A quick hello from the Adafruit IO Team to announce an important milestone, and to say “We’re Listening!”

The team have been hard at work, setting some good foundations for the year… however we’re still accepting more suggestions, feature requests, and wish-list items that you’d like to see on Adafruit IO in 2024. See the blog post or forum thread for more info, submit your ideas before the end of March via email, forum, social media, or other reliable transport methods (carrier pidgeon)… When you post, please add #AdafruitIO2024 and email iotnews@adafruit.com to let us know about your post, so we can post it on the Adafruit Blog!

What’s been going on?

📚 We’ve finally updated all the WipperSnapper boards + component’s Documentation

Documentation for the Win! All the I2C components now have their respective WipperSnapper guide page added to the product Learn Guides, and handily linked from the Component Picker dialog. We’ve also added guide pages for the other components where possible, although a few link to more general guides (like the NeoPixel Uber Guide).

Documentation links beneath each component image in the component picker, taking users to the specific component’s learn guide

Speaking of learn guides, our boards (the WipperSnapper devices) also have learn guides that contain simple instructions on using with WipperSnapper (and CircuitPython/Arduino). Detailing how to use of all the individual component types, so check those out if you’ve never looked before, and please let us know if you find any documenation related to WipperSnapper that’s out of date or incorrect.

Learn Guide for one of the supported boards on WipperSnapper, showing different component guide pages

⏲️ We’re upgrading Actions on Adafruit IO and need your feedback!

In case you missed it, or have heard the word “Blockly” and would like to know more… We’ve added Blockly based Actions to Adafruit IO, allowing a new more powerful way of creating Actions (used to automatically do things like switch a motor or send an email based on a schedule or feed value).

The IO Actions system has the same capabilities it always has, there’s simply a new way to author and edit your Actions using Blockly. We’ve written a new Learn guide covering the Blockly interface, how to use it, and some examples to demonstrate.

Blockly Actions in Adafruit IO

If you’re not into it, or you have issues with it, the old webform-based method of creating and editing your Actions is still available, for now. You can even swap back and forth, editing the same Action in either interface!

🌤️ 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.

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. Board contributions welcome too…

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

IoT Projects

A Simple IoT Doorbell Camera

Build a simple IoT doorbell camera using Adafruit’s MEMENTO. Press a mini LED arcade button to snap a photo and display it on an Adafruit IO Dashboard. Photos from the doorbell are sent to your email, too! The electronics are housed in a 3D-printed snap-fit enclosure. - Adafruit Learning System

Industrial Network Playground

A “playground” to learn more about hardware and software components in industrial setups, without the need for accessing a real industrial network. - HackADay.io

IOT Squirrel House

In many parts of the world, if you have a backyard, you likely have a bunch of squirrel neighbors, and should probably just make the most of it. Maker David McDaid did just that (and more) when he built this charming IOT Squirrel House for his back garden: “a squirrel house in our back garden that would be equipped with an ESP32, a camera, motion sensor, solar power, and would integrate with my Home Assistant OS, all using as many off-the-shelf components as possible”. - Adafruit Blog

Fixing a broken smart cat feeder with ESP8266

Jeff Sandberg’s PetNet eventually stopped working because the company went out of business. This write-up covers disassembling the cat feeder, reverse engineering it, and using a custom web interface to replace the original app. - PDX.su

Replacing an Old Honeywell Thermostat with a Raspberry Pi

A DIY approach to upgrading an old mercury-based thermostat to a mesh networked system of thermometers that report to a central thermostat. - Hackster.io

IoT News and More!

We want your feedback about Adafruit IO (and WipperSnapper firmware) to help us plan 2024 (and beyond) 🚀

Inspired by Scott’s blog post, CircuitPython 2024, the developers and designers on our IoT Platform, Adafruit IO, are requesting feedback (from you!) to help guide our development of this platform in 2024.

If you’re a current Adafruit Free IO user, an Adafruit IO Plus (paid) user, or have previously used Adafruit IO in the last year, we want to hear from you!

