Mechatronics product design

NodeMCU with mosquito repellent- Part I

2020-08-16T04:26:00.001-07:00

How many times you forgot to switch off mosquito repellent? common house mosquito is most likely to bite during the evening or the first few hours of the night. so other times it is just on and wasting most of the power. Hence I thought of enabling conventional repellent to Alexa connected device hence, you can manage on and off time without you wasting your time on the device. Make sense right !!!.

Before we convert to IoT device, Let's start with product teardown and understand the technology behind this. I got repellant from Godrej Goodknight Power. It has a unique feature called active mode and normal mode. that took me more attention to start teardown with. here is the teardown picture for your reference.

Electronics contain one heating element enclosed in a ceramic block and PCB circuit to make normal mode and active mode with the toggle button.

Interesting parts come on the backside of the ceramic heater. The main module heater has two individual heaters which increase the temperature when you toggle to active mode.

In normal mode, only one heater is an active and inactive mode both heaters are working. below is the schematic of the device to understand in detail.

From the above image, if you see all time one heater is connected to the main supply with a green LED connection. once you toggle the button to active mode another heater starts heating and led converts to orange color.

Now to make this device IOT enabled we need two relay connections, One is to turn on the device in normal mode and other to relay to enable active mode. I will cover these in the upcoming next topic.

Interface Rhino with Arduino

2020-07-26T04:00:00.001-07:00

This is my first post on Arduino with a grasshopper. It has many exciting features that can be used by the design community. As a designer, we use rhino to generate most of the CAD surface. Adding physical interface could take that to one step hight. Eg, You can design a hand grip by interfacing multiple force sensors on the object and grasshopper can create 3D cushion design based on the force applied. (It is work in progress I will share in a while). To begin with the interface of Arduino with rhino, first, we need Rhino > Grasshopper > Firefly > Arduino.

The ingredient you need during this tutorial

1) Rhino with grasshopper and firefly installed.

You can download a firefly from its website with all details. including examples.

http://fireflyexperiments.com/

2) Arduino Uno/ Nano

3) interface LEDs/ resistance / breadboard.

To start with,

Prepare Arduino to talk with a grasshopper.

A folder that you download from the firefly website will have Arduino file name, Firefly_Firmata in the Arduino Code folder. copy in your Arduino IDE and upload it to hardware.

Now Open Rhino and grasshopper.

Now click on the port and open option from toolbar.

Now connect port > open port function which will connect with firefly for further processing.

In last it should show the above message to success full connection.

Now we can put other information to pass to Arduino

First, we will try the output function.

It will blink LED with ON time 44ms(Random number) and off-time 1000ms, You can generate certain patterns with the help of more timing blocks. This will reflect on the Arduino LED as well.

For Input to a grasshopper.

You will need,

1) Any distance sensor (I'm going to use ultrasonic sensor)

2) LED for output indication,

Connections,

Trigger > D9

Echo > D10

Vcc > 5V

Grd > Grd

In such case, I'm going to do all processing in Arduino to convert ultrasonic range to cm distance. put this data on serial bus to read in grasshopper.

Upload Ultrasonic range finding Code in Arduino with serail out as below.

// defines pins numbers

const int trigPin = 9;

const int echoPin = 10;

// defines variables

long duration;

int distance;

void setup() {

pinMode(trigPin, OUTPUT); // Sets the trigPin as an Output

pinMode(echoPin, INPUT); // Sets the echoPin as an Input

Serial.begin(115200); // Starts the serial communication

}

void loop() {

// Clears the trigPin

digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);

delayMicroseconds(2);

// Sets the trigPin on HIGH state for 10 micro seconds

digitalWrite(trigPin, HIGH);

delayMicroseconds(10);

digitalWrite(trigPin, LOW);

// Reads the echoPin, returns the sound wave travel time in microseconds

duration = pulseIn(echoPin, HIGH);

// Calculating the distance

distance= duration*0.034/2;

// Prints the distance on the Serial Monitor

//Serial.print("Distance: "); // remove this line to avoid multiple data in grasshopper feed.

Serial.println(distance);

}

Now open grasshopper and do connection as below.

This will read all serial data and put in your data points to process forward.

Build a Low-cost NAS Server with Orange-pi

2020-07-18T08:54:00.001-07:00

All the time when I need data exchange with a computer, I get lost to find the hard disk and then. The hard drive is essential now days considering the size of data, we each carry. Also, this supposed to be available on fingertip all time. Hard drive carrying every day was not an option for me, hence tried to find some solution. This solution was chipper than expected and extremely easy to make.

Basic Feature,

Connecting storage device accessible with Wifi.
Samba server setup.

Basics you need to know,

Armbian enabled Orange pi zero. https://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-zero/
Hands-on with Armbian (Beginner level)
Assign a static private IP address to Orange-Pi

Hardware design:

OrangePI zero with Armbian
USB drive (64-128GB)

Update device with the latest configuration,

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Install the samba server.

sudo apt-get install samba samba-common-bin

Setup NTFS.
Please note, please format your drive with NTFS setting before connecting to OrangePI.

sudo apt-get install ntfs-3g

Now let's find Harddisk UUID in OrangePI.

sudo blkid

Please copy UUID for further configuration.

Mount Hard drive.

sudo nano -Bw /etc/fstab

Copy your hard drive UUID and replace it below. If you don’t find the below-line you can copy and paste as well with update UUID number.

UUID=AE1863BF18638565 /mnt/USB1 auto defaults,user,nofail 0 2

Now set up Samba server with mounted Hard disk.

sudo nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

It will open the file and scroll to the bottom of the page and add the below lines.

Note: as we made this drive public we don’t need any login before access.

“
[ODrive]
comment = ODrive
public = yes
writeable = yes
browsable = yes
path = /mnt/USB1/
create mask = 0777
directory mask = 0777
guest ok = yes
only guest = no
“

Now you are Done on the OrangPI side.

Now on the computer side to for easy access.

Goto Run window, By right-clicking on the start button. And put your OrangePI IP address and open.

It should show the ODrive folder. (name what we have written at Comment line in Samba configuration file)

Now right-click on the folder and select Map network drive.

It will become part of your storage folder,

Thank you and enjoy, Please follow and put comments.

Node-RED and MQTT to control NeoPixle

2019-06-30T04:43:00.001-07:00

“Message Queuing Telemetry Transport” sound complicated, but I’m sure most of as recognized this as a MQTT for intercommunicating (publish and subscribe based massaging) protocol. Here Im going to have small project to make communication with raspberry pi-based dashboard and ESP8266 as subscriber.

It is also possible with ESP8266 with ESP8266 module. In this tutorial I’m going to use raspberry pi with nodered to control NeoPixle leds which is mounted in my ceiling.

Basic Feature,

1) Interface of 7inch touchscreen with RaspberryPi

2) Node Red dashboard

3) ESP8266 with NeoPixle with MQTT.

Basics you need to know,

1) Raspberry pi

2) 7inch Touch screen (optional)

3) ESP8266

4) NeoPixle LED strip

5) Power supply

Hardware design:

Basic connection with NodeMCU.

1) Connect data pin of NeoPixle to D5 of NodeMCU

2) Updated Raspberry pi with node red installed.

