NFC Network Client, Global Input Capture and Smart Connect

Date: 2025-12-24 Project: moonlight-drive-in Status: resolved Tags: nfc, network-client, tkinter, pynput, threading, launcher, windows

Context

NFC readers act as keyboards, so scanning only worked when the player window had focus, and it tied the reader to the player PC. Jess wanted a remote NFC client that can run on another machine, send scans to the player over the network, and "just connect" when launched. Work ran 2025-12-22 to 2025-12-24: a GUI client (v1.1.0 bug-fix release), a CLI client, launchers, then global input capture and a smart-connect launcher.

Key Decisions

Network client instead of local keyboard input — the reader can live anywhere on the LAN/VPN and send IDs to the player's web API.
Global input capture with pynput — scans are captured regardless of which window has focus.
Thread-safe Tkinter updates — background threads schedule UI changes with root.after(0, ...); direct updates caused "main thread is not in main loop" errors.
Smart connect with verification — try multiple resolution methods (DNS, Tailscale MagicDNS, mDNS) and verify the player's HTTP server responds before connecting; fall back to the fixed LAN IP 10.0.0.134.
Simplify to a CLI auto-start with a 5-second timer — the final launcher starts the interactive CLI client automatically after 5 s unless the user intervenes, which proved more reliable than the GUI auto-connect.
ASCII-safe console output ([WEB], [CTRL], [VIDEO]) instead of emoji — emoji corrupted the Windows console.
Keep compatibility with NFCNetworkClient v1.1.0 — the launcher passes the Tk root correctly rather than changing the client API.

Technical Details

Player web UI/API on port 8547 (LAN 10.0.0.134, Tailscale <redacted>).
clients/nfc_network_client.py — GUI remote control; clients/nfc_autoconnect.py — fixed auto-connect client; clients/nfc_cli_client.py — CLI client; clients/network_test.py — connectivity diagnostics.
Launchers: START_DRIVEIN.bat, START_CLIENT.bat, start_nfc_client.bat, connect_drivein_simple.bat, test_network.bat.
clients/client_requirements.txt — includes pynput.

Code Changes

clients/ — new client system (GUI, CLI, auto-connect, diagnostics, launchers, docs: README, QUICKSTART, CHANGELOG, UPDATE_GUIDE, SMART_CONNECT_FIX, IMPLEMENTATION_SUMMARY).
Global input capture fix — NFC scans work regardless of focus (40f23b0).
Smart connect v2.2.0 — HTTP verification + fallback IP (ca36215).
connect_drivein_simple.bat — 5-second auto-start of the CLI client (5ad870e).

Open Questions / Next Steps

LEGO Dimensions portal is the planned replacement for the single-tag ACR122 reader (see lego-dimensions-reader).

Artifacts

5ad870e — Simplify to auto-start Interactive CLI with 5-second timer
ca36215 — Fix smart connect v2.2.0
40f23b0 — Fix global input capture
e90b8da — FIXED auto-connect client - resolves GUI initialization error

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