• Adafruit IoT Monthly: The 2023 Recap Issue!

    Editor’s Note - Happy Holidays!

    newyear

    Hi, readers (almost 6 thousand of you!). This is the first IoT Monthly newsletter of 2024. We typically write one newsletter issue per year recapping our favorite things from the previous year. This is the recap issue, with a small twist! Instead of just listing off what I enjoyed posting about in 2023, I’ve asked my recent colleague, Tyeth, to also share their favorite projects from 2023.

    If you’re a new reader of this newsletter – welcome! I’m Brent. I’m an engineer at Adafruit who works on all kinds of things, including writing the IoT Monthly. This newsletter was previously known as the Adafruit.io newsletter and only contained news and projects about our Adafruit.io IoT Platform. In 2019, we expanded this newsletter to the broader topic of the Internet of Things. Adafruit’s other newsletters are distributed frequently. But, this newsletter is distributed only once a month, giving us enough time to gather information from around the internet for you. I’d also like to extend a “hug report” (Adafruit parlance for “thank you”) to our copyeditor, Anne, for her behind-the-scenes editing work on these newsletters for the past 3 years.

    I hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as I enjoyed putting it together, and I hope you have a wonderful new year, wherever you are in the world.

    • Brent

    Request for Feedback/Articles: If you have feedback or want to submit your project to this newsletter, email iotnews@adafruit.com.

    IoT Projects, in Recap

    Tide and Time

    tidetime

    Tyeth says: “I’m strangely infatuated with this tide clock (maybe because we have one of the largest tidal ranges here in Bristol, England). The internal mechanisms are surprisingly simple and elegant, with a nicely described build log and great finished product, this one is on my make list for next Christmas.” - HackADay.io

    Hot Tub Monitoring Machine

    hottub

    Tyeth says: “Having had to save the family from chemical mishaps in the past, this hot-tub pH+ORP monitoring project is a must for those who like a carefree plunge.” - HackADay.com

    Hyepaper

    paper

    Tyeth says: “I enjoyed growing up with newspapers there to fill you in on the world’s events, and now it’s nice to have ChatGPT provide an AI summarised equivalent in this lovely E-Ink display fed with all your favorite websites.” - HackADay.io

    Star Fragment Lamp

    star

    Inspired by Star Fragments from video games such as Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, this fully 3D printed star-shaped lamp uses a QT Py ESP32-S2 and NeoPixel LEDs to turn on when the sun rises and off when it sets. – Adafruit Learning System

    Guide to Waterproofing Electronics

    rust

    The Cave Pearl Project has been deploying undersea data loggers since 2013 and knows a thing or two about waterproofing electronics. This post is a summary of the techniques used by the project in waterproofing their data loggers. – The Cave Pearl Project

    News, in Recap

    I’ve enjoyed reading and learning about the following news articles in 2023…

  • WipperSnapper Updates Wednesday: A New Component Picker, Beta 74, and More Sensors!

    ws-update-banner

    This past month, a lot has been going on with our Adafruit.io platform and WipperSnapper firmware – let’s take a look:

    🪄 A Better Component Picker

    With 81+ components (at the time of writing) supported by Adafruit IO WipperSnapper, we needed a better way to filter through components and parts. As a result of the growing list of components, we’ve redesigned and updated the Adafruit IO component picker. The new component picker performs much better than before, with numerous optimizations under the hood. But by far the biggest addition is search! Knock yourself out searching for various keywords, like:

    • component names: aht20servobuzzerbutton, etc
    • sensor types: lighttemperaturepressurehumidity, etc
    • interface: i2cuartds18x20, etc
    • vendor: AdafruitASAIRInfineonBosch, etc

    We’ve also added product and documentation links to every component. The documentation links will often lead to one of our high-quality Learn Guides, terrific! And for folks browsing for components to buy, the product links are a handy shortcut to the Adafruit Shop or wherever the component is sold. If you’d like to see a video of the new component picker in action, you can watch Loren walking through it on a recent episode of Show & Tell! Read more…

    🆕 Latest Version of WipperSnapper: Adafruit.io WipperSnapper 1.0.0 Beta 74

    Adafruit WipperSnapper Firmware 1.0.0 beta 74 has been released on GitHub. This is the latest version of WipperSnapper and a stable release. Read the release notes here…

    🚢 “Works with WipperSnapper” - New Sensors for Beta 74

     WipperSnapper Beta 74 launched with support for 6 new sensors:

    • IKEA VINDRIKTNING AQI Sensor
    • LTR329 Sensor
    • LTR303 Sensors
    • LTR390 Sensor
    • HTU21D/DF
    • TU31D Sensor
  • Adafruit.io WipperSnapper 1.0.0 Beta 74 Released!

    Adafruit WipperSnapper Firmware 1.0.0 beta 74 has been released on GitHub. This is the latest version of WipperSnapper and a stable release.

    Install WipperSnapper 1.0.0 Beta 74

    Follow this learning system guide to learn how to install Adafruit IO WipperSnapper.

    Upgrade a device already running WipperSnapper

    Locate the device you’d like to upgrade on io.adafruit.com/devices. Then, click “Update”.

    Major Changes

    🐛 Bug Fixes

    🆕 New Components

    🛠️ Tooling

    Full Changelog: https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_Wippersnapper_Arduino/compare/1.0.0-alpha.75…1.0.0-beta.74

  • WipperSnapper Component Magic

    update-banner

    Happy December from the Adafruit IO team!

