Days-15 on Internet of Things with the NanoESP

Day 24: Fire alarm for the Christmas tree

Thu, 24 Dec 2015 00:01:19 +0100

The final project consists of several elements you have been introduced to in the course of the advent time. One function is the Cheerlights function presented the day before. You can also receive the current colour of the Cheerlights project and display it with the RGB-LED. The board is also used for long-term monitoring of the temperature. At the same time, the board is used to emit an alarm sound when the temperature exceeds a specific value, e.g. because there is a fire. As a last function, the board can be used as a Christmas bell, by making it play the song Jingle Bells with a time-controlled TalkBack command. All in all, today’s project is an all-rounder for the Christmas tree.

Day 23: Cheerlights

Wed, 23 Dec 2015 00:01:25 +0100

Today’s experiment is based on a project by Hans Scharler that is called Cheerlights. The idea is globally linked lights that can be simultaneously controlled via Twitter commands. It is a good example of the world growing closer and closer together with the Internet.

The circuit is similar to previous projects

Behind today’s door, you will find a fourth extension cable with which the RGB-LED can also be placed aside. This can be particularly practical if, for example, you want to hide the board in the Christmas tree while the RGB-LED decorates the top of the tree.

Day 22: TalkBack

Tue, 22 Dec 2015 00:01:22 +0100

Today’s project is about another app of the ThingSpeak page, i.e. the TalkBack-App. This function permits creating a command that is read and executed by the controller. What appears nonsensical with a single controller does make sense when using two or an entire network of controllers. Some boards can act as sensors then, e.g. with motion detectors, and send a TalkBack command. Another module reads the command from the ThingSpeak page and then opens the door or reports an alarm.

Day 21: Alarm system

Mon, 21 Dec 2015 00:01:32 +0100

Today’s project is an alarm system with which you can, for example, check whether someone opens a drawer without permission. There is a continuous check for whether the connected light sensor is exposed to too much light. If this is the case, an alarm signal will sound and a message will be sent via Twitter.

Lightsensor on A0 and Piezo on D8

Behind today’s door, there is a Piezo speaker that is used as alarm signal encoder. The structure of today’s experiment is shown in the figure.

Day 20: Twitch

Sun, 20 Dec 2015 00:01:47 +0100

The website ThingSpeak offers a lot more than just long-time monitoring of sensors. Today’s project is similar to the projects from days 9 and 10 in its basic idea. Information is collected from a website on the internet. In this case, it is whether a specific stream is currently online or not.

There are two decisive advantages of the ThingSpeak version over the first attempts. First, the ThingSpeak page can also call websites via HTTPS (HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure), while the module only supports the unsafe HTTP-protocol. Second, the website can pre-filter important information and thus clearly reduce the data volume to be processed by the controller.

Day 19: ThingSpeak

Sat, 19 Dec 2015 00:01:53 +0100

In the last days of the advent time, we will deal with an entirely new subject: the website ThingSpeak. This website has been specifically developed for the subject of Internet of Things and contains various practical functions for you.

Before you tackle the setup and programme as usual, you need to set up an account on the website

www.ThingSpeak.com

Log in with your user data under the item Sign In. You can see a website that shows your channels. Since you have no channels yet, this site will look rather empty. Click New Channel and assign a name, e.g. Light. In this project, you will measure brightness. In the item Field1, you can now assign a name to the field, e.g. Brightness. All other fields can be left empty for now.

Day 18: Universal remote control

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 00:01:00 +0100

Yesterday, you built a receiver for infra-red remote controls. Today, you are building the remote control itself. More precisely, you will build a universal remote control that you can operate by computer or Smartphone and with which you can operate your TV or other devices whenever you misplace the original remote control.

The IR-diode at Pin D3

For this project, you need the component behind today’s door: the IR diode. It looks like a simple LED, but it sends light in the invisible infra-red range. The IR-signals are visible to a digital camera, however. The structure of today’s experiment is shown in the figure. Don’t be surprised that the IR-LED is not given a dropping resistor. The effective dropping resistor is the On-resistor of the port, at approx. 30 Ohm. Because of this, the current through the diode is quite high, but the impulses sent are so short that the diode will not take damage.

Day 17: IR module

Thu, 17 Dec 2015 00:01:46 +0100

Today’s project permits controlling the controller by remote control. You can change the colour of the RGB-LED with buttons you can choose on an infra-red remote control, and change the background colour of the website right along with it.

