Another month, another Adafruit IO update! This time we’re bringing gorgeous default WipperSnapper component visualizations and the ability for users to customize them.

New! Configurable Component Visualizations

We’re pretty proud of our built-in visualizations:

…but we don’t require you to like them, so we’ve made them customizable.

Custom Labels

Maybe “On/Off” isn’t exciting enough for your IoT lights and you want to change it to something more provocative. Now you can!

Simply open the component settings (little gear icon in the top right of its panel) and you’ll see an “Appearance” section of the form. Type whatever text you want in the “On Label” and “Off Label” fields to see your changes reflected in the visualization live:

Custom Icons

What about those icons? I’m so glad you asked, because those are customizable as well! At launch, we have 2 sets of icons available:

• Font Awesome 6 (the same icons you see around the site)
• Emoji 😎

Changing icons is similar to editing labels, but you click the icon field to see a snazzy new icon picker:

New! Component Contributors Can Set Their Default Visualizations

In the last update, we talked about how our WipperSnapper-capable Components are now completely managed via JSON in a public GitHub repository. Now, that JSON can include visualization data, so folks contributing new Components to IO can make sure they are rendered beautifully by default. (At least until a user overrides those settings with their own idea of “beautiful”!)

Here’s a quick look at the JSON for the LED component:

{
  "displayName": "LED",
  "autoSelectString": "led",
  "mode": "DIGITAL",
  "direction": "OUTPUT",
  "visualization": {
    "type": "switch",
    "offLabel": "Off",
    "offIcon": "fa6:regular:lightbulb",
    "onLabel": "On",
    "onIcon": "fa6:solid:lightbulb-on"
  }
}

That visualization section is the new bit. It’s pretty straightforward, but you’ll still need a guide to explain the syntax and options available. Check out the Component Contribution Guide to learn how to add (and visualize) all those components you wish IO had.

New! I2C Sensors Display Their Appropriate SI Units

Those incredible little I2C components can sure sense a lot of different stuff! From temperature to acceleration to air quality, we know it’s important to be clear about what exactly we’re tracking. With this update we’ve added the appropriate SI Units to each kind of sensor, so you always know exactly what the numbers mean.

Here’s an example using an upcoming component (the LC709203F Battery Monitor):

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

IoT Projects

IoT Geiger Counter

With increasing discussions about nuclear war, g3gg0 felt “people got into thinking about radioactive exposure again”. However, most Geiger counters, a small instrument to detect radiation, available on the internet do not send their measurements to the internet. In the link, G3gg0 built their own internet-connected Geiger counter from start to end. - g3gg0

Machine Learning Hungry Baby Monitor

Caleb built a warning system for when his baby gets hungry. The baby monitor’s camera, interfaced with Google MediaPipe, can now detect behaviors like lip smacking, pacifier rejection, and fist rejection. - HackaDay

Tracking Satellites with a Low-Cost Base Station

Alberto Nunez built a base station for $40 capable of tracking satellites as they pass overhead. This project sends data to TinyGS, an “open network of Ground Stations distributed worldwide to receive and operate LoRa satellites, weather probes, and other flying objects. - HackaDay

Trials of Building an Internet-Enabled Vaccine Fridge

Charlie is building an internet-enabled fridge for a local veterinarian’s vaccine storage. The previous design used a Particle board and a cellular network to send a fridge’s configurable temperature reading to the internet. The latest post in this series attempts to “live the IoT dream” by connecting the fridge to an Arduino Opla and Arduino Cloud. -molecularist

IoT Pet Food Scale with Azure and CircuitPython

Liz Clark built a pet food scale using CircuitPython and a strain gauge. Measurements are sent to Microsoft Azure to ensure your pet doesn’t go hungry. - Adafruit Blog

LoRa Water Tank Level and Pump Controller

Renzo Mischianti is building a solar-powered controller for a water tank. This tank sits 1.5km away from home, with no power. The controller sends the water tank sensor readings over LoRa. The water pump activates when the tank’s water is too low. - HackaDay

A Simple Garage Door Opener with the Raspberry Pi Pico W

Core Electronics wired a garage door controller to the new Raspberry Pi Pico W. With some MicroPython code, the Pico W hosts its own web server which can be accessed to control the garage door. - core-electronics

IoT News and More!

Adafruit WipperSnapper - Updates & More!

The Adafruit IO team recently pushed a shiny new “getting started” experience for WipperSnapper that’s perfect for folks building their first IoT project. In addition to us blogging about the new onboarding process and design changes, we’ve also swept through existing product documentation to update the WipperSnapper firmware setup and Adafruit IO Usage process for each board.

