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Wifi remote

Trying to use ESP8266 to build a "remote" for driving some of my wifi compliant personal projects (robots, home appliance ... )

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I have started to build some robots (based on various boards, but all with wifi support), some toys, and IoT stuff. To make to use of everything easy, I have started to build a cheap "remote" able to manage everything, and with some other features. I'm a programmer, so I'm more in assembling existing modules / boards and programming them than conceiving from scratch a complete project.Code / project data log is currently on github : https://github.com/manuito/wifi-pilote

First prototype : based on NodeMCU

  • Second prototype completed with box

    Emmanuel Lecomte10/08/2018 at 11:01 0 comments

    I had few hours to at least complete the second revision of the remote, and to program it.

    It's small, it's not so pretty (but prettier than revision 1 ...) but it works.

    And it's much more children proof !

    For now it's only able to drive my mini robot, but I will add other features later.

    And if you are asking, yep, the small robot head is animated. I have less space on screen with this revision than on Rev 1, so I decided to be more "graphic" than "textual" ...

    Here how it works with "robot small" (sorry for vertical video ...)

    I don't think I will be able to work on a new revision with a custom PCB until maybe 6 months or so. So for now I will use this version and complete my robot projects. And then I will start some connected home projects.

  • 2nd prototype - in progress

    Emmanuel Lecomte09/18/2018 at 12:36 0 comments

    I don't have a lot of time for working on my projects, but I was able to prepare something for the 2nd prototype based on standard D1 Mini modules

    I'm not good at all on soldering, and I did a mistake with the D1 Mini Battery shield, so I had to remove and restart everything.

    But at least now it's OK and working. 

    It's built around the ꝺeshipu's D1 Mini X-Pad, using only orginal Wemos D1 mini lite + shields. I have added a LiPo + one on/off button + some button caps.

    These shields are very compact

    It works :-)

     Everything will be crammed into a standard 72x44x25 project box like this :

    I know it's ugly but it's already better than the 1st proto :-)

    Maybe I will be able to work on it in 1 or 2 weeks

  • What I expect to do for the 2nd prototype

    Emmanuel Lecomte08/22/2018 at 07:41 0 comments

    I want to keep the same stack (ESP8266) for code compatibility, but what I have discovered :

    • The remote needs to be children proof. My girls are using it for the small robot. The 1st proto is "too big" for them. I need to remove R6 batteries, and use something slimier (3.7V battery ...)
    • 3 buttons is "OK" : 1 action button + 2 left / right buttons. Pressing left + right add option menu. But all the debouncing needs to be done, and I need to add more and more sub menu for every features. More buttons is better
    • The screen is quite good, and with color. But I can use something cheaper (this one cost +20$) and smaller
    • No need for status LED, the screen is enough
    • I wanted to be able to read pictures or details from the SD card but it's not usefull

    So I will start something simpler, and I have found an amazing board for this : the D1 Mini X-Pad from amazing ꝺeshipu 

    I will use :

    • The X-Pad. I love the form-factor, it seems more child compliant than arduboy-like button boards, and stay very, very small
    • 1 D1 mini lite (1 MB flash with ESP8285). It's a cheaper D1 mini. CPU core is the same, and I don't need flash space for now.
    • 1 D1 mini Oled shield. Yes this screen is very small and black and white but it's also cheap
    • D1 mini battery shield
    • 1 Lipo 3.7v / 400 mA battery

    So it's just an assembly of standard boards :-/ Total price is well bellow 15$

    But for 3rd prototype, maybe I will try to create my own PCB ...

  • 1st prototype building details

    Emmanuel Lecomte08/22/2018 at 07:25 0 comments

    The 1st prototype is mostly based on standard boards / modules, mixed together with 2 pre-drilled protoboard

    What's inside : 

    Node MCU is soldered (for space constraints). Everything else can be removed

    The idea was to add everything from a breadboard to space-constrained boards. And to be able to build it with a crappy solder iron, bad quality protoboard, and spare pieces. Everything was done in few days 4 months ago

    Here some pictures I have kept

    The Node MCU is taking a lot of space : at this time I didn't knew about D1 Mini :-) :

    I have tried to organize everything before soldering :

    Once completed : Yes I know, it's ugly ...

    Since then it's programming only. I work with Arduino IDE only, no micropython. Code is on github. Still in "prototype" mode ...

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TheotherMike wrote 08/21/2018 at 18:27 point

Dear Emmanuel,

this device looks very imteresting! Do you plan showing details of the peripheral devices you will control with it?

  Are you sure? yes | no

Emmanuel Lecomte wrote 08/22/2018 at 13:49 point

Hello. I have posted more details on github. Yes I will add details on supported devices once I will have time to build / program them :-)

For now, what this 1st prototype can do :

* I have completed code for driving one of my "robots" : https://github.com/manuito/robot-small. Children proof

* I wish to add support code for https://github.com/manuito/robot-large also. The robot code is similar 

* I will add support for everything I will build based on ESP8266 / ESP32 once I will be able to work on it :-) I expect to to for example some simple stuff like light control, wifi network control, and other robots, including an hexapod

  Are you sure? yes | no

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