A grid of 5 3D Printed projects with ESP-32 microcontroller boards

ESP32 Projects From Northwestern University’s Embedded Electronics Class

December 12, 2022 by Michael Shaub 4 Comments

Northwestern University’s Embedded Electronics Class delivered a bumper crop of ESP-32 projects this year. The student teams recorded their progress on hackaday.io with project descriptions, logs, BOMs, diagrams, photos, and videos to share with other makers. While all utilized the web connection that the ESP32 offers some teams chose to use ESP32 Cams to incorporate photos, video, and computer vision. We love the variety of projects the teams created, some customized versions of consumer products and others new types of smart-devices. Continue reading “ESP32 Projects From Northwestern University’s Embedded Electronics Class” →

Review: Inkplate 2 Shrinks Down, Adds Color

December 7, 2022 by Tom Nardi 9 Comments

Regular Hackaday readers may recall the Inkplate family of devices: open source all-in-one development boards that combine the power and versatility of the ESP32 with electronic paper displays salvaged from commercial e-readers. By taking the sharp, high-speed, displays intended for readers such as Amazon’s Kindle and bundling it together with all the hardware and software you need to make it work, the Inkplate provided a turn-key platform for anyone looking to get serious with e-paper.

Given the fact that their screens were pulled from recycled readers, it’s no surprise the previous Inkplate entries came in familiar 6 and 10 inch variants. There was even an upgraded 6 inch model that benefited from newer reader technology by adopting a touch-sensitive backlit panel, which we took a close look at last year. Their large displays make them excellent for wall mounted applications, such as a household notification center or constantly-changing art display. Plus, as you might expect, the Inkplate is an ideal choice for anyone looking to roll their own custom e-reader.

But of course, not every application needs so much screen real estate. In fact, for some tasks, such a large display could be considered a liability. Seeing a void in their existing product lineup, the folks at Soldered Electronics (previously e-radionica) have recently unveiled the diminutive Inkplate 2. This new miniature Inkplate uses the same software library as its larger predecessors, but thanks to its 2.13 inch three-color display, lends itself to a wider array of potential projects. Plus it’s considerably cheaper than the larger Inkplate models, at just $35 USD.

Considering the crowd sourced funding campaign for the Inkplate 2 blew past its goal in just 72 hours, it seems clear there’s plenty of interest in this new smaller model. But if you’re still not sure if it’s the e-paper solution you’ve been waiting for, maybe we can help — the folks at Soldered sent along a pre-production version of the Inkplate 2 for us to play around with, so let’s take it for a test drive and see what all the fuss is about.

Continue reading “Review: Inkplate 2 Shrinks Down, Adds Color” →

Merry Christmas! Rip And Tear!

December 7, 2022 by Al Williams 6 Comments

If you want a little mayhem on your Christmas tree, you can check out [Sprite_tm]’s tiny PC Christmas ornament. With 3D printing, that isn’t such a tall order, but [Sprite]’s does have a unique ability: it plays DOOM, as you can see in the video below.

The device uses an ESP32, and while [Sprite] had ported the iconic shooter to the microcontroller before, he decided to use a Game Boy port that is more lightweight instead. There were a few reasons for the choice, including the ability to do Bluetooth so you could connect controllers so you can play the game. The only catch was he had to pull off the flash memory and replace it with a larger one (see the second video below).

Granted, the screen is tiny, so it is sort of a novelty. But if you want to have a go, the files are all there. As you might expect, there is a tiny battery and the circuitry required to recharge it, as well. We’d probably make an adapter to let it charge from the Christmas lights, but that can wait for version 2.

The input device handling is a bit strange. Bluetooth BLE devices will automatically grab an input device that is in pairing mode. There is no provision for connecting using the “normal” Bluetooth mechanism. A fun project and you could use the case for some other tiny projects, too. A larger flash on an ESP32 has lots of possibilities, as well.

If you need a primer on the ESP32, we got it. If you want to play DOOM on something truly strange, try seven-segment displays.

Continue reading “Merry Christmas! Rip And Tear!” →

An esp32 weather station with 3d printed anemometer, rain gauge and wind vane mounted on an aluminum frame sitting in an overgrown lawn

A Weather Station For Whether It Rains Or Shines

November 30, 2022 by Abe Connelly 7 Comments

[Giovanni Aggiustatutto] creates a DIY weather station to measure rain fall, wind direction, humidity and temperature. [Giovanni] has been working on various parts of the weather station, including the rain gauge and anemometer, with the weather station build incorporating all these past projects and adding a few extra features for measurement and access.

For temperature and humidity, a DHT22 sensor is located in a 3D printed Stevensen screen, giving the sensor steady airflow while protecting the module from direct sunlight and rain. A mostly 3D printed wind vane is printed with the base attached to a ball bearing and magnet so that the four hall sensors positioned in a “plus” configuration at the base can detect direction. The 3D printed anemometer uses a hall sensor to detect the revolution speed of the device. The rain gauge uses a “tipping bucket” mechanism, with a magnet attached to it that triggers the hall sensor affixed to the frame. The rain gauge (or pluviometer if you’re fancy) needs extra calibration to adjust for how much water the buckets take on before tipping.

