Planet Arduino

Christoph Döberl tweaked a motor fader from a mixpanel to use it as an internet-connected light dimmer with lots of IoT magic.

To demonstrate the possibilities and make a cool project, we decided to build a light dimmer with the motor fader. The idea is to read the sensor in the fader and dim a smart light bulb accordingly. When adding multiple input interfaces each fader can be adjusted to represent the correct value by controlling the motor. The resistance sensor allows a stepless control for any brightness level, which comes in handy especially in the evening hours where a dimmed light can be particularly soothing.

An ESP32 is used to read the sensor and interface with the motor. It comes with a bunch of IO pins as well as Bluetooth and WLAN, so basically enough for this small project. The resistance sensor is read using ADC and the motor is controlled via a motor driver.

Check out the entire build on the bits blog.

RAKwireless has made its RUI3 IoT software development platform open-source so that customers or users can implement “nice-to-have” features on top of the features already implemented by the company which could make it even more versatile in a wider range of IoT scenarios. Introduced in 2022, the RAK Unified Interface v3, or RUI3 for shorts, is a modular IoT platform based on the Arduino SDK with additional functions for IoT connectivity and low power that supports a variety of devices and applications. So developers can learn the language, code once, and use the same software on multiple WisBlock core platforms including Nordic Semi nRF52, STM32, ESP32, and Raspberry Pi RP2040 instead of having to juggle between different the Arduino BSP, the ESP-IDF framework, Nordic nRF Connect SDK, or Raspberry Pi C SDK. Users could already use the RUI3 firmware with the RAK3172 (STM32), RAK4630/RAK4631 (nRF52), or RAK11720 (Apollo3) WisBlock Core [...]

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SB Components’ 2×2 Quad Display Board is an MCU development board fitted with either a Raspberry Pi Pico W board or an ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 module used to drive four small color displays in square or round shapes. The board specifically features either four 1.54-inch square TFT displays or four 1.28-inch round displays, a microSD card, an RTC with coin-cell battery holder, and a USB-C port for power and programming, plus a few buttons. It may feel like it’s coming out of the but-why-because-we-can department, but the company expects it to be used for signage, interactive displays, art projects, portable devices, data loggers, education, and more. 2×2 Quad Display Board specifications: Main control (one or the other) Raspberry Pi Pico W MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 133 MHz with 264KB SRAM Storage – 2MB QSPI flash Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5.2 USB – 1x Micro [...]

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The Waveshare ESP32-H2-DEV-KIT-N4-M is a development board based on the ESP32-H2, available for only $6.65 on Aliexpress, but you’ll also find it on Amazon and Waveshare’s official store. This is a significant price drop compared to last year’s official Espressif ESP32-H2-DevKitM-1 board, which was priced at $10 without including shipping costs and with a similar design. In 2021, Espressif Systems introduced the ESP32-H2 to the world. However, it wasn’t until 2023 that they released their first development board. Since then, there haven’t been many products built around this new module. Some exceptions include the Olimex ESP32-H2-DevKit-LiPo, LILYGO T-Panel, and the ESP Thread Border Router/Zigbee Gateway board, all of which feature the ESP32-H2 chip. Waveshare ESP32-H2-DEV-KIT-N4-M specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-H2-MINI-1 MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-H2 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller at up to 96 MHz with 320 KB SRAM, 128 KB ROM, 4 KB LP memory, Bluetooth 5.2 LE/Mesh, and 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread/Matter) radios. [...]

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Brian Dorey documents building a remote controller for three Elgato Key Lights using a low-cost ESP32 WiFi module with push switches and indicator LEDs.

This project is an upgrade to the previous blog post where I created a simple remote-control switch to turn on and off a single WiFi-connected Elgato Key Light.

The lights do not have any buttons for manual control, and you need to either use the Elgato Control Center app on a mobile device or the desktop software to change the settings or turn the lights on and off.

The lights retain their previous light level and colour temperature settings, so a simple controller with three push buttons would be ideal to allow remote control without needing to use the mobile app or start the main PC every time we wanted to use the lights.

A 3D printed case encloses the project electronics. The code is written in Arduino.

The project is documented here and the code is on GitHub.