MQTT Transmitter

MQTT Receiver

Code for NodeMCU:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>

#include <PubSubClient.h>

#include <Adafruit_NeoPixel.h>

#ifdef __AVR__

#include <avr/power.h>

#endif

#define PIN 5 // Data pin of NeoPixle LED

const char* ssid = "*******"; // wifi ssid

const char* password = "*******"; // wifi password

const char* mqttServer = "*********"; // IP adress Raspberry Pi

const int mqttPort = 1883; // MQTT port number

const char* mqttUser = "********"; // if you don't have MQTT Username, do not define

const char* mqttPassword = "*******"; // if you don't have MQTT Password, do not defin

String messageTemp;

int red, green, blue;

Adafruit_NeoPixel strip = Adafruit_NeoPixel(400, PIN, NEO_GRB + NEO_KHZ800);

WiFiClient espClient;

PubSubClient client(espClient);

void setup() {

#if defined (__AVR_ATtiny85__)

if (F_CPU == 16000000) clock_prescale_set(clock_div_1);

#endif

strip.begin();

strip.setBrightness(255);

strip.show(); // Initialize all pixels to 'off'

Serial.begin(115200);

WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {

delay(500);

Serial.println("Connecting to WiFi..");

}

Serial.println("Connected to the WiFi network");

client.setServer(mqttServer, mqttPort);

client.setCallback(callback);

while (!client.connected()) {

Serial.println("Connecting to MQTT...");

if (client.connect("ESP8266Client", mqttUser, mqttPassword )) {

Serial.println("connected");

} else {

Serial.print("failed with state ");

Serial.print(client.state());

delay(2000);

}

void callback(char* topic, byte* payload, unsigned int length) {

for (int i = 0; i < length; i++) {

messageTemp += (char)payload[i];

}

red = messageTemp.substring(messageTemp.indexOf('(')+1 ,messageTemp.indexOf(',')).toInt();

Serial.println(red);

blue = messageTemp.substring(messageTemp.indexOf(',')+1,messageTemp.lastIndexOf(',')).toInt();

Serial.println(green);

green = messageTemp.substring(messageTemp.lastIndexOf(',')+1).toInt();

Serial.println(blue);

for(int i=0;i<400;i++)

{

strip.setPixelColor(i,red,green,blue);

strip.show();

delay(5);

}

messageTemp = "";

}

void loop() {

client.subscribe("esp8266_NEO");

delay(5);

client.loop();

}

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Final setup video.

Virtual Piano with Kinect and processing

2019-05-24T23:50:00.000-07:00

Product video link

this was an first hands-on experience with kinect V2 sensor and image processing. after having software in place. This was a first example i tried to put online.

Idea was to make any surface as a midi controller or trigger point (Input). So before we start in the details and coding, lets give you some idea regarding the kinect sensor.

Kinect V2 sensor is an depth sensor made for xbox. They have launched a first version with Xbox 360 and later stage it got up-gradation for Xbox one (second version). This device is made in the combination of RGB camera, depth sensor and Array of microphone integrated in single device. These combination enables the device to do full-body 3D motion capture, facial recognition and voice recognition capabilities.

Please check video for more details and sensor capabilities with Xbox.

This device can do more then what you seen above. It enable the developers to make new way of interaction with virtual/Physical world. Microsoft community provides an support to the developer to make new interaction with possible sensor capabilities. You can find capabilities of the new sensor here in this video covered by WIRED team.

It can track up to six people, including two active players for motion analysis with a supporting data of 20 joints per player. However, Manufacturer has stated that the number of people the device can track is only limited by how many will fit in the field-of-view of the camera.

There are many successful commercial made by people around the globe, i like personally a below one. It was made by V-energy team with full HD projection in the parking area.(Kudos to development team)

Before you jump in to the software and coding parts, You need to make sure your system is compatible with kinect V2 sensor requirements. It also required window adapter to convert kinect connector to the normal USB 3.0 connection. As new Kinect v2 sensor comes with different(never seen before) connector which i haven't seen before.

Quick start to kinect v2 sensor for the beginners,

kinect v2 sensor works with SDK 2.0, it does not work with older SDK 1.X. For the new comers, SDK is provided by the Microsoft team to the developer community to enable with basic kinect coding capabilities.

To start with you need,

1) Kinect v2 with external power source.

A kinect V2 sensor does not come with power adapter, source it separately.

2) Window 8/10 computer with kinect SDK v2.0.

3) Dedicated computer with USB 3.0 and window 8 or 10, It does not work with USB 2.0.

4) Programming environment visual studio or Processing 3.0 (in this case)

To start with

Install processing 3.0+ version and also download SDK 2.0. You need to install processing library to make this work with processing environment. So it would enable processing with same SDK capabilities. You can download ThomasLengeling library, trust me it works fine.

download this library in to the processing library folder located in the "My document" folder.

check you computer with kinect first before you star with processing,

You can check your computer compatibility after installing SDK2.0

It should be green in all section.

In my case it shows error with USB controller,

but works fine with processing, so you can ignore this error.

You can start with examples provided by the Microsoft,

Now you are good to go with processing.

More details from the Microsoft

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn188670.aspx

Raspberry pi and openCV

2018-08-05T09:52:00.003-07:00

In this tutorial we are going to learn face detection with help of Raspberry PI and with PI camera. Before concluding on the OpenCV platform, I also tried Processing 3.0 for face detection but processing software required more processing power compare to OpenCV and it was creating lag in frames compare to OpenCV on PI platform.

This tutorial im going to show a step by step process to work with OpenCV for beginner.

Hardware you would need to execute this project,

1) Raspberry pi development board with OpenCv installed

a. Im using RPI 3B+ with raspbian

b. 32GB SD card

c. Python 3.0 with OpenCV

If you don’t have OpenCV in RPI, please refer below link for download.

https://www.pyimagesearch.com/2015/07/27/installing-opencv-3-0-for-both-python-2-7-and-python-3-on-your-raspberry-pi-2/

2) Raspberry pi camera module.

3) Power supply (5V 2A Power bank would work)

Install Raspbian image in the RPI:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/documentation/installation/installing-images/

Install and enable camera in RPI:

https://thepihut.com/blogs/raspberry-pi-tutorials/16021420-how-to-install-use-the-raspberry-pi-camera

After installing camera please try this code below.

raspistill -o image.jpg

It will capture image and store in name of image.jpg in your local directory, it means camera configuration is inline with our requirements.

OpenCV with python 3.0 check,

Navigate to OpenCV samples directory in your PI

/home/pi/opencv-3.3.0/samples/python

You will see below listed examples ready to run,

Open video.py code and execute in terminal

You will see this below image,

Now everything is working well to move forward,

Lets start with simple video capture CODE in openCV platform.

Open Python 3 (IDLE)

Write “import cv2” It will enable use of open CV module in python shell.

Now go to home/pi directory and make new empty file as name of videocapture(No space in between) for simple video capture program. Do not forget to put .py extension behind file name to make it python executable file.

Copy below code inside file and save, now code in thonny python IDE, If that does not work then you can go to program menu and redirect file in the thonny python IDE.

It is simple video capture code in python with OpenCV, this code just capture video from camera module and show in screen.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

import cv2

cap = cv2.VideoCapture(0)

while(True):

ret, img = cap.read()

cv2.imshow('frame',img)

if cv2.waitKey(1) & 0xFF == ord('q'):

break

cap.release()

cv2.destroyAllWindows()

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now everything is set to move to face detection code. We are going to use haarcascades library for face detection which might be already installed with your open CV program.

To locate files, go to opencv-3.3.0/data/haarcascades. You will see below list of xml files in folder.

Now again make new file in name of facedetection.py at home/pi directory.

open file in thonny python IDE and copy below code to make face detection code work.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

import cv2

cap = cv2.VideoCapture(0)

detector= cv2.CascadeClassifier('/home/pi/opencv-3.3.0/data/haarcascades/haarcascade_frontalface_default.xml')

while(True):

ret, img = cap.read()

gray = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)

faces = detector.detectMultiScale(gray, 1.3, 5)

for (x,y,w,h) in faces:

cv2.rectangle(img,(x,y),(x+w,y+h),(255,255,255),)

cv2.imshow('frame',img)

if cv2.waitKey(1) & 0xFF == ord('q'):

break

cap.release()

cv2.destroyAllWindows()

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Run code, You will see a square box around the face.

Thank you for your support,
Please follow us for further updates.

NodeMCU with SD card and moisture sensor.

2018-07-22T04:18:00.004-07:00

This is simple project using a NODEMCU and a couple of sensors. It is extension of my previous project where, I observed internet connection issues and moisture sensor electrode damage after some time. This time we will connect a SD CARD shield to log moisture data and battery status with customer made moisture sensor electrode. The data will be saved as a csv file, this means you can quite easily open in Microsoft Excel without any conversion.

Basic Feature,

1) Integration of the SD card module to store data

2) Upgraded electrode with stainless steel material. (custom made)

Basics you need to know,

1) NodeMCU with Arduino IDE

2) Hardware

a Moisture sensor

b Battery

c Breadboard

3) SD card module

Hardware design:

Basic connection with NodeMCU.

1) Connect reset pin with D0, It will reset NodMCU after deepsleep timer.

2) Analog reading connection with A0 pin in NODEMCU.

