Arduino

BTBox – LEGO Power Functions Bluetooth Controller

I've been on a bit of a LEGO Technic/Mindstorms hiatus for a while - ok, it's been 7 years!   I have an I've been spending much of my hobby time making my own DIY projects / IoT stuff all while mastering Arduino.   That changed a few weeks back when I came across THIS.  I've been thinking of getting an RC crawler for some time, but it struck me that I have 95% of the…
Read On »
Arduino

Nextion TFT LCD – Why you need one!

I'll start this by stating that I don't work for iTead, and nor am I getting any sort of   I just really like this TFT LCD.  I stumbled upon the Nextion (which is a slick easy-to-use TFT LCD with a HMI editor) when they had their first crowdfunding campaign a year or so ago.   I ignored it as there was not a lot of documentation, and frankly, I really didn't understand the concept of…
Read On »
3D Printing

WIoT-2 Weather and Home Automation – Nextion with ESP8266/ESP32

This is a continuation from my first iteration of WIoT weather station.  What is WIoT-2?  I use it as a cloud-connected (IoT) info center of sorts.  It is a culmination of information my wife or I often look for either on our way out of the house, or when we come home.  It displays current/forecast weather, temp/humidity from outside the house (this), date, time, our local waste collection schedule, currency rates, the status of our garage…
Read On »
Arduino

WIoT: Weather Station & IoT Notifier

Update: Check out my latest version of this project WIoT-2. This is a project that I have been wanting to do for some time.  Since the marrying of IoT with microcontrollers, the world of cloud-connected devices has taken off.  I had a hard time naming this thing because its sort of a swiss army knife of IoT.  I keep coming up with new ideas as to what to connect to and control.    I've done other…
Read On »