Woo! You got your board on the mail, or maybe we gave it to you in person, now, what is it? What is it for?
This board is based on a ESP32 microcontroller, but it also has some other components to help us get started connecting the digital world and our tangible one. We will go more in depth during class, but for now, here is a quick manual to get you going.
By default, the board is already pre-programmed, so you don’t have to worry about that. But if you want to make changes, you are more than welcome to do so. We will soon update this same doc to share the code and schematics.
Note: The board in a bit of an experimental stage and we are still trying to figure things out, so please share any feedback and bugs as you find them :)
Each board has a unique name (written by hand on the back of the board). Let’s get the boards connected and start sharing light data!
If you go to the webpage https://hardwaremovement.com you will see a grid of boxes, each with a name. At the time I took this image, there were only three boards on there, hopefully by now there are many more. As new boards connect, the grid starts getting updated with each boards' last photoresistor reading.
This website is only collecting light information, and since other people will likely connect at different times, feel free to come back and see how the collaborative page is changing over time. Feel free to place the board anywhere indoors and see how that impacts the page.
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Turn on the switch on the ESP32 board.
- You will hear a click (that's the relay acting as a small audio cue)
- You will see the board blink about 1x a second, this means that the board is attempting to connect to a wifi network. But because you just got the board it will most likely not be able to connect.
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If after 15 seconds it wasn’t able to connect:
- The board will beep again
- The LED will start blinking at a faster pace (2x second)
- It will then make its own wifi network. You can connect to it to share your wifi credentials. You can do this either though your phone or computer’s wifi settings.
The name of the network will be ExperimentHardPerf_[random numbers]
- After 5-10 seconds a login page (captive portal) will show up on your device.
Note: watch out for upper/lower case
- Enter your wifi info then click save (Note: watch out for upper/lower case)
- Once you click save, the board will attempt to connect to your network. It will also save your network credentials to it’s internal memory, so you don’t have to add them again (unless you change them). You can now press cancel>use other network, and connect to your regular wifi.
- If the connection is successful, you will see a quick short flashing LED. Then then you can check the https://hardwaremovement.com website again and see it updating live! The board should then go to sleep and automatically wake up every 20 minutes until it rans out of battery in about a day. If you want, you can charge it again or leave it plugged in.
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I turn it on but nothing happens, no beep, no flashing led.
Most likely, it’s out of battery, try charging it though the micro USB port
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I turn the board on, and it beeps, then it beeps again, and again, and again…
This means that the board is constantly restarting, most likely it’s out of battery, try recharging the battery though it’s Micro USB port
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I added my wifi credentials but doesn’t nothing happened.
Try restarting the board by turning it off and on again, the board should attempt to connect and if it still is not able, repeat steps 2-6.
Also, in order to save battery, it will only wait for 1minute before going back to sleep. It could be that it’s taking a bit long to add your wifi credentials.
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I was able to connect before now it’s asking for my wifi credentials again
The board only has 15 seconds to successfully connect to wifi, after this it will create it’s own network. Sometimes, these 15 seconds are not enough time connect, no need to add you credentials again, you can restart the board and have it try again.
The board consists of the micocontroller (ESP32 dev board with a 18650 battery holder) and a series of inputs and outputs:
- Photoresistor- This can be used to sense light
- Magnetometer- This is the (MMC5603NJ), a 3 axis magnetic + temperature sensor
- Potentiometer- This is a knob can be manually turned
- Button- This button has a dual function, to send data while the board is awake, and to wake the board when it is sleeping
- Relay- Instead of having a buzzer that could only buzz, we upgraded it to a full size relay, it clicks and it switches! We recomend only using it for DC applications, but if you know what you are doing feel free.
- An LED output and pin- this can be used to see changes or to connect to another board or arduino.
- A Servo- this can be used to move things in our physical, it can turn about 180°.
- I2C- This uses a STEMMA QT connector, a popular i2C compatible with many Adafruit and Sparkfun modules.
- RXTX- These are ready in case you want to connect to another micrcontroller or anything that can communicate though serial. By default the board runs on a 115200 buadrate and only supports 3.3V.
- GPIO 17 & 18- By defualt 17 is set to be a digital input (0-1) and 18 is set as an analog out (0-255).
- The ESP32 board has a switch to turn it on/off
- It can be charged/programmed using a micro USB cable
- We added a small switch to let you decide if the board should stay connected or if it should connect every 20 minutes and then go to sleep. This will dramatically impact how long the board can run on battery.