Code:

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#include <SPI.h>

#include <SD.h>

#include <EEPROM.h>

const int chipSelect = D8;

const int analogInPin = A0;

File myFile;

int i;

const int sleepTimeS = 600; // Deep sleep time 10 minutes 60*10

int address = 120; // EEPROM stored data location it can be inbetween 0-511

byte value;

void setup()

{

// Open serial communications and wait for port to open:

Serial.begin(9600);

Serial.print("Initializing SD card...");

EEPROM.begin(512);

i = EEPROM.read(address);

if (!SD.begin(chipSelect))

{

Serial.println("initialization failed!");

return;

}

Serial.println("initialization done.");

}

void loop()

{

delay(000);

myFile = SD.open("blogger.csv", FILE_WRITE);

float h = analogRead(analogInPin);

if (isnan(h))

{

Serial.println("Failed to read from sensor!");

return;

}

// if the file opened okay, write to it:

if (myFile)

{

Serial.print("opened csv file...");

myFile.print(i);

myFile.print(",");

myFile.println(h);

// close the file:

myFile.close();

i=i+1; // To conunt total number of data and reset inbetween

EEPROM.write(address, i);

EEPROM.commit();

Serial.println("closed csv file");

Serial.println(h);

Serial.println(i);

}

else

{

// if the file didn't open, print an error:

Serial.println("error opening csv file ");

}

ESP.deepSleep(sleepTimeS * 1000000);

}

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Final setup

SD card data imported in excel sheet with graph for further analysis.

IOT - NodeMCU/ESP8266 with Amazon Alexa (RoomFreshener)

2018-05-06T01:37:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial we are going integrate NodeMCU and make Aroma Oil burner, control by Amazon Alexa.

If you own Aroma oil burner with candle, you may understand the system complexity. To make system work you need to burn candle (In which lighting up candle and cleaning after use) inside pot and candle is not controllable, particularly when you need very light aroma full days and stop when you’re not in-side house. That was a reason to bit of smartness to cater my everyday problem. In this tutorial im going to upgrade conventional oil burner to electronics oil burner and add IOT with help of NodeMCU to control and active by Voice command (Thanks to Amazon Alexa and ESP team).

Ingredient you need during this tutorial

1) NodeMCU with Arduino IDE.

2) Basic Hardware

a. Bread board

b. Nichrome wire (Heating element)

You can buy online or get from non-functional Hair dryer.

c. N-Channel MOSFET (TIP142 Or similar)

Gate/Base operating/Fire voltage in-line with NodeMCU 3.3 V

d. Yellow LED.

To generate Candle light effect inside ceramic POT

3) Amazon Alexa

4) Aroma Oil burner with extra oil

To Start with,

before starting the project, I need to test current product temperature to defuse oil. Once I get things on place I started looking for alternate technology which can help me to replace candle.

One of the conventional technology which I came across was nichrome wire. It is an old technology which was used in hairdryer/Iron/solder iron to convert electric energy in to heat. It is available as separate piece of wire in local market/ Amazon.

Connect 1 inch of nichrome wire in-between positive and negative wire of 5V 2A DC power source. (Please connect nichrome wire in power off conditions) Due to internal resistance and material structure it will get red-hot and doesn’t melt (Under certain voltage). So, once it is gets red hot in ambient temperature @ 5V, cut wire at red hot length and now we can start integrating this assembly with ceramic pot.

Make two holes on top side of pot and pass positive wire and negative wire from individual holes. Fill up the holes from industrial adhesive to make it permanent fit and water tight so oil could not get out.

In light-off condition You will see it is red hot in open AIR condition, So once you pore oil it cavity. It will start heating up aroma oil. In below picture you see nichrome wire in red-hot condition.

Once it is done, we can start on hardware integration

Schematics and connection,

Q1 = 2N2222
Q2 = TIP142 transistor (It is high power transistor to control Nichrom voltage.)

You can start this with breadboard, once everything is on place try to convert to general purpose board or PCB. In the final product i'm using smaller size of PCB which i can put inside a pot and connect with 5V adapter from the back side.

Arduino Code.

#include <Arduino.h>
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include "fauxmoESP.h" //required fauxmoESP library in arduino.
// Basic tutorial/library available at https://bitbucket.org/xoseperez/fauxmoesp

#define WIFI_SSID " WIFI SSID " //Please update
#define WIFI_PASS " WIFI PSW " // Please update
#define SERIAL_BAUDRATE 115200

fauxmoESP fauxmo;
const int numReadings = 10;
int readings[numReadings]; // the readings from the analog input
int readIndex = 0; // the index of the current reading
int total = 0; // the running total
int average = 0; // the average
int livewire = D2; // Nichrom wire connection
int inputPin = D1; // Yellow LED connection.
int light = 0;
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
// Wifi
// -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

void wifiSetup() {

// Set WIFI module to STA mode
WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);

// Connect
Serial.printf("[WIFI] Connecting to %s ", WIFI_SSID);
WiFi.begin(WIFI_SSID, WIFI_PASS);

// Wait
while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
Serial.print(".");
delay(100);
}
Serial.println();

// Connected!
Serial.printf("[WIFI] STATION Mode, SSID: %s, IP address: %s\n", WiFi.SSID().c_str(), WiFi.localIP().toString().c_str());
}

void callback(uint8_t device_id, const char * device_name, bool state) {
Serial.print("Device "); Serial.print(device_name);
Serial.print(" state: ");
if (state) {
Serial.println("ON");
light = 1;

// subtract the last reading:

} else {
Serial.println("OFF");
digitalWrite(livewire, LOW);
analogWrite(inputPin, 0);

light = 0;
}
}

void setup() {
Serial.begin(SERIAL_BAUDRATE);
Serial.println("FauxMo demo sketch- updated");

wifiSetup();

fauxmo.addDevice("RoomFreshener"); // device name/ Phrase you want to call to alexa

fauxmo.onMessage(callback);
pinMode(livewire, OUTPUT);

}
void loop() {
if (light == 1)
{ total = total - readings[readIndex];
readings[readIndex] = random(255);
total = total + readings[readIndex];
readIndex = readIndex + 1;
fauxmo.handle();

if (readIndex >= numReadings) {
readIndex = 0;
}
average = total / numReadings;
analogWrite(inputPin, average);
digitalWrite(livewire, HIGH);
delay(1);
}

else
{
fauxmo.handle();
}

}

Working video.

Xbee (S2C) serial communication

2018-04-01T03:01:00.000-07:00

Xbee devices allow you to enable wireless connectivity to your projects creating a network of connected devices. As WIFI, BLE communication protocol…Xbee is different type of communication protocol from RF category, it is industrial certified protocol to give convenience of internal communication with high security. There are many products in market developed around xbee, in industry it was been used to connect multiple machines as called Machine 2 machine (M2M) communication and now it is being adopted in consumer market as a IOT device. Some of the live example, Philips hue light with hub, Samsung smart device and many more. Considering the current market requirements companies have launched multiple upgraded products with inbuilt, Analog lines, digital lines, UART, serial, memory, antenna, sleep mode etc.

Here I’m going to use two xbee S2C module for internal serial communication with help of XCTU software.

You can download software from below link,

https://www.digi.com/products/xbee-rf-solutions/xctu-software/xctu

Network types.

Co-ordinator:

It is Master of network and required in every network. (Never go to sleep mode)

Router:

It is intermediator, it could be multiple of them in single network with capabilities of internal

communication. (Never go to sleep mode)

End-point:

End device, may exist multiple of them in network, it can go to sleep mode and ideal for battery operated device.

Command mode:

AT: It sends a command thru xbee with AT command mode Like GSM/GPS module. It is called transparent mode.

API (Application Programming Interface): It can send a command and receive command from xbee itself with set of binary protocol. Each of these frames starts with the 0x7E byte to indicate the start of the frame and contains a frame length, a checksum, a frame type, and extra type-specific data.

To start with XCTU software, Added xbee click on left top corner of XCTU software to add device in it.

Make sure you have connect xbee with computer first.

Click on update firmware for available updates

Select latest firmware and update Xbee first

Once you set with update computer code, we need one Xbee as co-ordinator and other as router to make inter communication.

For co-ordinator, you need to change three elements,

In network setting column,

1) ID Pan ID: Set/Read the ZigBee extended PAN ID

This can be any number but need to be same for all the devices to communicate in same network.

