Internet of Plants: Lighting Controller for Seedlings Built with Arduino IDE for Visual Studio, Adafruit IO, ESP8266 | #IoTuesday
Fun project by Brian Wharton spotted online for controlling the lighting of his plant seedlings via Adafruit.io – interesting that he uses Visual Micro for debugging. You can read more on his blog or see the code here on GitHub.
Here is a quick project that I did to control lighting for our seedlings. I wanted something that could be controlled via MQTT and then managed in Thingsboard. On this initial prototype, I am using Adafruit’s IOT http://io.adafruit.com. It works pretty well, but is limited in some of the features that I want (like scheduling events on a timed basis).
The components of the project are:
NodeMCU ESP8266 module. I am developing in c++
Visual Micro plugin for Visual Studio. Much easier for debugging and features than just the straight Arduino IDE
IOT Relay (See on Amazon): This is an enclosed relay for both AC and DC switching. And it has a simple port that allows you to control from a microcontroller.
Used @adafruit io.adafruit.com for the dashboard to control a NodeMCU ESP8266 microcontroller via MQTT. The goal is to have this controllable via both a dashboard and a timing
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Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
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