Tutorial: Part 3 – Assembly – IOT ESP32 Solar Powered WiFi Night Light

August 21, 2018 3D Printing, ESP32, IOT, Solar Cells, Solar Power, SunAirPlus, SwitchDoc Products, Tutorials

Tutorial: Part 3 – Assembly – IOT ESP32 Solar Powered WiFi Night Light

Step-By-Step Assembly Guide

Here is your chance to build a solar powered  WiFi remote control ESP32 based nightlight for use outdoors.   The full Solar Powered Nightlight kit comes with mounting pylons and a water proof enclosure.

This is a great beginners Kit!

This is an easy to build kit with no soldering required.

The Solar Powered Night Light is WiFi controllable using the REST interface built into the software.  For example:

Sending the command inn a browser (of course, using your IP# for your Solar Night Light):

https://192.168.1.154/

you will get (assuming you have the right IP Address)

{"variables": {"solarVoltage": 1.52, "batteryVoltage": 4.14, "solarCurrent": 0.00, "batteryCurrent": 2.40, "loadCurrent": 1.20, "loadVoltage": 4.97, "currentLEDMode": 0, "darkLight": 0, "Version": "005"}, "id": "", "name": "SDL_ESP32_BC24_SOLARNL", "hardware": "esp32", "connected": true}

Look at all that information! Data! This tells us a lot about the solar power system and what is going on with the system! Not only it is cool to look at, it makes a great science project too.

This is a five part tutorial series:

 

The Kit contains the powerful ESP32 dual core processor mounted on the BC24 24 RGBW Programmable LED board with Grove Connectors!   No Soldering!

You can see and buy the entire kit here.

Step-By-Step Assembly Instructions

Step 1) Familiarize yourself with all of the parts A-H in Part 2 of the tutorial.

Step 2) Locate the SunAirPlus board (B) and the Grove Cable – Female Header to Grove Connector (G).

Step 3) Connect the Grove Cable Female Headers (G) to the SunAirPlus Board (B) as shown below.  DO THIS STEP CORRECTLY!

You connect the included Grove to Female Pin Headers Adaptor Cable to the “From Computer” header as shown below.

Wire Colors

Wire colors on standard Grove Cables are always the same. Below are the functions for the  Grove Cable for I2C.

Pin 1 – Yellow SCL

Pin 2 – White SDA

Pin 3 – Red – VDD

Pin 4 – Black – GND

Step 4) Check the Wire Colors connected to the SunAirPlus Board (B) and make sure they are correct.  You could damage the board and power supply if these are wrong! 

Step 5) Take the White Plug End of the Grove Cable (G) and Plug it into the Grove Connector A-1 on the BC24 Board (A) 

 

Step 6) Take your USB A/Micro Cable (E) and plug the A end into SunAirPlus (B).  Then take the Micro end of the Cable (E) and plug it into the BC24 (A) USB Connector.

Step 7) Take your Two Solar Panels ( C)  and plug the two solar panels into the  Multi-Solar Panel Connector Board (D) into SP1 and SP2 using the JPT-PH-2 attached cables (attached to the Solar Panels ( C)). 

Step 8) Plug the 20cm JST-PH-2 Female to Female cable (included in Multi-Solar Panel Connector (D)) from the Multi-Solar Panel Connector (D) connector marked TOCH to the SunAirPlus (B) connector marked “Solar” as in the picture below.   MAKE SURE TO CONNECT THIS CORRECTLY! 

Step 9) Take your LiPo Battery (NOT INCLUDED IN KIT) and plug the JST-PH-2 plug from the LiPo Battery into the JST-PH-2 female plug on SunAIrPlus (B) market Battery as below.  MAKE SURE TO CONNECT THIS CORRECTLY!

 

You have now completed the assembly of the Kit.  Next, we proceed to initial testing.

Initial Testing

Look at the switch on top of SunAirPlus (B).  It if is pushed to the Left (look at SunAirPlus with the Main Text facing you), then the system is turned off.  SunAirPlus will still charge your battery.  This switch just turns off the power to the BC24.

Turn the slide switch to the Right.  Assuming you have a charged LiPo Battery, the BC24 will boot up and will start flashing 3 white LEDs as below.  If you see these lights, you have completed initial testing.

What if I don’t see the White LEDs? 

Turn off the switch (to the left) and go back and check all your wiring for errors.  Then check to see if your LiPo battery is charged (most are shipped charged).   You can also plug in another USB to Mini plug in the Mini USB cord and charge the battery that way.   Check out the SunAirPlus specification on shop.switchdoc.com for details.

 

Coming Next?

Next proceed to Part 4 Putting your box in the waterproof box, or go to thePart 5 Software on the BC24 Solar Powered Night Light  to explore the software.