Read more and submit your feedback here…

Designing My Smart Home From Scratch, Part Zero

Evan Grove details the process of designing a smart home from scratch after they read a “fair share of terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad news about consumer IoT products bricking themselves and/or pwning their human caretakers. I use the term “caretakers” because you don’t actually own most of these products.” The system they’re designing considers the ethical implications of which gadgets you bring into your home and starts designing a platform. - hardfault.life

Hacking a Smart Home Device

An intense case study on reverse engineering an IoT smart device and the associated network protocol it uses. -jmswrnr

Hello from the Adafruit IO Team!

Spring is just getting starting (where I am, at least!), and it’s time to bring some of that spring freshness to IO Actions with a brand new interface: Blockly!

What is Blockly?

Blockly is that seemingly-ubiquitous Google open source project behind such well-known visual programming applications as:

• MIT Scratch
• Microsoft MakeCode
• Code.org

An example from MIT Scratch

The idea is to leave open-ended text editors and code syntax behind and simplify programming by adopting “blocks” that can be worked with spatially. Compatible blocks give a satisfying “click” when combined, giving the user positive feedback and confidence that they’ve done something right.

What’s Changed for IO Actions?

The IO Actions system has the same capabilities it always has, there’s simply a new way to author and edit your Actions using Blockly. We’ve written a new Learn guide covering the Blockly interface, how to use it, and some examples to demonstrate.

Blockly Actions in Adafruit IO

If you’re not into it, or you have issues with it, the old webform-based method of creating and editing your Actions is still available, for now. You can even swap back and forth, editing the same Action in either interface!

Why Blockly?

We think this approach will help users to visualize the options and opportunities of the Actions system a bit better. Some elements are drastically easier to understand, such as the scheduling options for Scheduled Actions (these wrap a crontab string, a notoriously difficult to understand bit of configuration.)

The new scheduling options

It’s also true that the old forms are a bit fragile, or sub-optimal in certain ways, and Blockly obviates those problems entirely. But the real excitement lies ahead…

What’s Next?

We’ve long wondered how to put more power into users’ hands with Actions, but we’ve struggled with the tradeoff between power and simplicity. At Adafruit, we always want to make things easier and avoid complicating them as much as possible. With Blockly now in hand, a clear path forward is starting to appear.

Imagine having such tools at your disposal as:

• conditionals, logic operations, comparisons
• arithmetic, variables
• multiple triggers and actions in a single Action run
• more control when and how Actions run
• Power-Ups

Stay tuned for more later this year!

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

IoT Projects

Building an occupancy sensor with a $5 ESP32 and a serverless DB

Matt didn’t think he would “design a full end-to-end software solution to collect occupancy data across a college campus” but he ended up doing just that. This project collects BLE beacons from nearby devices, as a count for occupancy, and sends it back to a time series database for analysis. - Matthew Science Blog

No-Code IKEA Vindriktning Air Quality Sensor Hack with Adafruit IO

The IKEA Vindriktning is an inexpensive air-quality monitor that’s readily available online (from Ikea’s website) or at a retail IKEA store. This guide will show you how to connect your Vindriktning to the Internet to log air quality data over time, without any programming required. - Adafruit Learning System

An ESP32-based internet radio streamer

Dimitris has taken an unused ESP32 board and fashioned an I2S streaming internet radio. - Adafruit Blog

Make a Weather Clock with the Feather Huzzah ESP8266

Instructables user Elaine Gao made this beautiful weather clock using a Feather Huzzah ESP8266 and Adafruit IO! - Instructables

IoT News and More!

Ikea debuts three affordable smart home sensors

Each sensor costs less than $10 and can be used to detect open doors, windows, motion or water leaks. - The Verge

Breaking Free from DRM: The Story of Hacking My Air Purifier

An investigation into the Xiaomi 4 Pro’s DRM’d Air Purifier - Unethical

Editor’s Note - Happy Holidays!

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

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

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

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

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

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…

• In 2022-2023, 28% of US Internet Households Have 3+ Smart Home Devices yet Whirlpool and LG claim customers aren’t connecting their smart appliances to the internet.
• Ethernet turned 50 years old last year! IEEE Spectrum
• X (formerly Twitter) disconnected Internet of Things projects from Tweeting on their platform in 2023 by removing free API access. - X