2) CE Co-ordinator enable

Set/read if this device is a coordinator (1) or not (0)

Addressing setting,

Please write destination Xbee address to define link between two of them.

1) DH Destination Address High:

It is known xbee address number written in SH format.

2) DL Destination Address Low:

it is known xbee address number written in SL format.

3) NI Node identifier

It could be any name to identify Xbee, in my case I mentioned as co-ordinator.

rest remains same in default mode.

Serial interfacing,

1) BD Baud rate:

Make sure you xbee talks in same speed by keeping baud rate same for all.

2) AP API Enable:

By changing this column, we can set xbee for API mode and AT mode, for serial communication you keep this in AT mode. (transparent mode)

Repeat same for Router by changing these values,

If process is done and Xbee sets properly, you will see R and C logo on Xbees. That is indication of Both Xbee are set for inter communication.

Now you are set for communication,

First open terminal window by clicking desktop icon on left top and connect device for communication.

Now write in any console log and you can check data is been transfer to other xbee device, Blue is sending code colour and red is received code colour.

Now connect Rx, Tx line of xbee to Tx, Rx line of Arduino for inter communication.

Control multiple NodeMCU with App-inventor application.

2018-02-18T00:25:00.002-08:00

In this tutorial we are going to learn integration of Wi-Fi enabled devices with custom designed android application.

Thanks to "App inventor" developed by MIT.

This online application will enable us to make custom DIY app without having in-depth knowledge of complex coding. This application supports only android environment and not IOS. IOS operator would not be able to take an advantage of this tutorial.

Basic feature,

1) Control multiple WIFI device/Plug with single application thru IP address.

2) Development of Android application and customization as needed.

3) In current setup we have ESP-8266 as wifi receiver and control LED. LED could be replaced with relay module to control any high voltage device.

4) Memory storage in APP to save previous device IP address.

Basics you need to know,

1) ESP8266 integration with Arduino IDE.

2) Android mobile phone with QR code scanner for ease file transfer.

(QR code scanner will save time during app transfer, from App inventor server to mobile phone)

Rest of the things we will discuss here.

To start with App inventor by MIT,

It works online, so no need to download any software or application in your computer.

Website: http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/

Some basic tutorial video : http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ai2/beginner-videos.html

Above link will guide you to cover page

As below, click “Create Apps” on right side of page.

Click on "start new project"

Project name is "Wifi8266"

In above screen, Left side you will see all features/control panel which you may need in mobile application design, Center you see mobile phone scree, right side it shows overall tree of the application and properties of selected component.

You can simply pick and place left side component in center of mobile screen(virtual). It might be complicated to arrange all component in screen on a go, so i would suggest to make basic layout on paper before starting application part. It will clear your clutter and gives good hierarchy in first stage itself.

Note: Do not forget to start with layout boxes, it will build all components in a structure. In final application it will not be visible. Attached image for your reference. left side image shows all layout boxes around button but right side image you will see only internal part of it.

We will start with basic layout setup and then can add more feature as required.

To make above app interface,

1) Add vertical component in a screen to make a device and ON/OFF feature in single box.

2) Add horizontal arrangement in bottom section of box to divide it further in two compartments. These two boxes we will use for ON and OFF button location.

3) In a top section there are hidden boxes like, Add IP address (IPadd), OK button below device 1 (setip) name, it will open only at time of pressing device 1 button. (Please refer right side tree for more details)

4) Add web interface feature, It will enable a application to ping specific IP address.

(This is hidden component works on back ground)

5) Add storage feature to store data when application is off.

After finishing front-end interface, let’s work on internal connect part of it. It will be done with help of application blocks which need to put to-gather to execute specific task.

For block window, Presse “block“ button on right for block window

video tutorial,

In block window, left side you will see all click specific feature. Select any button name (IPadd / OK / setip etc) and application will open related feature list. You can adding multiple blocks inside loop block to execute multiple task at a time.

1) Add screen initialization feature, in this task you shall specify functions you want to execute at time of starting app. In current app I want to change visibility of some buttons and get access of previous data which user has added. (I’m keeping memory of last IP address, So until user change the IP address app will keep last data in memory.)

2) Take IP address as input from the user (during first time execution of app)

Note : App will only work, if both (Mobile and ESP8266) device are connected under same network.

3) Configure OK button to get IP address input for further processing.

Till now, your app is ready for basic connection and getting IP address from user in application.

4) Configure ON/OFF button to send specific request on web during the execution.

Video tutorial for single switch,

All to-gather for two switch.

Once user adds IP address and store inside app both ON and OFF function sends specific phrase with provided IP address, On the ESP side it will compare that phrase and execute predefined task.

Export application to mobile phone,

Ready to install Android Application

In our case,

http:// 120.120.130.1 / LED= ON: to change LED status to ON

http:// 120.120.130.1 / LED= OFF: to change LED status to OFF.

Also, each ESP8266 module will have their unique IP address, so it will never cross talk.

On ESP8266 side,

Hardware you needed,

1) Two- ESP8266 Module

2) LED with 100E resistor

3) Connecting wire

4) Bread board and other supporting hardware

Electronics Connection.

Arduino Code for both ESP8266 module:

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>

const char* ssid = "WIFI network"; // Your network details

const char* password = "WIFI password"; // Your network details

int LED = 5; // led connected to D0

WiFiServer server(80);

IPAddress ip(192, 185, 45, 80); // Static IP address of device

//please change last two digit for second ESP module

IPAddress gateway(192,185,45,1); // gateway of your network

IPAddress subnet(255,255,255,0); // subnet mask of your network

void setup()

{

pinMode(LED, OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(LED, LOW);

WiFi.config(ip, gateway, subnet);

WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED)

{

delay(500);

}

server.begin(); //Server started

}

void loop()

{

WiFiClient client = server.available();

if (!client)

{

return;

}

while(!client.available())

{

delay(1);

}

String request = client.readStringUntil('\r');

client.flush();

int value = LOW;

if (request.indexOf("/LED=ON") != -1)

{

digitalWrite(LED, HIGH);

value = HIGH;

}

if (request.indexOf("/LED=OFF") != -1)

{

digitalWrite(LED, LOW);

value = LOW;

}

delay(1);

}

//Code end

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Internet speed test with NodeMCU

2017-12-02T11:12:00.002-08:00

In world of IOT, it is mandatory to have good internet connection(all the time). Due to limited understanding of the internet technology. we end-up increasing bandwidth of the internet to every internet speed related problems. Did this solve your issues? I think, No. Because internet speed does not always dictate by bandwidth.

There are two terminologies used for good quality of internet, one is Bandwidth and other is latency. Most of the peoples are aware of the bandwidth, but not latency. As per my understanding you need less latency(less) with good bandwidth(higher) for quality experience. This you can compare with your water pipe diameter and length. A diameter of the water pipe is your bandwidth and length of the water pipe is your latency. So, no matter How big is your bandwidth(diameter) but if length(latency) is higher you may face glitches in your connection. It may be specific to site also.

Wiki definition of the bandwidth is, the amount of data that can be transferred from one point to other in seconds. which measured in "MB/second", but latency is the time that a data packet takes to travel from one point to another which measured in "delay".

Hope we have better understanding now, A bandwidth you can check online and latency you can measure with help of ping command in you command line.

In above screenshot, I pinged google four time and measured mean time in milliseconds. In bottom-line it shows mean values of all four pings.

It is time consuming process to measure latency with help of computer and command line, Here I have quick tutorial of making stand alone latency measuring device with help of ESP8266 with SSD1306 display. It pings google at every minute(10 time and then provides mean value) and capture response time in milliseconds.

Basic feature,

1) Standalone latency measuring device.

2) Onboard SSD1306 SPI display for results.

3) Internet ping time capture at every 1 second (changeable).

Basics you need to know,

1) NodeMCU with Arduino IDE

2) SSD1306 SPI display with its library and connection.
3) 16850 battery (Optional) Or you can connect micro USB to NodeMCU.

Future scope,

Integration of reading with Google drive for everyday check with power-sleep mode.

To Start with SSD1306 SPI display.

It comes in different options please make sure you have display with SPI connection or have compatible driver in Arduino. Im using a display with SPI connection.