What’s smaller than a Feather but larger than a Trinket? It’s an Adafruit ItsyBitsy ESP32, a powerful processor PCB with a plethora of pins! It features the ESP32 Pico module, an FCC-certified module that contains an ESP32 chip with dual-core 240MHz Tensilica processor, WiFi, and Bluetooth classic + BLE, configured with 8 MB of Flash memory, and 2 MB of PSRAM.

The Adafruit ItsyBitsy ESP32 guide has everything you need to get started with using this board. There’s pages for overview, pinouts, low power use, CircuitPython with Web Workflow, Arduino, factory reset and resources for download.

Read more at Adafruit ItsyBitsy ESP32

Arduino board clones have been around for many years, but I don’t think I have ever seen clones of the new Renesas-based Arduino boards so far. Waveshare changes that with the R7FA4 PLUS A that clones with Arduino UNO R4 Minima, and the R7FA4 PLUS B board duplicating the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi. The Waveshare boards are not 100% clones with some small differences in the PCB layout, support for 5V and 3.3V shields, an additional 6-pin “power output header” with 5V, 3.3V, and GND signals, and a USB communication jumper to select between the Espressif ESP32-S3 and Renesas RA4M1 microcontrollers. Waveshare R7FA4 PLUS A and B specifications: Microcontroller – Renesas RA4M1 Arm Cortex-M4F MCU @ 48 MHz with 32KB SRAM, 256KB flash Wireless (B model only) – ESP32-S3-MINI-1 module based on ESP32-S3 dual-core Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with 512KB SRAM, 384KB ROM, WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, PCB antenna [...]

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We’ve already covered a range of ESP32-C6 boards, but none supporting Ethernet and PoE so far, and the ESP32-C6-Bug board brings that to the table thanks to the Esp32-Bug-Eth shield with a W5500 Ethernet chip, an RJ45 jack and a PoE power module. Like other ESP32-C6 devices, the little board supports Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth LE 5, as well as Thread and Zigbee through its 802.15.4 radio, but it also integrates some other interesting features such as castellated holes for easy soldering on a carrier board and support for LiPo batteries with built-in battery charging and protection circuits. ESP32-C6-Bug board specifications: SoC – ESP32-C6FH4 MCU cores 32-bit RISC-V core @ 160 MHz 32-bit RISC-V core @ 20 MHz low-power coprocessor can run tasks even when the main system is in deep sleep state Memory – 512 KB SRAM Storage – 4 MB Flash Wireless – WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE 5, and [...]

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Waveshare has recently launched two new ESP32-S3 4G dev boards – the ESP32-S3-SIM7670G-4G and the ESP32-S3-A7670E-4G. These boards support 4G LTE Cat-1, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GNSS, and come with an OV2640 camera, and a battery holder for a 18650 battery. The main difference between the two is that the A7670E module also supports 2G GSM/GPRS/EDGE at 900/1800MHz while the SIM7670G module does not. The board has two rows of I/Os including GPIO, I2C, SPI, ADC, and USB 2.0. It also has a USB-C port for power and programming, a slot for a MicroSD card, and an option to connect an external speaker. There’s a USB switching IC and DIP switch for easily connecting the module to a PC for internet or debugging. Waveshare ESP32-S3 4G Dev Boards Specification: Communication module A7670E 4G – A7670E Cat-1 4G module supporting 4G Cat-1 + 2G networking, GNSS positioning, telephone calls, and SMS. SIM7670G [...]

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Bojan Jurca’s “Esp32_oscilloscope” is an open-source Arduino sketch that can transform an ESP32 board into a web-based oscilloscope that works over WiFi. We had also written about the Scoppy project to turn the Raspberry Pi Pico W into a 2-channel oscilloscope, but there’s no reason the more powerful ESP32-series microcontroller could not be used for the same purpose, and Bojan’s Esp32_oscilloscope project does just that and works with ESP32, ESP32-S2, ESP32-S3 and ESP32-C3 boards using the I2S interface for fast data sampling. The project was initially designed to demonstrate the multitasking abilities of the ESP32 microcontroller with Arduino, but this evolved into an ESP32 oscilloscope firmware. It works both with output/PWM and input signals, digital (0 or 1) and analog (0 to 4095) signals, and the web interface shows up to 736 samples per screen although the sampling rate may not be completely constant all the time. To install it [...]

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