An ESP32, with additional level shifters and BMP180 atmospheric pressure sensor module, are placed in a junction box. The ESP32 is used to communicate with each of the sensors and allows for an external internet connection to a Home Assistant server to push collected data out.

[Giovanni] has done an excellent job of documenting each piece, including making the 3D STL files available. Weather stations are a favorite of ours with a lot of variety in what gets collected and how, from ultrasonic anemometers to solar powered weather stations, and it’s great to see [Giovanni]’s take.

Video after the break!

Continue reading “A Weather Station For Whether It Rains Or Shines” →

Tidy POV Display Using The ESP32

November 23, 2022 by Dave Rowntree 9 Comments

Chinese Youtuber [corebb] presents the second version of his POV display. The earlier version used 5050-sized SMT addressable LEDs, which didn’t give great resolution, so he rev’d the design to use a much higher number (160 to be exact) of APA102 LEDs. These are 2mm on the side, making them a little more difficult to handle, so after some initial solder paste wobbles, he decided to use a contract assembly house to do the tricky bit for him. This failed as they didn’t ‘understand’ the part and placed them the wrong way around! Not to be deterred, he had another go with a modified solder stencil, and eventually got the full strip to light up correctly.

Based on an ESP32 (using the Arduino stack) and SDCard for control, and a LiPo cell charged wirelessly, the build is rather tidy. A couple of hall effect switches are mounted at the start of each of the two arms, presumably lining

up with a magnet on the case somewhere, although this isn’t clear. The schematic and PCB appear to have been designed with JLCEDA, which is a repackaging of EasyEDA. We can see the attraction with the heavy integration of this with the JLC and LCSC services. It appears that he even managed to get streamed video working — showing a live video from a webcam — which is quite an undertaking to pull off when you think how much processing needs to happen in real-time. As he alludes to in the video, trying to increase the resolution beyond this point is not viable with the processing capability of the ESP32.

A resin-printed case finishes off the build, with a screw-thread mount added to the rear, to allow typical camera mounts to be used to hold the thing down. A smart move we think.

We love POV displays around here, this spherical POV display is especially fabulous, but you don’t need fancy hardware if you have a handy ceiling fan and a bit of protoboard spare.

Continue reading “Tidy POV Display Using The ESP32” →

Portable ESP32 RGB Lasershow Has All The Trimmings

November 21, 2022 by Jenny List 47 Comments

Perhaps there was a time when fancy laser effects were beyond those without the largest of bank accounts, but today they can be created surprisingly easily. [Corebb] shows us how with a neat unit using an off the shelf RGB laser module and mirror module, driven by a ESP32 with software designed to make it as easy as possible to use.

The video below the break is in Chinese so you’ll have to turn on the subtitles if you’re an Anglophone, and it takes us through the whole process. It’s mounted in an SLA 3D printed enclosure which neatly holds all the parts. The ESP32 module drives a couple of DACs which in turn drive the galvanometer motors through a pair of amplifiers.

Then the software allows all sorts of custom displays for your creative expression, including uploading quick sketches over WiFi. Beyond pretty patterns we see it mounted on a bicycle for a head-up display of speed and navigation info. Even if it does fall off and break at one point we can see that could be an extremely useful accessory.

All the code can be found in a GitHub repository should you wish to try for yourself. Meanwhile we’ve covered a lot of laser projector projects here in the past, including most recently this one using stepper motors in place of galvanometers.

Continue reading “Portable ESP32 RGB Lasershow Has All The Trimmings” →

A two picture montage with the left montage showing a pair of hands holding an assembled and closed turbidity sensor and the right picture showing A pair of hands holding the screw on cap for the turbidity sensor and a prototype board against a backdrop of green leave

Rapid Prototyping To Measure Turbidity In Rapids

November 15, 2022 by Abe Connelly 6 Comments

[RiverTechJess] is in the process of getting a PhD in environmental engineering and has devoted a chapter to creating a turbidity sensor for river network monitoring. Environmental sensing benefits from being able to measure accurately and frequently, so providing low cost devices helps get more data and excuse the occasional device loss that’s bound to happen when deploying electronics out in the wild. Towards this end, [RiverTechJess] has created a low cost turbidity sensor that rivals the more expensive alternatives in cost and accuracy.

The turbidity sensor is designed to be at least partially submerged allowing for the LED and light sensors to be be able to take measurements. [RiverTechJess] has made a 3D printed prototype to test the design, allowing for rapid experimentation and deployment of the sensors to work out issues. The 3D printed enclosure prototype uses rubber o-rings and “vacuum grease” to provide a watertight seal. An ESP32 microcontroller is used to store logged data on an SD card and drive the TSHG6200 850nm infrared LED and the two TSL237S-LF sensors.

The resulting paper on the turbidity sensor, in addition to the blogs of the process, provide a wealth of data that show what goes into developing and calibrating a device that is meant to be used for environmental monitoring. All source code is available on GitHub and development continues on a newer revision of the turbidity sensor with updated electronics and hardware.

We’re no strangers to water sensors and we’ve seen devices from internet connected water pollution monitors to small handheld potable water detectors.

Video after the break!

Continue reading “Rapid Prototyping To Measure Turbidity In Rapids” →