Arduino library:

1) Display connection to ESP8266 library from squix78

https://github.com/squix78/esp8266-oled-ssd1306

2) Ping machine library from dancol90

https://github.com/dancol90/ESP8266Ping

Hardware connection:

Display connection with NodeMCU (ESP8266)

Please note all the data pins are mentioned as per NodeMCU hardware, If you want to make direct connection with ESP8266 check corresponding pin numbers.

Code:

Do not forget to change SSID, Password section.

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>

#include <ESP8266Ping.h>

#include <SPI.h> // Only needed for Arduino 1.6.5 and earlier

#include "SSD1306Spi.h"

const char* ssid = "SSID";

const char* password = "Password";

const char* remote_host = "www.google.com";

// Initialize the OLED display using SPI

// D5 -> CLK

// D7 -> MOSI (DOUT)

// D0 -> RES

// D2 -> DC

// D8 -> CS

SSD1306Spi display(D0, D2, D8);

String avg_time_ms;

int i;

void setup() {

Serial.begin(115200);

delay(10);

// Initialising the UI will init the display too.

display.init();

display.flipScreenVertically();

display.setFont(ArialMT_Plain_10);

Serial.println();

Serial.println("Connecting to WiFi");

WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {

delay(100);

Serial.print(".");

}

Serial.println();

Serial.print("WiFi connected with ip "); // Just for troubleshot purpose.

Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());

Serial.print("Pinging host "); // Just for troubleshot purpose.

Serial.println(remote_host);

}

void loop() {

if(Ping.ping(remote_host))

{

Ping.ping(remote_host, 10); //10 time ping to google, You can change value to higher or lower

i= Ping.averageTime();

avg_time_ms = Ping.averageTime(); // reading string and Int for easy display integration.

Serial.println(i);

if (i < 99) // It is in general term, Please change as per your requirement

{

display.drawString(14, 40, "Pingtime :");

display.drawString(64, 40, avg_time_ms + " ms");

display.drawString(14, 20, "Internet condition");

display.drawString(14, 30, "Good");

}

if (i > 100 && i < 199) // It is in general term, Please change as per your requirement

{

display.drawString(14, 40, "Pingtime :");

display.drawString(64, 40, avg_time_ms + " ms");

display.drawString(14, 20, "Internet condition");

display.drawString(14, 30, "Bad");

}

else

{

Serial.println("Error :(");

display.drawString(14, 20, "Internet condition");

display.drawString(14, 30, "Offline");

}

display.display();

delay(60000); // Every minutes

display.clear();

}

Final Output:

control multiple IFTTT based on Moisture level.

2017-09-24T02:23:00.002-07:00

IOT with nature, this is one of my favorite subject. Connect the Internet of things with nature. In this project, we are making moisture sensor integrated with IFTTT with multiple events triggers.

As I said multiple triggers mean, it sends a moisture level at every 30 minutes (editable mode) to google spreadsheet (Trigger 1) and if a moisture level goes below a critical level then sends me an Email (Trigger 2).

At any time, you can log in to your Google spreadsheet and check current moisture level and if you miss, then your plant will send you an email at critical condition (below certain Moisture level). In Arduino Code, you can change the email notification counter to make an email notification per day (editable mode).

Basic Feature,

1) Active Power sleep mode to reduce battery consumption.

2) Multiple IFTTT events trigger.

3) EPROM enable counter to send Email notification at 12 hours.

A Moisture sensor updated google spreadsheet at every 30 minutes but you don’t want an email at every 30 minutes until you water back your plant. It will start filling up your Inbox. So, to avoid such issues, we have EEPROM enable counter to send an email at every 24 counts.

Moisture level at every 30-minute X 24 counters = 12 Hours,

e.g first email I will get in the morning 9AM when I’m at home and send another email at 9PM when again I’m back to home from work.

Basics you need to know,

1) NodeMCU with Arduino IDE

2) Hardware

a. Moisture sensor

b. 2N2222 transistor with 100E resistor.

c. Battery

d. Breadboard

3) IFTTT with Google drive.

To start with IFTTT,

Create a free IFTTT account.

Go the official site: https://ifttt.com/ and click the “Sign Up” button in top of the page.

Once you sign up…

In the top raw, select the My applets or create one.

Click on "this" to make trigger activity.

In our case we want to use a ESP-8266 with Moisture sensor.

Select maker webhooks, it will allow you to make the IOT hardware integration.

I created an event name "Moisture_sensor" written in the box.

Do remember this name you will need this in future for the testing.

So once you read moisture data (On NodeMCU) then what…!!!

It has multiple action services, which will allow you to connect through possible services with simple selection. In our-case

1) send Moisture_sensor on the Google spread sheet. (You need to download an app for notification service)

2) send an Email at time of critical water level condition.

In this Notification dialog, please add a message you want to see.

Also please add ingredient call "value1", "value2",

"Value 1" stands for Moisture_sensor data – it will come in level from 0-1024

below 100 means critical level... (defined in Code)

It will save data on the spread sheet name of IFTTT_maker_webhooks_Event

Compete with the action by a click "create action".

Please follow same process for Mail Trigger.

Hardware design:

Basic connection with NodeMCU.

1) Connect reset pin with D0, It will reset NodMCU after deepsleep timer.

2) Connect Moisture sensor with 2N2222 to make a transistor as switch function.

It will disable moisture sensor when device is in sleep mode, connect base pin to D5 ( Arduino Pin number 14)

3) Analog reading connection with A0 pin, In Arduino it is A0 number.

Code:

Do not forget to add SSID, Password, Apikey and EEPROM library.

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>

#include <EEPROM.h>

const char* ssid = "WIFI network"

const char* password = "WIFI password"

const char* host = "maker.ifttt.com";

const char* apiKey = "IFTTT Key";

const int sleepTimeS = 1800;

// If timer is set for 30 minutes (60*30), than you need to change counter number - i for Mail notification.

volatile int flag = false;

int address = 120; // EEPROM storage address, It can be anything in-between 0-511

float Final;

int sensorPin = A0; // Your moisture sensor connection

int pin = 14; // Enable your moisture sensor at time of requirement to reduce power consumption

int sensorValue;

int i;

void setup()

{

Serial.begin(9600);

EEPROM.begin(512);

delay(10);

Serial.println("Moisture sensor interface with IFTTT");

i = EEPROM.read(address); // Store counter to send a notification at 12 hours

pinMode(pin, OUTPUT);

Serial.println();

Serial.print("Connecting to ");

Serial.println(ssid);

digitalWrite(pin, HIGH); // Enable sensor with 2N2222 transistor

delay(20);

sensorValue = analogRead(sensorPin);

Final= 1024 - sensorValue;

Serial.print("sensorValue");

Serial.print(sensorValue);

flag = true;

}

void loop() {

if(flag)

{

WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {

delay(500);

Serial.print(".");

}

Serial.println("");

Serial.println("WiFi connected");

Serial.print("connecting to ");

Serial.println(host);

WiFiClient client;

const int httpPort = 80;

if (!client.connect(host, httpPort)) {

Serial.println("connection failed");

return;

}

String url1 = "/trigger/Moisture_sensor/with/key/"; // Send a data to google spread sheet.

url1 += apiKey;

Serial.print("Requesting URL: ");

Serial.println(url1);

client.print(String("POST ") + url1 + " HTTP/1.1\r\n" +

"Host: " + host + "\r\n" + "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n" +

"Content-Length: 13\r\n\r\n" + "value1=" + Final + "\r\n" );

if (Final <= 150 && i>=24)

//24 number is to get an Email at every 12 hours + Moisture level is below desired condition,

// if you sleep timer sends you an notification at 30mins x 24 = 12 hours.

{

String url = "/trigger/Moisture_mail/with/key/"; // to trigger Email notification at 12 hours.

url += apiKey;

Serial.print("Requesting URL: ");

Serial.println(url);

client.print(String("POST ") + url + " HTTP/1.1\r\n" +

"Host: " + host + "\r\n" + "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n" +

"Content-Length: 13\r\n\r\n" + "value1=" + Final + "\r\n" );

i = 0;

}

else

{

delay(20);

flag = false;

digitalWrite(pin, LOW);

i++;

}

//Serial.println("New strored I");

// Serial.println(i);

EEPROM.write(address, i);

EEPROM.commit();

}

ESP.deepSleep(sleepTimeS * 1000000); //deepsleep defination

}

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tested PCBs with Code:

Google spread sheet logs,

NodeMCU based door sensor with power sleep mode.