Blecon - Network Infrastructure for BLE

BLEcon attempts to be the “missing network infrastructure for BLE” by using smartphones as Internet access points. - blecon

IoT Projects

A Nautical Barometer for Precise Weather Forecasts

Debinix is a sailor who built a nautical barometer with environmental sensors to measure short-term changes in the weather, and also fetch long-term forecasts to display future weather on the sea. - instructables

Check your Mailbox with a fake Apple AirTag

Dakhnod developed FakeTag, a custom firmware for nRF51 chips that is compatible with Apple’s “Find My” ecosystem. With an nRF51 running FakeTag and a vibration sensor, dakhnod monitors if their mailbox has been opened. - GitHub

Building a Smarter Kitty Litter Tray

Andy Bradford‘s cat, Ellie, is hard to pick up and place on a scale. Unfortunately, this means that Ellie is weighed only once a year at the vet. He “wanted to build something that would fit into her life to track her weight automatically, without any intervention”. - Adafruit Blog

ESP32 TikTok Watch

A wearable device to stream TikTok videos to your wrist. - HackADay

LIDAR-based Letterbox Notifier

A mailbox notifier using a LIDAR distance sensor instead of the standard vibration sensor we usually see in these types of projects. - inspectmygadgets

Beehappy, an IoT Beehive

An internet-enabled beehive for beekeepers to track honey quantity, quality, and alerts for if the beehive was tampered with. - instructables

$10 Automated Blinds

An inexpensive automatic blind setup (around $10 per blind) that can be controlled automatically by the open-source Home Assistant software. -HackADay

Cellular-Enabled Power Outage Detector w/ SMS Notifications

Building a cellular power outage detector with Twilio and a Cellular Notecard from Blues Wireless. - Hackster

IoT News and More!

Raspberry Pi Pico W: $6 IoT platform

The brand-new Raspberry Pi Pico W features a powerful chip, the RP2040, and all the fixin’s to get started with IoT embedded electronics projects at a stress-free price of $6. - Adafruit Shop

ESP32-C5: Espressif’s first Dual-Band Wi-Fi 6 MCU

Espressif announced the ESP32-C5, a dual-band (2.4GHz and 5GHz) microcontroller with WiFi 6! - Espressif

Expired Certificate Causes German Card Payment Systems Outage

The Verifone H5000 had a security certificate stored on the card reader expire. While this hardware is no longer produced by Verifone, it is still in use across Germany. When building a device that connects to the internet, it’s important to consider how many years the certificates stored on the device are active for and provide a way to update them. - HackADay

Custom Web-Based UI for IoT devices with Golioth

Golioth published a blog about designing a custom, web-based UI project, using their firmware and web console. - Adafruit Blog

Adafruit.io, the IoT Platform for Everyone

Sign up for our IoT Platform, Adafruit IO (for free!) by clicking this link. We don’t have investors and we’re not going to sell your data. When you sign up for Adafruit IO+, you’re supporting the same Adafruit Industries whose hardware and software you already know and love! You help make sure we’re not going anywhere by letting us know we’re on the right track.

We’re back with new WipperSnapper features, exciting open source integrations, and a fresh design language for all of IO!

New! Built-in Firmware Installer for WipperSnapper

With the WipperSnapper firmware rocketing through the versions (Beta 39 last I checked!), we’ve made it easier than ever to install it on compatible hardware. Visit the new board selector to get started!

First, you’ll be presented with a list of compatible boards (18 and growing!) Select a board and IO dons its robe and hat to walk you through the install as a series of simple, well-explained steps (it’s a wizard, get it?)

Here’s the sort of thing we cover:

• plugging the board in with an appropriate cable
• downloading the latest, stable firmware version, built custom to your board
• a helpful reset timing animation for reliably entering bootloader mode
• setting up your secrets file (AIO Key embedded automatically!)
• understanding the pattern of blinking lights during firmware boot

Note: Not all WipperSnapper-compatible boards work with the new firmware installer. We still have our external firmware tool for LittleFS boards, and the original, manual install guide.

Open Source the Good Parts

Curious how all of this works? You’re in luck, as WipperSnapper is following a well-worn path for us here at Adafruit of open-sourcing the most powerful bits of our software systems: the data that drives things!

The list of compatible boards is driven by a few lines of JSON and some optional image files from the WipperSnapper Boards repository. Go on, take a peek if you’re curious! I’ll wait.

Cool huh? Now, if you’re interested in adding a whole new board to the WipperSnapper system, you’re in luck! Just for folks like you, we’ve written a guide to submitting new hardware to WipperSnapper.

So what are you waiting for?!? Now anyone can get their IoT products into the no-code-zone… with Adafruit IO and WipperSnapper!

