lives on a microSD card inside it. Instructions - Download SD Card image Here and follow the Read Me If the card ever fails, or you'd like a larger one, you can replace it yourself. You'll need a small suction cup, a new microSD card and a computer to prepare the card.

How the Ticker comes apart, lying on its back.

1. Screen. Only about 3 mm (1/8 in) thick. A thin ribbon cable on its underside connects it to the screen controller board.
2. Screen controller board. Drives the screen.
3. Banana Pi M2 Zero. The computer that runs the Ticker.
4. microSD card. In its slot at the end of the Banana Pi board.
5. Enclosure. The USB-C power socket is on its back.

Inside, the two boards are joined by a mini HDMI cable, and two micro USB cables bring power from the USB-C socket to each board. Leave them connected.

1. Unplug the Ticker

   Always unplug it before opening it.

2. Lift out the screen

   Lay the Ticker on its back on a soft cloth. Press the suction cup onto the middle of the screen and lift slowly and evenly, straight up. Lift only as far as the ribbon cable allows and rest the screen beside the opening without pulling, twisting or folding the cable.

3. Take out the microSD card

   Find the card at the end of the Banana Pi board (part 4 above) and take it out of its slot.

4. Prepare the new card

   On your computer, download the Ticker card image and write it to the new card with balenaEtcher.

5. Put it back together

   Slide the new card into the slot. Lower the screen back into the opening, making sure the ribbon cable isn't pinched, and press gently around its edges until it sits flush. Plug the Ticker in.

6. Set it up again

   A new card starts like a new Ticker, so it brings up Ticker-Setup. Follow Connecting to your Wi-Fi. Settings and photos from the old card don't carry over.

Reference

What the Ticker connects to

The Ticker fetches public information from the services below. Each is contacted only when a screen that needs it is showing, or when you use the feature listed.

Privacy

• Your phone only talks to the Ticker. The settings page, the live preview and your photos all stay on your home network; your phone never contacts any of the services above for the Ticker.
• No account, no tracking. There's nothing to sign up for, and the Ticker sends no analytics or usage reports.
• Your details stay on the Ticker. Your Wi-Fi password, location, settings and photos are stored on the Ticker itself. A factory reset erases them.
• Your location is sent only as map coordinates, to the weather service, to get your forecast. Detect from IP shares your internet address with ip-api to look up your city, and only when you tap it.

Reference

Specifications