2017-09-16T05:41:00.003-07:00

This IoT Door sensor project shows how to make a WiFi door alarm/Notification that provides alerts wherever you open the door, with help of the IFTTT it will logs the time and date on the google drive and send you a notification on phone at time of status change. Other time it will scan and go back to the deep sleep with interval of 10 second. (It is possible to change in the Code)

An interesting thing here, we are keep storing the last status in the EEPROM, so whenever device wake up from the power sleep mode, It will scan a switch position and compare with last EEPROM data (which was older switch position stored in the EEPROM before it goes in to the power save mode). If there is change, it will send a notification to your mobile phone and stores data and time with door status on google drive.

This feature helps us in,

1) It does not connect to the even WIFI if status is not changed which will reduce overall power consumption of the device and increase battery life.

2) Sensor scans data at every 10 second but uploaded only a status change, So no garbage data on google drive.

Final Output:

Basics you need to know,

1) NodeMCU with Arduino IDE

2) Hardware

a. ESP8266 12E

b. Door sensor (reed switch based)

c. Battery

3) IFTTT with Google drive.

To start with IFTTT,

Create a free IFTTT account.

Go the official site: https://ifttt.com/ and click the “Sign Up” button in top of the page.

Once you "Sign-up", you see…

In the top raw, select the "My applets" or create one.

Click on "this" to make trigger activity.

In our case we want to use a NodeMCU with door sensor to create a trigger.

Select "Maker webhooks" It will allow you to make the IOT hardware integration.

I created an event name "Door _status" (you need in Arduino code) written in the box. Do remember this name you will need this in future for the testing.

So It will show you if Door open/closed (On NodeMCU) then what…!!!

It has multiple action services, which will allow you to connect through possible services with simple selection. In our-case we are sending door_status on the Google spread sheet. (You need to download an app for notification service)

In this Notification dialog, please add the message you want to see. Also please add ingredient call "value1", "value2",

"Value 1" stands for door status- Open/ Closed.

It will save data on the spread sheet name of IFTTT_maker_webhooks_Event

Compete with the action by a click "create action".

Hardware design,

Basic of Deepsleep

Deep sleep mode of chip stop un-necessary processes when it not required. Like when we mention delay command in the code it mean controller is awake and doing process to execute it but how can we do without consuming more power.

ESP8266 chip provides 3 configurable sleep modes. We can choose and configure the sleep mode as required.

The 3 sleep modes are:

Modem-sleep

Light-sleep

Deep-sleep

To enable a deepsleep mode, We can call the interface function system_deep_sleep to immediately enable Deep-sleep. In this mode, the chip will turn off Wi-Fi connectivity and data connection; only the RTC module is still working, responsible for periodic wake-ups. but to awake a chip from deepsleep we need to do some modification in a hardware like.

You need to connect D0 pin (Ping number 16) to reset, so whenever you counter reach out deepsleep time, it will enable a reset. Meaning it will reset a chip and code will work in normal mode.

Now Connect you reed switch with Pin number D5 and other lead goes to 3.3V to provide trigger signal.

Please make sure you connect and define right pin number. Arduino does not follow NodeMCU pin numbers.

Code:

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>

#include <EEPROM.h>

const char* ssid = "WIFI network"

const char* password = "WIFI password"

const char* host = "maker.ifttt.com";

const char* apiKey = "IFTTT Key";

const int sleepTimeS = 10; // Deep sleep time

int lastButtonState;

int address = 120; // EEPROM stored data location it can be inbetween 0-511

byte value;

int pin = 14;

int state;

volatile int flag = false;

const char* door_state;

void setup() {

pinMode(pin, INPUT);

Serial.begin(115200);

EEPROM.begin(512);

delay(100);

// Serial.println("Preparing the Door Status Monitor project...");

lastButtonState = EEPROM.read(address);

// lastButtonState = value ;

state= digitalRead(pin);

if (state != lastButtonState) {

if (state == HIGH)

{

//Serial.println("if state condition on");

flag = true;

door_state = "Open" ;

}

else

{

// Serial.println("if state confition off");

flag = true;

door_state = "Closed" ;

}

delay(10);

}

EEPROM.write(address, state);

EEPROM.commit();

// Serial.println("Code End");

}

void loop() {

if(flag)

{

WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {

delay(50);

//Serial.print(".");

}

Serial.println("");

Serial.println("WiFi connected");

Serial.println("IP address: ");

Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());

Serial.println("CODE UPLOADED");

Serial.print("connecting to ");

Serial.println(host);

WiFiClient client;

const int httpPort = 80;

if (!client.connect(host, httpPort)) {

Serial.println("connection failed");

return;

}

String url = "/trigger/Door_status/with/key/";

url += apiKey;

Serial.print("Requesting URL: ");

Serial.println(url);

client.print(String("POST ") + url + " HTTP/1.1\r\n" +

"Host: " + host + "\r\n" +

"Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n" +

"Content-Length: 13\r\n\r\n" +

"value1=" + door_state + "\r\n");

flag = false;

}

delay(10);

ESP.deepSleep(sleepTimeS * 1000000);

}

On Google Driver

IOT- weather station with NodeMCU and deep sleep mode

2017-08-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial, we are going to monitor the temperature and humidity level and send to thingspeak interface for analysing. In this process, we are going to use NodeMCU as a hardware and thingspeak interface for data collection with addition of the DeepSleep feature.
(Deepsleep feature puts controller(ESP8266) in the sleep mode to reduce the power consumption)

Interface with Thingspeak is easy to work with, You need thingspeak API key to get an access of server and data transfer. On the hardware side, you required DTH11 connected to NodeMCU.

Basic you need to know,

A) NodeMCU integration with Arduino IDE

B) Basic hardware

a. NodeMCU

b. Breadboard

c. DTH11 sensor

d. Battery (for standalone device)

e. Internet connection 😉

C) Thingspeak – open source IOT platform to store and retrieve data over HTTP protocol. It enables the creation of sensor logging applications, location tracking applications and a social network of things with status updates.

To start with thingspeak, visit: https://thingspeak.com/, and creat your account to start with.

Create an account and log in,

Go to create a channel from top left menu and click on new channel.

Add a channel name and description, field1 is temperature and field2 is humidity (It will be defined by Arduino code, so please make sure we keep a same field name as above).

Save this setting and make a channel.

After you finish, Go to channel name and channel setting.

You will see a channel ID, Percentage of complete (Used) and other information as defined.

Click on API key to collect your write API key number, It will allow NodeMCU to write on this page.

Hardware design

Connect NodeMCU to the breadboard with DTH sensor and resistor as shown above.

DTH11 sensor: Pin number D1 with 10K resistor to VCC.

Breadboard connection:

Software:

To make such IOT weather station, power connection is difficult to manage. If you want to mount your sensor where power is not available and the battery is the only option to power it up. You may have noticed battery does not last longer due to ESP8266 power consumption cycle (even at 3000mAh lipo battery drain in 4 days). In such a situation sleep mode of chip help and stop un-necessary processes when it not required. Like when we mention delay command in the code it mean controller is awake and doing that process to execute it but how can we do without consuming more power.

ESP8266 chip provides 3 configurable sleep modes. We can choose and configure the sleep mode as required.

The 3 sleep modes are:

Modem-sleep

Light-sleep

Deep-sleep

You need to connect D0 pin (Ping number 16) to reset, so whenever you counter reach out deepsleep time, it will enable a reset. Meaning it will reset a chip and code will work in normal mode.

Code:

Before you start, make sure your Arduino IDE has installed ESP8266 board with thingspeak library.

