The geekiest thing I ever did

In retrospect, I’m in awe of what I have accomplished here.

Somehow, despite having no training in engineering or programming, over 3.5 days I was able to create a TDS sensor that automatically goes online, connects to google and uploads results onto a spreadsheet. I did use and modify an open source tutorial in order to do it, but did it, I did! The tutorial I found on ProjectHub included a link to everything I needed from GitHub: Data libraries, Arduino code and the script to use for creating a google ap to allow the spreadsheet to communicate with the microcomputer that is trying to upload data to it. The only price for using this code was that it was originally written for a temperature and humidity sensor, so I needed to change the code to incorporate the data from my TDS sensor instead.

The first challenge I ran into was that the TDS sensor I had picked up didn't want to work when installed on the wifi-enabled “NodeMCU 1.0 (ESP8266)“ MicroComputer. It look me a day and a half to figure out that important tidbit. I ran the supplied sample code on 2 different NodeMCUs before giving up and going back to the original Arduino Uno I tested the sensor on to make sure the code was OK. It was.

That’s when I came up with my workaround. The arduino Uno is going to do the scanning before handing off the data (via serial connection) to the NodeMCU, which will only be responsible for posting the data to my spreadsheet. It took a little bit of digging through forums and message boards, but I was able to teach myself enough to come up with the code for handing off the data for upload from arduino to NodeMCU. That felt pretty darn good, let me tell you!

It felt even better when I saw the first flicker of activity on the spreadsheet, as information started filling my screen… information from the sensor on my desk that was being passed through 2 computers, before hitting the internet on a direct path to Google’s servers…

I feel like a Wizard