TheIR-Modul on Pins D7-D5

Behind today’s door, you will find the important part of today’s project, i.e. the infra-red receiver module. You can connect the module without a cable as shown in the figure below. The program sets the corresponding pins so that the module is supplied with power.

Day 16: GPIO Control

Wed, 16 Dec 2015 00:01:26 +0100

Today’s project permits simple control of the digital pins D2-D7 per website. The status of the respective pin is also presented on the website, so that you will never lose the overview.

To review the condition of the pin well, a setup as in the following figure is recommended. Both the RGB-LED and the regular LED are used. The cathodes of the LEDs are now not connected to the long ground line on the outside of the board, but are also at a digital output. Only when these pins are switched low can the LEDs light up.

Day 15: Light sensor

Tue, 15 Dec 2015 00:01:56 +0100

Today’s project does not use the web server’s website as a control interface, but as an output element. The brightness measured via a brightness sensor is displayed well-structuredly as a relative value.

The fototranistor at Pin A0

Behind today’s door, there is another photo transistor that serves as a light sensor. The photo transistor looks like an LED, but should not be mistaken for one. The structure of today’s experiment is shown in the figure. The collector of the photo transistor is the shorter connection. It is applied to +5 V.

Day 14: Webserver for the RGB-LED

Mon, 14 Dec 2015 00:01:19 +0100

Today’s project is about controlling the RGB-LED by web server. A well-structured interface can be used to change the colour of the LED. The website has also been adjusted and should be easy to display even on Smartphones.

The website on a PC browser

Behind today’s advent calendar door, there is another resistor, but this one is of 10 kΩ (brown, black, orange). You will need it for tomorrow’s experiment.

Day 13: Website with buttons

Sun, 13 Dec 2015 00:01:54 +0100

In today’s experiment, the illustration of the website is even more sophisticated. There are now also control elements that permit much more comfortable control of the LED.

The 9V-batterie powers the board

The structure of today’s experiment is no different from yesterday’s: An LED at pin D9, which can be controlled via the module. As an additional component, today’s door once again holds a resistor with 1 kΩ. If necessary, you can now reduce the brightness of an LED by switching two resistors in series.

Day 12: Autonomous webserver

Sat, 12 Dec 2015 00:01:02 +0100

The results of yesterday’s experiment are now to be used in an autonomous program. Today’s program not only sends a simple website to the browser, but also permits control of an LED.

The 9V-batterie powers the board

Behind today’s door, you will find a 9-V battery clip that can make your board mobile. As an alternative, you may also use a Power Bank (a battery pack usually used for mobile phones). If you want to use the 9-V-battery, observe that the red wire must be connected to Vin, and the black one to GND. The figure shows the setup of today’s experiment with external power supply.

Day 11: TCP-Webserver

Fri, 11 Dec 2015 00:01:31 +0100

In the previous experiments, we dealt with the subject of TCP and access to web servers a lot. Today, the module is to act as a web server of its own for the first time.

Behind the door of the 11th day, there is a special cable that will be very useful soon. A special setup is not necessary today, since the program works similarly to the serial monitor programme of day one.

Day 10: Temperature display

Thu, 10 Dec 2015 00:01:55 +0100

Today’s project is an intuitive display of the current temperature. With a single look, you can guess at whether it is sensible to take along a warm jacket.

The RGB-LED on Pins D3, D5 and D6

Behind today’s door, there is another LED. This is a special one. It is an RGB-LED. RGB means Red, Green, Blue, the LED actually is made up of several LEDs with a shared cathode connection. A combination of the different colours with different brightnesses permits presenting almost any colour. The LED can be connected to the PWM outputs D3, D5, D6 of the controller with dropping resistors.

Day 9: TCP time

Wed, 09 Dec 2015 00:01:25 +0100

Today’s project uses the functions of the prior test to independently collect information from a website. The program specifically loads the current time from a dedicated website and thus sets the internal clock of the controller that is implemented by library.

Behind today’s door, there is another resistor with 1 kΩ. All three resistors will be needed for tomorrow’s experiment.

The program: Day9_TCPAutoTime

While yesterday’s program still required mostly manual operation, today’s program works mostly autonomously. The controller connects to the website entirely independently:

Day 8: A browser

Tue, 08 Dec 2015 00:01:36 +0100

In the last days, we mostly dealt with the UDP protocol with which data can be sent out simply and directly. In the next few days, we will deal with the TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). TCP only permits one connection at a time between precisely two computers. It is mostly used online for browsing on websites.

