Walt, AB0VZ, conducted a training class on programming an embedded controller at the Parker United Methodist Church in Parker for Colorado ARES R1D5 members on Saturday morning, May 14th. This was a chance to learn how to do a small project that implemented an ESP8266-based controller, temperature and humidity sensor and a small OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display. Members learned how to use the Arduino IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to download the required libraries, make changes to a provided program and download it to the controller board. The controller board includes Wi-Fi capability, so the program made use of that feature to provide current time using an online NTP (Network Time Protocol) server and generated a basic HTML web page so that the temperature and humidity readings could be displayed on member’s smartphones, tablets or laptops by pointing their browser to the controller’s IP address.
Walt did a great job gathering together the required electronic parts, breadboards and associated cables. It was a fun time to get together as a group and learn how to program an embedded controller using the Arduino IDE. Thanks to Walt for providing another fun project involving electronics!