Thingspeak library for Arduino and ESP compatible:

https://github.com/mathworks/thingspeak-arduino

Arduino Code:

#include <DHT.h>

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>

// replace with your channel’s thingspeak API key,

String apiKey = "your API";

const char* ssid = "Wifi network name";

const char* password = "password";

const char* server = "api.thingspeak.com";

#define DHTPIN 5 // what pin we’re connected to

const int sleepTimeS = 900; // second 15min (60*15) connect reset with 16 number pin for wake upcall

DHT dht(DHTPIN, DHT11,15);

WiFiClient client;

void setup() {

Serial.begin(115200);

delay(10);

dht.begin();

WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

Serial.println();

Serial.print("Connecting to ");

Serial.println(ssid);

WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {

delay(500);

Serial.print(".");

}

Serial.println("");

Serial.println("WiFi connected");

}

void loop() {

float h = dht.readHumidity();

float t = dht.readTemperature();

if (isnan(h) || isnan(t)) {

Serial.println("Failed to read from DHT sensor!");

return;

}

if (client.connect(server,80)) {

String postStr = apiKey;

postStr +="&field1="; // As field1 is temperature at thingspeak site

postStr += String(t);

postStr +="&field2="; // As field2 is humidity at thingspeak site

postStr += String(h);

postStr += "\r\n\r\n";

client.print("POST /update HTTP/1.1\n");

client.print("Host: api.thingspeak.com\n");

client.print("Connection: close\n");

client.print("X-THINGSPEAKAPIKEY: "+apiKey+"\n");

client.print("Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\n");

client.print("Content-Length: ");

client.print(postStr.length());

client.print("\n\n");

client.print(postStr);

Serial.print("Temperature: ");

Serial.print(t);

Serial.print(" degrees Celcius Humidity: ");

Serial.print(h);

Serial.println("% send to Thingspeak");

Serial.println("deepsleep");

ESP.deepSleep(sleepTimeS * 1000000); //deepsleep defination

}

client.stop();

Serial.println("Waiting…");

}

.................................................................................................................................................................................

After some days. A screen shot from Thingspeak.

Test results

Before Deepsleep feature, device was taking current around 84.1 mA (Including NodeMCU circuits with DTH11)

After DeepSleep mode (almost 5.5 time less than normal mode)

Final Circuit with battery connection, As a stand alone device.

IFTTT notification with Temperature and humidity value_DTH11

2017-06-28T12:05:00.001-07:00

In this tutorial, we are going to monitor the temperature and humidity level and sent to your phone as a notification at a time switch pressed. In this process, we are going to use NodeMCU as a hardware, IFTTT for notification and Thinger.io as an inter-mediator for value transfer.

Switch works as a trigger to send data. it could be motion sensor, vibration sensor, moisture sensor, etc. we can send three values using IFTTT trigger, name as Value1, Value2, Value3.

Ingredient you need during this tutorial,

1) NodeMCU integration with Arduino IDE

2) Basic hardware

a. NodeMCU

b. Breadboard

c. Switch

d. 10K resistor x2

e. Jumper wires.

f. DTH 11 sensor (Or module)

g. Internet connection 😉

3) Thinger.io – open source IOT platform

4) IFTTT

IFTTT is free platform that helps you do more interaction with all your apps and devices. To accomplish multiple task, please sign up in a free service called IFTTT, which stands for “If This Then That”

You can cross connect your IOT device with notification, Email, tweet, Facebook, etc…

To start with IFTTT,

Create a free IFTTT account.

Go the official site: https://ifttt.com/ and click the “Sign Up” button in top of the page.

Once you "Sign-up", you see…

In the top raw, select the "My applets" or create one.

Click on "this" to make trigger activity.

In our case we want to use a NodeMCU with button to make a trigger.

Select "Maker webhooks" It will allow you to make the IOT hardware integration.

I created an event name "Temp_sensor" (you need in Arduino code) written in the box. Do remember this name you will need this in future for the testing.

So It will show you if button pressed (On NodeMCU) then what…!!!

It has multiple action services, which will allow you to connect through possible services with simple selection. In our-case we are sending notification in this tutorial. (You need to download an app for notification service)

In this Notification dialog, please add the message you want to see. Also please add ingredient call "value1", "value2",

"Value 1" stands for the temperature, and "Value 2" stands for the Humidity in our case.

Compete with the action by a click "create action".

So once it is finished, Check by clicking a "check now" button, It should not give you any error during this.

Now, Go back to search on the top, write "Maker Webhooks", It will show you below options.

Now go in to "setting", and copy a "URL" and past in the internet browser. It will show you your active key with event box.

Write an "event name" in the box Temp_sensor in our case and click on the test button at bottom.

This will work as a trigger in absents of a trigger hardware and gives you an indication of system working. (you should receive a notification by doing this)

Now IFTTT will not get the value directly from the Hardware, So we required one more interface call thinger.io, which will support us to transfer DTH value to IFTTT. (It works as inter-mediator)

To configure thinger.io interface. Go to https://thinger.io/ and register yourself.

Once you sign in, you see.

You need to add device and endpoints to make this work with nodeMCU.

click on the Device and add Device ID (Required in Arduino Code) and Device Credentials could be any name (Required in Arduino Code).

Once you click “Add device” it will add this device in the thinger.io platform. Now go to endpoints and add required details as below.

Select IFTTT maker channel trigger and add IFTTT details like event name and IFTTT key.

So Internet configuration over, Now let finish hardware connection and Arduino Coding.

Hardware design:

Connect NodeMCU to the breadboard with switch and resistor as shown above.

Switch: Pin number -D2

DTH11 sensor : Pin number D1

Breadboard connection:

Software:

Before you start, make sure your Arduino IDE has installed ESP8266 board with thinger.io library.

You can download thinger.io library from:

https://github.com/thinger-io/Arduino-Library

Arduino Code 1:

It will send you a notification with Temperature and Humidity data when you press a button.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#include <SPI.h>

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>

#include <ThingerWifi.h>

#include "DHT.h"

#define USERNAME "User name" // Your login name from thiner.io

#define DEVICE_ID "NodeMCU_DTH11" // Your device ID from thinger.io

#define DEVICE_CREDENTIAL "lorem_ipsum" // your crefential from thinger.io

#define SSID "WIFI network"

#define SSID_PASSWORD "WIFI password"

int pin = 4;

#define DHTPIN D1

#define DHTTYPE DHT11

DHT dht(DHTPIN, DHTTYPE);

ThingerWifi thing(USERNAME, DEVICE_ID, DEVICE_CREDENTIAL);

void PINStatus() {

digitalWrite(BUILTIN_LED, LOW);

pson DTH_value;

DTH_value["value1"] = dht.readTemperature();

DTH_value["value2"] = dht.readHumidity();

thing.call_endpoint("DTH_post", DTH_value);

digitalWrite(BUILTIN_LED, HIGH); /// it will be on untill data gets on the thinger.io site

}

void setup() {

dht.begin();

pinMode(pin, OUTPUT);

attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(pin), PINStatus, FALLING);

pinMode(BUILTIN_LED, OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(BUILTIN_LED, HIGH);

thing.add_wifi(SSID, SSID_PASSWORD);

// resource for reading sensor temperature from API

thing["dht11"] >> [](pson& out){

out["humidity"] = dht.readHumidity();

out["celsius"] = dht.readTemperature();

out["fahrenheit"] = dht.readTemperature(true);

};

}

void loop() {

thing.handle();

}

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Arduino Code 2:

It will give you a notification at every hour with temperature and humidity data, also works when you press a button.

#include <SPI.h>

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>

#include <ThingerWifi.h>

#include "DHT.h"

#define USERNAME "User name" // Your login name from thiner.io

#define DEVICE_ID "NodeMCU_DTH11" // Your device ID from thinger.io

#define DEVICE_CREDENTIAL "lorem_ipsum" // your crefential from thinger.io

#define SSID "WIFI network"

#define SSID_PASSWORD "WIFI password"

int pin = 4;

#define DHTPIN D1

#define DHTTYPE DHT11

DHT dht(DHTPIN, DHTTYPE);

ThingerWifi thing(USERNAME, DEVICE_ID, DEVICE_CREDENTIAL);

unsigned long previousMillis = 0; // to know when to post the temperature

unsigned int minutes_interval = 60; // variable in minutes for posting the temperature

void PINStatus() {

digitalWrite(BUILTIN_LED, LOW);

pson DTH_value;

DTH_value["value1"] = dht.readTemperature();

DTH_value["value2"] = dht.readHumidity();

thing.call_endpoint("DTH_post", DTH_value);

digitalWrite(BUILTIN_LED, HIGH);

}

void setup() {

dht.begin();

pinMode(pin, OUTPUT);

attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(pin), PINStatus, FALLING);

pinMode(BUILTIN_LED, OUTPUT);

digitalWrite(BUILTIN_LED, HIGH);

thing.add_wifi(SSID, SSID_PASSWORD);

// resource for reading sensor temperature from API

thing["dht11"] >> [](pson& out){

out["humidity"] = dht.readHumidity();

out["celsius"] = dht.readTemperature();

out["fahrenheit"] = dht.readTemperature(true);

};

}

void loop() {

thing.handle();

unsigned long currentMillis = millis();

if(minutes_interval>0 && currentMillis - previousMillis >= minutes_interval * 60000)

{

previousMillis = currentMillis;

PINStatus();

}

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please make sure you customize the highlighted area in CODE

So when ever you press a button, it will send an notification with temperature and humidity value or every hour

Execution video:

IFTTT button with NodeMCU

2017-06-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

In this tutorial, we are going to monitor the status of a switch using an ESP8266-12E. The goal of this project is to show the endless possibilities that this small module and integration with IFTTT.