Behind today’s door, there is another resistor with 1 kΩ (brown, black, red). As with all other parts: keep it safe, even though you are not using this part today yet.

Day 7: Analogous sensor

Mon, 07 Dec 2015 00:01:23 +0100

In the last project, a button was used to deal with the simplest form of a sensor. This time, a potentiometer should be used as an analogue sensor to permanently send measured values into the network.

Behind the 7th door of the advent calendar, there is a potentiometer with 10 kΩ. The setup is shown in the lower figure.

The setup on pin A0

The program: Day7_UDPAnalog

Day 6: UDP-Button

Sun, 06 Dec 2015 00:01:27 +0100

In yesterday’s program, the first commands were evaluated by the controller. Today’s program maintains this function but can also additionally send a command into the network independently.

The button on pin D8

You will find a button behind today’s door. It is used as a simple sensor here. Connect it to the controller as shown in the setup image.

The program: Day6_UDPSwitch

! Attention: Some MAC-Users reportet a bug in the PacketSender-Software. This bug doesn’t allow you to change the ports. If you have problems with this bug you can change the ports in the Arduino program. All you have to do for todays project is to change the line 83 from
succes &= sendCom(“AT+CIPSTART="UDP","192.168.4.255",90,91”, “OK”);
to
succes &= sendCom(“AT+CIPSTART="UDP","192.168.4.255",5505,5506”, “OK”);

Day 5: Switching an LED

Sat, 05 Dec 2015 00:01:37 +0100

Today’s program is finally about controlling hardware via the UDP protocol. In this case, an LED is switched on and off with simple commands.

The LED in Pin D9

You will find an LED board behind the fifth door. The right dropping resistor already was in yesterday’s door. Build the circuit as the picture shows.

The program: Day5_UDPLED

Day 4: UDP bidirectional

Fri, 04 Dec 2015 00:01:21 +0100

In yesterday’s project, the UDP communication was tested in one direction, i.e. from the board to the PC. In this program, the module is set so that communication in the other direction is possible as well, almost like in a chat. Behind the fourth door of the Advent calendar, there is a resistor with 1 kΩ (brown, black, red). The component is not used in today’s test yet, but should be kept for later.

Day 3: UDP-Send

Thu, 03 Dec 2015 00:01:45 +0100

In today’s project, data are exchanged between the board and the PC through the WLAN for the first time. The prerequisite for this is that your computer has a WLAN adapter. The UDP (User Datagram Protocol) is used. Another program on the PC-side ensures successful receipt of the messages.

Behind the third door of the calendar, you can find an insulated cable that you will need to build circuits. To prepare for later experiments, you can place the supply lines ground and VCC on the outer tracks.

Day 2: Google Ping

Wed, 02 Dec 2015 00:01:40 +0100

With today’s project, you test whether you can reach the Google server. This is used as a test of whether there generally is a connection to the Internet or, e.g., a firewall is blocking the NanoESP-board.

You will find a plug board behind today’s door. The plug board is used as an experimenting platform later, to connect sensors and other elements. It is best if you plug the controller onto the plug board as shown in the following figure. This leaves you the most space for experiments, while the WLAN module protrudes over the plug board at the rear. The micro USB cable is then suspended between the contact sides and will only interfere minimally.

Day 1 - First Steps

Tue, 01 Dec 2015 00:01:38 +0100

It is the first day of December and thus time to open the first door. Behind the door, you will find the most important part of this calendar: the Arduino™-compatible NanoESP-board with integrated WLAN module that this calendar is about.

The NanoESP Board

As you can see quite well on the PCB, the board is made up of two components. The left half is an Arduino™-compatible micro controller system that can be compared to the Arduino™ Nano. The right part is the WLAN module with the designation ESP8266. These two components communicate via a serial interface generated by software. The Arduino™-side rather acts as the boss, forwarding the commands to the WLAN module. Some of these commands will already be tried out today on the first day.

Day 0: Download all Projects (Spoiler Alert)

Tue, 10 Nov 2015 18:33:13 +0100

Many people asked me when the projects will be ready for download. Every project description including schematics and software will come on its owm December day. But if you can’t wait, you can download only all software files in advance here.