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  • Feb 29, 2024 • @lorennorman

    Blockly Interface for IO Actions

    update-banner

    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:

    An example from MIT Scratch

    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

    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

    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.

  • Feb 1, 2024 • @brentru

    Adafruit IoT Monthly: $5 BLE Occupancy Sensor, Ikea Sensors, and more!

    IoT Projects

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

    occupancy

    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

    ikea

    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

    radio

    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

    weather

    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

    ikea2

    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

    drm

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

  • Jan 9, 2024 • @brentru

    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…

  • Dec 20, 2023 • @brent

    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: aht20, servo, buzzer, button, etc
    • sensor types: light, temperature, pressure, humidity, etc
    • interface: i2c, uart, ds18x20, etc
    • vendor: Adafruit, ASAIR, Infineon, Bosch, 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
  • Dec 12, 2023 • @brubell

    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