    Today I’m bringing news of not one but two big improvements to WipperSnapper: our no-code IoT platform interface.

    More Components, Better Picker

    As I write this, WipperSnapper now supports 82 unique components! From servos to NeoPixels, I2C to UART, analog, digital, PWM… how can we keep it all organized???

    Behold, our redesigned component picker:

    component-picker-redesign

    Faster, Searchable, and More Detail

    This picker update performs much better than before, with numerous optimizations under the hood. But by far the biggest addition is search! Knock yourself out searching for various keywords, like:

    • component names: aht20, servo, buzzer, button, etc
    • sensor types: light, temperature, pressure, humidity, etc
    • interface: i2c, uart, ds18x20, etc
    • even I2C addresses: 0x77, or just 77
    • vendor: Adafruit, ASAIR, Infineon, Bosch, etc

    We’ve also add product and documentation links to every component. The documentation links will often a lead to one of our high quality Learn Guides, terrific! And for folks browsing for components to buy, the product links are a handy shortcut to the Adafruit Shop or wherever the component is sold.

    If you’d like to see a video of the new component picker in action, you can see me walking through it on a recent episode of Show & Tell!

    Working in the Sun

    At Adafruit, we’re dedicated to open source. All of our WipperSnapper-compatible components are created and maintained in the Wippersnapper_Components open-source JSON repository. We’re proud to be able to work in the open. In fact, the work for this update was iterated openly on this Pull Request!

    If there’s a component you’d like to see supported by WipperSnapper, head over and check the Request Issues page to see if it’s already in the works. If not, feel free to open an issue requesting your favorite component! And, if you’re handy with code, you could even get involved and contribute to the project. After all, the microcontroller code that drives WipperSnapper is open-source as well.

    Magic Configuration

    Not to be outdone, we’ve also made some updates on the board side of things. With WipperSnapper up to 21 compatible boards (and counting!), and thousands of user boards active right now (and growing!), we knew it was time to make it easier to configure them.

    Export, Import, Magic

    The next time you take a look at one of your devices you might notice a new button at the top of the screen labeled “Auto-Config”:

    auto-config-button

    Upon clicking it, you’ll be presented with various auto-configuration options:

    auto-config-menu

    Quick overview of each:

    Export: Got a device configuration you’d like to recreate later? This will let you save a file that does just that. Maybe you want to delete and recreate this device? Or perhaps a friend wants to clone a setup of yours? Use export to get a file that can be imported later, instantly re-configuring the device exactly as you have it, now.

    Import: The opposite of export! This is where you take export files you’ve created, or received from a friend. Uploading a valid file here will provide an interface for rapidly creating a fully-configured device. Each component can be selected/deselected for import, individually. Any possible import errors will also be shown.

    Magic: Finally, the best part: MAGIC! For supported boards, Magic Config will jump straight to the import interface mentioned above with every built-in component on this board configured for import. That’s right, even boards with truly insane numbers of components onboard are ready to go in a one click (I’m looking at you, Funhouse!)

    To see a video of the Funhouse getting configured (almost instantly!), check out this clip from Show & Tell. Here’s an image of the Funhouse’s Magic Config import screen: so many components!

    funhouse-magic

    More Open Source

    Of course, we also built the board additions in the open, here’s some quick links for the curious:


    As always, if you have any suggestions or bugs to report about these new features, please let us know in the forums.

  • Adafruit IoT Monthly: Internet of Skulls, Ethernet Turns 50, and more!

    IoT Projects

    Internet of Skull: An Internet Status Monitor

    skull

    Maker Emily Velasco is known for her unique projects and the Internet of Skull is no different: “I live in a neighborhood with an internet provider of so-so quality. When the service works, it works well, but it goes down more often than it seems like it should for the $75 a month I have to pay for it.” This project monitors Emily’s home network status and displays it using an RGB LED for visual feedback. The project is mounted inside a fake skull, giving it a unique, biological, look. -MLE-Online

    Text to update this RGB LED Matrix

    scroll

    Send text messages that magically scroll across a RGB LED matrix in bright colors. Update the sign from anywhere, or give the control to your employees or family members, since there’s no coding or computer needed to update your sign. -Adafruit Learning System

    CAN Bus Sniffing with ESP32

    can

    The CAN bus, accessible through your car’s OBD-II port, is a channel holding real-time data from your car. EQMod developed an ESP32-powered dongle that plugs into an OBD-II port and can be used to sniff CAN bus data. Data is displayed on a self-hosted webpage. -HackADay

    Antique (Internet) Radio

    radio

    Craig Lindley built a vintage-style radio that plays music from an internet radio station. The enclosure is made from 1/8” baltic birch and the radio itself is powered by an ESP32 WROOM. -HackADay

    IoT News and More!

    How Raspberry Pis Were Used to Protect NASA Telescope Data

    telescope

    The Register explains how scientists used the power of Raspberry Pis saved data from the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope. - Adafruit Blog

    Ethernet is still going strong after 50 years

    ethernet

    Ethernet has become the standard wired local area network around the world, and it is widely used in businesses and homes. It was honored this year as an IEEE Milestone, a half-century after it was born. - IEEE Spectrum