Pulse Telemetry ⚡

A modern, high-performance desktop hardware and GPU telemetry dashboard built with Python, PyQt6, psutil, and NVIDIA NVML (nvidia-ml-py).

Pulse Telemetry delivers real-time system monitoring with smooth, antialiased cubic-bezier wave graphs, comprehensive NVIDIA GPU telemetry, kernel concurrency statistics, and responsive dark/light/OLED themes.

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🌟 Key Features

• ⚡ Real-Time Hardware Telemetry

  • CPU Utilization: Live overall load percentage, logical core count, and current clock frequency (MHz).
  • Physical Memory (RAM): Real-time memory consumption, percentage, and total capacity.
  • NVIDIA GPU Core & VRAM: Direct hardware queries via NVML for core load (%), dedicated VRAM allocation, GPU core temperature (°C), and real-time power draw (W).
  • GPU Power-Saving & D3Cold State Resilient: Gracefully detects dynamic standby/sleep states on hybrid and modern NVIDIA laptops without throwing exceptions.
  • Kernel Concurrency: Active Process ID (PID) count and total kernel thread tracking.
  • Network Bandwidth: Live download/upload speed gauges (MB/s) and aggregated bandwidth throughput (Mbps).

• 🎨 Modern & Responsive UI

  • Custom Sub-Pixel Antialiased Wave Graphs: Smooth cubic-bezier curve rendering with dynamic gradient area fills and live beacon indicators.
  • Always on Top (Pin Window): Keep the telemetry dashboard pinned over full-screen games, benchmarks, and workflows.
  • Customizable Themes: Built-in support for Dark, OLED Black, and Light modes.
  • Dynamic Font & UI Scaling: Integrated Open Sans typography with adjustable base font scaling.
  • Configurable Polling Rates: Choose between 0.5s (High Speed), 1.0s (Normal), and 2.0s (Battery Saver).

• 📦 Cross-Platform Packaging Ready

  • Native Linux .deb installer generation with full FreeDesktop desktop entry and icons.
  • Windows .exe single-file bundling support with custom multi-resolution icons.

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📁 Project Structure

pulse-telemetry/
├── assets/                 # Application icon assets (.ico and .png)
│   ├── icon.ico
│   └── icon.png
├── Open_Sans/              # Bundled Open Sans font suite (OFL licensed)
├── releases/               # Packaged distributions (e.g., .deb installer)
├── scripts/
│   └── build_deb.sh        # Automated Debian (.deb) package build pipeline
├── app.py                  # Main PyQt6 dashboard application & telemetry engine
├── generate_icons.py       # Vector-based icon generator using QPainter
├── gpu_stress.py           # Pure ctypes CUDA driver GPU stress utility
├── requirements.txt        # Python package dependencies
├── RUN.md                  # Packaging and build execution commands
└── README.md               # Project documentation

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🛠️ Prerequisites

• Python: >= 3.9
• Linux (Debian/Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch) or Windows 10/11
• (Optional) NVIDIA GPU with proprietary drivers installed for NVML telemetry and CUDA support.

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🚀 Installation & Getting Started

1. Clone the Repository

git clone https://github.com/your-username/pulse-telemetry.git
cd pulse-telemetry

2. Set Up Virtual Environment

Using standard Python virtual environments:

python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Or using uv (recommended for high speed):

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate
uv pip install -r requirements.txt

3. Run the Dashboard

python app.py
# or with uv
uv run app.py

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📦 Building & Installing Packages

🐧 Linux (.deb Package)

To build a standalone Debian package:

chmod +x ./scripts/build_deb.sh
./scripts/build_deb.sh

To install the generated .deb package:

sudo apt install ./releases/pulse-telemetry_1.0.0_amd64.deb

Once installed, Pulse Telemetry will appear in your system applications menu with full icon and desktop launcher support.

🪟 Windows (.exe Executable)

To freeze and compile a standalone, windowed .exe binary:

uv run pyinstaller --noconfirm --onefile --windowed \
    --name "PulseTelemetry_1.0.0" \
    --specpath "build" \
    --distpath "releases" \
    --icon "$(pwd -W)/assets/icon.ico" \
    --hidden-import "pynvml" \
    --add-data "$(pwd -W)/Open_Sans;Open_Sans" \
    --add-data "$(pwd -W)/assets;assets" \
    app.py

The resulting binary will be placed inside the releases/ folder.

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🧪 Built-in Utilities

1. GPU Stress Tester (gpu_stress.py)

A lightweight, zero-dependency CUDA driver stress utility utilizing pure Python ctypes (libcuda.so.1 / nvcuda.dll). It allocates dedicated VRAM buffers and pumps asynchronous memory operations to test GPU telemetry under heavy load without needing external benchmarking software:

python gpu_stress.py

(Press Ctrl+C to terminate the stress test and cleanly release allocated VRAM.)

2. Icon Generator (generate_icons.py)

Generates high-resolution application branding icons (icon.png and multi-layered icon.ico from 16x16 up to 256x256) programmatically using PyQt6 vector paths:

python generate_icons.py

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⚙️ Configuration & Settings

Click the ⚙ (Gear) icon in the top header to configure:

• Pin Window (Always on Top): Toggle keeping the window persistently above other active applications.
• Theme Selection: Switch on the fly between Dark, OLED Black, and Light.
• Font Scale: Dynamic UI font scaling slider (10pt - 18pt).
• Telemetry Frequency:
  • 0.5s (High Speed / Responsive)
  • 1.0s (Normal - Default)
  • 2.0s (Battery Saver / Low Overhead)

User preferences are persisted across application restarts using QSettings.

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. The bundled Open Sans fonts are distributed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1.