User Interface Update: Main Menu

If you’ve looked in the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed the entire top of Adafruit IO has gotten a refresh. We’ve cleaned up the main menu, made links instant, and organized individual pages to share a common design language. Taken altogether, the site becomes easier to get around and just feels snappier.

Let’s look at some of the changes.

AIO Key and New Device Button

The “AIO Key” button is now a simple key icon. It still works the same, it’s just prettier! Its companion, the “New Device” button, gets you straight into the new, easy-to-use board installer no matter what page you’re on.

Devices

The “Devices” menu item is really just WipperSnapper, but renamed and moved to the front of the menu! As WipperSnapper settles down and accepts its destiny as the easiest way to use IO, it will gradually just become IO.

Take a look at the Devices page and you’ll see we’ve improved how your existing WipperSnapper devices are visualized:

Feeds, Dashboards, and Actions

These 3 pages kept their names (though “Actions” used to be “Triggers”.) The Feeds page now more clearly differentiates traditional Groups and Feeds from WipperSnapper Devices and Components.

Services became Power-Ups

“Power-Ups” is a simple rename from what were called “Services”. This is in anticipation of expanding these in the medium future, as we think they pair beautifully with the sheer ease of using WipperSnapper. Stay tuned!

Flyouts Gone

There are no more “flyouts” when you click a menu item, instead we navigate to the selected page instantly. We think this is a better experience: the whole site feels snappier!

Where’s my Profile?

We removed “Profile” as a main menu link, it was taking up valuable space and we already had other ways to get to those account pages. For instance, you can click your username just below the main menu on the left of most pages. You can also click “Account” near the top right of the page to reveal an “Adafruit IO Profile” link. (Sub-pages in the Profile area also need love and will be updated in a future release.)

Buttons! Alerts!

We’ve begun a broad overhaul to the design language of Adafruit IO, starting with the things you touch the most (Buttons!), and the things that yell at you the most (Alerts!).

This work will continue as we ship other features in the coming weeks.

Actions Page Update

The interface for creating and changing Actions was kind of buggy, so we updated it in this release as well. (Actions are another great pair for WipperSnapper!) The form is laid out better on its own page (instead of inside a “pop over” window.) We think it’s much nicer to use, now.

We think this makes a lot more sense, and it doesn’t break so easily now!

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

IoT Projects

eInk Postcard Frame

This digital picture frame with an e-Ink display allows friends to upload and share photos to the display via a web interface. The project’s creator notes, “a kind of slow, fancy and black and white Snapchat”. - Hackaday.io

VR Spectrum Analyzer

A virtual reality interface for the spectrum analyzer software package, RTL-SDR. Considering most of our reader’s workbenches are full of diagnostic tools with small displays like oscilloscopes or multimeters, there’s a lot of potential in VR/AR tooling for engineering work. There’s a video on YouTube showing the tool in action. - GitHub.com

LoRa QWERTY Communicator

A “feature-packed” communication device for communicating text messages over the LoRa protocol. This project provides an alternative to cellular-based text message communication with low setup overhead. The editor especially likes the repurposing of a Blackberry Q10 keyboard. - GitHub

Plant Bot - Automated Plant Care

A “smart” gardening stake project that monitors and measures a plant’s moisture. Plants can be watered by pumps connected to the plant bot stake, too. - Hackaday.io

Building A Smarter Sprinkler System

Chris moved into a home and the “existing sprinkler system controller turns on when it is not supposed to, and forgets everything whenever the power blips”. The completed project integrates into Chris’ existing home sprinkler system controller and he now manages the 24V system using Python. - cdake

IoT News and More!

S1 System On Module

Silicon Witchery announced their S1 “System on a Module” for Bluetooth, FPGA, and Battery Management. This “hybrid” module mixes 4 components which are traditionally separate on a development board, into one chip. The S1 contains a nRF52 for processing and Bluetooth 5.2 support, a flash module for boot-code and user storage, a iCE40 FPGA for additional GPIO/SPI/I2C peripherals, and a PMIC buck-boost for charging. - Silicon Witchery

ESP32uesday: ESP32 Family, GPIO and Adafruit_Protomatter

Adafruit’s Phil B writes about the journey to acquire a more profound knowledge of the Espressif ESP32 family. - Adafruit Blog

Adafruit.io, the IoT Platform for Everyone

Sign up for our IoT Platform, Adafruit IO (for free!) by clicking this link. We don’t have investors and we’re not going to sell your data. When you sign up for Adafruit IO+, you’re supporting the same Adafruit Industries whose hardware and software you already know and love! You help make sure we’re not going anywhere by letting us know we’re on the right track.