ESP32 Article

ESP32 in Make: Magazin Germany

I wrote an article for the german edition of Make: Magazin (so yes, it's only in german language) about the upcoming ESP32. It's about the differences to its "little brother" ESP8266. I'm also explaning how to install and work with both the Arduino IDE and Eclipse giving some basic programming examples.

Basic electronic setup of ESP32

The ESP32 will be available in August/ September according to Espressif. Looks like we might have to wait for developer boards a few months more.

ESP32 programming examples

Some code examples for the ESP32 (ESP31B) beta developer board from Espressif

ESP31B developer board

I'm currently evaluating the ESP31B developer board (ESP-WROOM-03) I got from Espressif more in depth and began to write some example code for the new chip ESP32,which is due in August/ September according to the chip manufacturer.

You can find the code in my github account here. It's work in progress and I will add more code over time.

I posted some high-resolution photos in this blog entry.

Web dashboard for IKEA Krydda

Firmware sketch for ESP8266 with web dashboard on adafruit.io

Dashboard for my growth system

To monitor your cultivation unit from local/ everywhere I wrote a sketch to both send the actual light intensity values via the serial port and to adafruit.io which is a nice web service for displaying data in the internet (of things).

Currently only the light value is displayed and more sensors will be added in the future.

You can see the actual values of my Krydda system here.
 
More information on how to set up your own dashboard on adafruit.io can be found here

UPDATE 23-5-2016: Added temperature and humidity with the Sensirion SHT21 sensor.

IKEA hydroponics - First sensor for ambient light

Sensor measures light intensity for the plants

Lights sensor BH1750FVI connected to a ESP8266

The first sensor for my IKEA hydroponics project is a ambient light sensor (BH1750FVI) which will measure the light intensity on the plant bed in both the seed and cultivation unit. It is currently connected to an ESP8266 - a DIY-friendly and hacker-famous microcontroller with WiFi on board. I wrote a library for the light sensor which works with both Arduinos and ESP8266. You can find it here.

Germinated seeds in cultivation unit

The example sketch in the repository currently measures only the actual value of the ambient light. In future versions this sensor will be responsible deciding if and how long the IKEA LEDs have to be switched on depending on the overall light which fell on the plants. There will also be an uplink to a web-service (like Thingspeak or adafruit.io) where all the values are monitored in real time on a nice looking dashboard and will be accessible from everywhere.

In the meantime the seeds that germinated changed their habitat to the cultivation unit.

 

Project to control IKEA hydroponics Krydda/ Växer

I'm starting a new project with the brand new indoor gardening system from IKEA which is named "Krydda"/ "Växer".

This is a picture of the initial seed:

Initial seed day 0

Planned items are to control and optimize growth with a microcontroller/ embedded system and sensors (light, humidity, temperature, CO2, water level etc.) utilizing automated lighting and water refill with the new IKEA Krydda/ Växer system.

You can follow the project here and at my github repo

Update: ESP8266 Breadboard Adapter Board

I designed a single-sided ESP-12/ ESP-07 breadboard adapter PCB which will be easy to etch and solder for anyone who loves to play with the ESP8266 on a breadboard like me. 

There are different designs of the breadboard adapter:

• ESP-07/ ESP-12 (single sided, github)
• ESP-12F (from Michał Lisak, two layer, github)

There is also a nice 3D-printed socket from Moritz in his github account to easily program (lots) of ESPs without the need to solder them at all.

Features are:

• Fits ESP-12 and ESP-07 module
• Single-sided self-etchable design
• Few, cheap parts in SMD
• Breadboard-style - one row on each side accessible
• Vin >4.8V (max. 12V) input possible with 3V3 onboard voltage regulator (with two capacitors 10µF)
• RST, CH_PD, GPIO0 with 4k7 pull-up resistors on board (resistors can be omitted if remote access of those GPIOs is needed)
• GPIO15 with 4k7 pull-down (see above)
• Tactile switch connected to GPIO0 to get into flash mode
• Reset switch
• Solder bridges for DTR, RTS lines to enable automatic flashing without having to press buttons

Parts needed:

• ESP8266-12/ -07 module
• 1x Voltage Regulator (e.g, AMS1117-3.3V, 800mA)

  

  Kit

• 2x 10µF SMD ceramic capacitors
• 4x 4.7k SMD Ohm resistors
• 2 1k SMD Ohm resistor
• 2x 4*4mm SMD tactile switch
•  2x 1*8 pin header (pitch 2.54mm)
• 12MHz crystal
• 2x 22pF capacitors
• Micro USB connector
• 100nF capacitor
• CH340G USB to serial IC

Remember to put three jumper wires on the bottom side as this is only single sided. See Eagle files for connections.

