This code provides current weather and a clock over RS232 to the wallboard display. The specific wallboard I used supports "VT100" escape codes to control color of the text and other functions such as "clear screen".
Initial setup of the device uses WiFiManager and optional Adafruit IO integration to send text to the display remotely. On first start - connect to the provided hotspot for configuration. To reset the device, long-press button 0.
NOTE: I found that when powering from an AC-USB adapter that an additional ground wire is needed from the ESP32 to the wallbaord device in addition to the ground wire on the serial port.