A web server?
I know I’ve been a little down on the compatability issues I’ve been having with the NodeMCU lately, but that just changed in a spectacular way! While trying to look up info on controlling NeoPixels with a PCF8591 DAC, I somehow ended up generating some rogue results… like a link to a datasheet=esque website on the ESP32 chip (it drives the NodeMCU) and on that page I saw a link to some technical info about accessing the ESP32’s built in webserver.
Excuse me? …web server?
Yes. The ESP32 is designed to be connected to and receive instructions from the local network.
That means I’ll be able to interface/control ir with my tablet. Wow… that’s some next level stuff, and I might be crazy for saying this, but from the bit I just skimmed over it doesn’t look like it will be difficult to set up.
That is one bafflingly irrelevant, yet incredibly awe inspiring game changer of a find, when googling “controlling Neopixels with DAC“.
Update: The code/libraries on that tutorial were not compatible with my NodeMCU, however the second tutorial I found was compatible.
Using it, I was able to control a pair of LEDs, using my tablet’s WiFi connection… something which stunned me into giddiness, as I was slightly overwhelmed by the worlds of possibilities that the wifi interface just put within my reach.
With the limited number of available communication pins on the NodeMCU, I’m very limited on how I can manually interface/give commands to the Colonel.
I was thinking that any commands I was going to give the Node were going to come through the Uno via RxTX serial messages.
Now, instead of needing to wire, connect and program a button to manually push data to the spreadsheet, I can use the Colonel’s internal webserver to display all my sensor data on my tablet, and issue commands such as “upload data to spreadsheet” or (eventually) customizing alert levels by selecting which crop profile it should compare sensor data against.
This is an absolute game changer.