ESP32 beta breakout board

Breakout board for the new ESP32 beta module

Just a little addition to the previous post. I made some photos of the breakout board which was accompanied with the ESP32 beta module. Quite interesting is the thermal pad which is connected to ground. This might be important to solder to the beta module if you clock the chip higher than the standard 80MHz.

Breakout board top pcb

Breakout board bottom pcb

ESP32 beta module HiRes pictures

ESP32 beta test module

 

I'm glad to be one out of the 200 beta testers for the new Espressif ESP32-chip (it's labeled ESP31B, the obvious name for the beta-ESP32?), which is brand new and adds some functions like Bluetooth (Low Energy) and a second core to the cheap-and-easy ESP8266.

Before soldering the module I took some photos with my Micro Nikkor 105mm/2.8f and stitched them together with Microsoft ICE. This results in photos of about 4400x3100 pixels, which means a quite big download if you click on the preview pictures.

If you want to have a look what I'm currently developing for a new smart home platform using the ESP8266 you can find more info here (CO2 sensor module) and here (Experimental Platform) which is currently in alpha testing.

Concerning the ESP32 Hackaday has a nice news flow and Limor "Ladyada" Fried from Adafruit made a detailed video on the new beta module.

If you are a german reader then you can read my article on the ESP8266 in the current edition of the german Make: magazine (10 pages).

So enjoy the the new module and stay tuned for more news.

Click here for the HiRes pictures: top (~7MB), bottom (~10MB).

ESP32 beta test module top

ESP32 beta test module bottom

ESP8266 breadboard adapter board

This is an old design of the breadboard adapter. Please look at this blog post for the recent design.

I designed a single-sided ESP-12/ ESP-07 breadboard adapter PCB which will be easy to etch and solder for anyone who loves to play with the ESP8266 on a breadboard like me.

Eagle files are in my github repo

Features are:

* Fits ESP-12 and ESP-07 module
* Single-sided self-etchable design
* Few, cheap parts in SMD
* Breadboard-style - one row on each side accessible
* Vin >4.5V (max. 7V) input possible with 3V3 onboard voltage regulator (with two capacitors 10µF)
* Power-indicator LED
* (Schottky-) Diode as reverse polarity input protection possible (solder 0 Ohm resistor or just connect the two pads for no protection)
* RST, CH_PD, GPIO0 with 4k7 pull-up resistors on board (resistors can be omitted if remote access of those GPIOs is needed)
* GPIO15 with 4k7 pull-down (see above)
* Tactile switch connected to GPIO0 to get into flash mode
* Single post for 3.3V output near voltage regulator

Parts needed:

• 1x Voltage Regulator (e.g, AMS1117-3.3V, 800mA)
• 2x 10µF SMD ceramic capacitors
• 4x 4.7k SMD Ohm resistors
• 1x 330 SMD Ohm resistor
• 1x SMD-LED (1006)
• 1x 4*4mm SMD tactile switch
•  2x 1*8 pin header (pitch 2.54mm)
• optional: 1x Schottky-diode SMD

This is the actual revision 1.0 - improved for:

* Antenna part now protruding the PCB (no traces below antenna)
* Wider traces
* Schottky diode for reverse polarity protection
* 2x 10µF ceramic caps for input/ output of AMS1117
* Single post for 3.3V Output near voltage regulator

ESP8266 - inexpensive IoT

Presentation ESP8266 - Basics and programming examples

On February 2 I had a short presentation at the Makerspace Attraktor in Hamburg on how to use and program the new chinese IoT-IC ESP8266.

The space was quite crowed with more than 40 listeners interested in the new and very inexpensive module with a great range of programming possibilites.

You can find the presentation (pdf in german) here


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