Ingredient you need during this tutorial,
1) NodeMCU integration with Arduino IDE
2) Basic hardware

a. NodeMCU from Amazon

b. Breadboard from Amazon

c. Switch

d. 10K resistor

e. Jumper wires.

f. Internet connection 😉

3) Basic of IFTTT

Lets start with IFTTT,

IFTTT is a free platform that helps you do more interaction with all your apps and devices. In order to accomplish multiple tasks you have to sign up for one free service, which stands for “If This Then That”

You can interconnect your IOT device with notification, Email, tweet, Facebook, etc…

To start with IFTTT,

Create a free IFTTT account.

Go to official site: https://ifttt.com/ and click the “Sign Up” button in a top of the page.

Once you signup…

In the top raw, select My applets or create one.

Click on this to make trigger activity.

In our case, we want to use an ESP-8266 with button to make a trigger.

Select maker webhooks, It will allow you to make the IOT hardware integration.

I created an event name SOS button_ written in the box. Do remember this name, you will need it in a future for testing. (in Arduino software)

So It will show you if a button pressed then what…!!!

It has multiple action services, which will allow you to connect through possible services with simple selection. So In our-case we would like to send an Email (It could be a notification or anything else)

Compete this action with click and create an action.

So once it is finished, Check by clicking a check now, It should not give you any error during this.

Now, Go back to search on the top, Write Maker Webhooks, It will show you below options.

Now go to setting, and copy a URL and paste to internet browser.

It will show you your active key with event box.

Write an event name in the box, "SOS_button" in our case and click on the test button in the bottom.

This will work as a trigger in absents of a trigger hardware and gives you an indication of system working.

Congratulation..!!!
You finished your first step to IOT world, with basic IFTTT service. Now let’s finish on the hardware and coding part.

Hardware design/Connection:

Connect NodeMCU to the breadboard with switch and resistor as shown above. I considered Pin number D4 as an input, but this is not a same number in the Arduino IDE.

Node MCU pin number mapping with Arduino IDE,

So according to above image, My hardware pin number D4 is pin number 2 in the Arduino IDE.

Software:

Before you start, make sure your Arduino IDE has installed ESP8266 board with a basic library.
Adafruit tutorial will help you to setup NodeMCU board with Arduino IDE.
Link: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-io-basics-esp8266-arduino/overview

Arduino Code:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>

const char* ssid = "WIFI network";
const char* password = "WIFI password";
const char* host = "maker.ifttt.com";
const char* apiKey = "Your API key from the IFTTT";

int pin = 2;

volatile int flag = false;
const char* PIN_state = "not pressed";

void PINStatus() {
PIN_state = "SOS pressed";
flag = true;
}

void setup() {
Serial.begin(115200);

Serial.println("SOS button integration with IFTTT");
delay(100);
pinMode(pin, OUTPUT);
attachInterrupt(digitalPinToInterrupt(pin), PINStatus, FALLING);

Serial.print("Connecting to ");
Serial.println(ssid);

WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
delay(500);
Serial.print(".");
}

Serial.println("");
Serial.println("IP address: ");
Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());
}

void loop() {

if(flag){
Serial.print("connecting to ");
Serial.println(host);

WiFiClient client;
const int httpPort = 80;
if (!client.connect(host, httpPort)) {
Serial.println("connection failed");
return;
}

String url = "/trigger/SOS_Button/with/key/";
url += apiKey;

Serial.print("Requesting URL: ");
Serial.println(url);
client.print(String("POST ") + url + " HTTP/1.1\r\n" +
"Host: " + host + "\r\n" +
"Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded\r\n" +
"Content-Length: 13\r\n\r\n" +
"value1=" + PIN_state + "\r\n");
flag = false;
}
delay(100);

}

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Please make sure you customize the highlighted area in CODE

So when ever you press a button, it will send an Email to registered mail ID.

Execution video:

Bag closer machine - ceal

2012-11-01T11:34:00.000-07:00

TCP is a project in which we as an individual designer has to identify the opportunity to re-design/innovate a product to the minute detail of it!
Its basically learning process which come up with every designer to innovate new product.
product range for Bag stitching and closing

Comparison of the products in the category

Market research

Area of Innovation

Re-define design Brief

Re-design existing machine with new ergonomics and Aesthetics

New Concept for future Bag closer machine

Quick 2D render

Concept engineering

initial prototype

Form inspiration

Sketch after product engineering

Mock up model

Final product

Exploded view

Computer Mouse-Redesign

2012-10-16T00:21:00.001-07:00

Quick exercise for redesigning of Computer Mouse

Bicycle Sketch

2012-09-29T05:50:00.001-07:00

NrityaDhol

2012-09-28T22:25:00.001-07:00

NrityaDhol is a music instrument which combines dance and music experiences of Ghunghroo and Dhol. Ghunghroo is a musical anklet tied to the leg of Indian classical dancers to produce music out of their footwork. Dhol is a drum which sets rhythm of foot tapping in many Indian dances.
NrityaDhol is a musical anklet which translates foot tapping patterns of Indian classical dances into a rhythm of Dhol with the help of motion detection technology. It produces “Dhin” (low frequency bass sound) and “tak“(high frequency treble sound) of Dhol on tapping left and right leg respectively.

for more detail have look on blog:

http://nrityadhol.wordpress.com/

NrityaDhol has to look like a delicate piece of Art, which can go along with the Indian dancer's outfit. So at initial stage we had different types of anklets. Which dancer can wear at time of performance. Almost all the anklets are made of silver or copper. and they all are hand crafted.
Basic Form exploration with electronics circuits.

CAD modeling to get basic Indian context with copper material. There are 14 stripes of copper, which stitched with material. It gives different form when it gets to bend.

Final Product

Final Video

Concept robots

2012-07-20T07:58:00.002-07:00

conceptual robotics.
Marker rendering + Photoshop

Water jet cutting machine

2012-07-05T07:16:00.000-07:00

Water jet cutting machine with working prototype.

Final year Mechatronic project (automation project).

Made working with help of single hand controller.

using atmega32 micro controller.

3 stepper motor for directional control.

car cleaning water pump for creating water pressure.

Marker Rendering

2012-05-19T00:00:00.000-07:00

Photorover Robot

2012-04-25T06:33:00.002-07:00

Photo-rover robot in the simple word called lights follower robot, which can be active by lights or follow the light's source.
Its required simple circuit of the op-amp as comparator to compare two different types of light source.

In this video, robot is activated by light and there are two sensors have been used to make direction control also.

Crazy clock

2012-02-21T01:41:00.000-08:00

Time is not in our hands. Instead, it is continuously running whether we look at it or not.
This project started with the proposal of depicting the theme of “natural time” with an interactive product or installation. Nowadays, there is a common feeling that people are running faster than time in their daily routines. As such, they seem to be in disarray with natural time. There is no time to feel the time passing, or give others time to feel it.

The crazy clock attempts to represent this crazy speeding up of a non stoppable time in our daily lives. The clock rotates crazily until someone passes by or stands in front of it. It then takes time to show the time: only when someone stands in front of it for while is that its hands slow to the the accurate time. The prototype works on two stepper motors to control the hands and a distance sensor to make it interactive.

brain storming

prototype mad out of thermocol and leaser cut gears.

electric circuit with arduino

Rendered image for final clock.

more detail:

http://entretags.de/nid-timescapes/crazy-clock/