My stuff 2026

Over on the CIAOPS Blog I do a number of annual posts on a range of items I use in my business. I thought therefore I should start doing one here. So here goes:

Snapmaker Artisan – My 3D printer of choice. I have had this for a few years and use it to create everything I need. Love the quality of the device as well as the results that I get. I can do laser cutting and CNC as well if you change the print head but for me, most of time is spent printing.

Snap Make U1 – After supporting this on Kickstarter earlier this year I have only just received my unit this week. I’ll be posting more about this printer once I have it all working. In essence, where it differs from the Snapmaker Artisan is that the U1 allows you to print four (4) different colours without having to change filament. Looking forward to what I can get from this.

Visual Studio code – my software development environment. Free from Microsoft. I use this to managed and develop all the code for my IoT projects.

PlatformIO – I use this extension in my coding environment to actually managed my IoT projects. It allows me to select the right controller board, manage the driver libraries as well as upload the code to the actual controller boards. A must. Many other use the Arduno IDE and even though PlatformIO does take a little to get used to, for me it is the way to go and allows to to develop and test things easily.

Github Copilot – starts with a free version but I’m using the Pro version for $10 per month and would recommend that as it just makes life so easy. Code is the real secret to getting IoT projects working and I am not a developer and my C programming is pretty rusty so the number of times AI has allowed to create what I want is amazing. It also deals with compile and syntax errors, missing driivers, commenting code and so much more. I’d still be battling away with the basics if I wasn’t using this and for free so should you!

Github – where I publish all my code and documentation for my projects. Hopefully what I create can help others as they have helped me. Also a great place to file projects for the time you need to go back and find out how do did something. Again, there is no cost to get started using GitHub.

Core Electronics – My primary source for components. Great range, easy purchasing and quick delivery. Highly recommended.

Little Bird Electronics – My backup source for components. Again, great range, easy purchasing and quick delivery. Highly recommended.

Acebott controllers – My current choice when it comes to controller boards and projects. Their stuff is the way I shoudl have started my IoT journey.

Keyestudio – Another great controller and kit seller I use regularly.

Amazon – Always a great source for anything I need, whether controller or sensor boards, tools, etc. Easy ordering and quick delivery. This is where I got my Robot Arm from.

That’s probably enough to give you an idea of the main things I use in the lab. Hopefully, it you can take a look at these if you have any interest and let me know if you have any questions on anything here.

Send images from Arducam to Azure

Now that I have my Arducam working, the next step is to be able to upload the images from the camera to Azure Blob storage. To do this, you’ll need to set up an Azure subscription and follow these steps to actually create an Azure Storage Account:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Arducam/3MP/azure-storage.md

It is also recommended that you place all you sensitive information (WiFi password, Azure information, etc) in an io_config.h file to separate it from the main code.

With the Azure Blob storage configured next you’ll need to hook up your Arducam to your controller. This time I’ve gone for a Acebott ESP32-Max-V1.0 because it has inbuilt Wifi. Thus, I have wired the following ports:

VSPI (recommended):

MOSI (GPIO 23): Top right area, blue header row
MISO (GPIO 19): Top right area, blue header row
SCK (GPIO 18): Top right area, blue header row
CS (GPIO 5): Top left area, blue header row (you can use any available GPIO for CS) orange

Acebott ESP32-Max-V1.0 pinout

Arducam Pinout

I then uploaded teh following code to the Acebott board:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Arducam/3MP/capture-image-azure.cpp

and the documentation for this is here:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Arducam/3MP/capture-image-azure.md

but in essence after the board has booted the serial interface will show:

If you select one of the upload options you should see something like:

then if you look inside the Azure Blob storage container you should see the file like so:

This should make it easy to store many images from the camera without having to use the serial port to view and download them

Arducam success! Finally

If you have been following along here for a while you’ll know that I have had constant failures trying to get an Arducam Mega 3MP working with my IoT projects. The last attempt was:

https://blog.ciaopslabs.com/2025/07/13/arducam-mega-3mp-failed-attempt/

After getting my robot car working with a PS3 controller I was working towards getting the PS3 controller also working with my robot arm. At the moment the robot arm is connected to a Keyestudio KS0172 with a Keyestudio Sensor Shield/Expansion Board V5 for Arduino Leonardo attached. Unfortunately, the Keyestudio KS0172 lacks both Bluetooth and Wifi but I noticed the Keyestudio Sensor Shield/Expansion Board V5 for Arduino Leonardo actually has a dedicated SPI port like so:

Ah ha. I wonder if I can get that working with the Arducam? Spoiler alert, yes I can.

I have now come to realise probably the two biggest mistakes I have made with the Arducam Mega 3MP:

1. I thought it was a ‘streaming’ style camera. No it’s designed really just to take pictures

2. I need something to ‘read/download’ the images from the camera to actually see those images

With the camera connected to the Keyestudio Sensor Shield/Expansion Board V5 for Arduino Leonardo SPI port. As a reminder the camera connections are:

I used this piece of code on the Keyestudio KS0172:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Arducam/3MP/capture-image.cpp

to connect to the camera and allow a photo to be taken and stream it down the serial port on request. The documentation for this code is here:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Arducam/3MP/capture-image.md

I then had to write some Python code to actually initiate a photo being taken and extract the image from the camera over the USB/serial port and put it into a subdirectory on my machine. That code is here:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Arducam/3MP/capture-image.py

and the documentation for that is here:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Arducam/3MP/capture-image-py.md

and to execute this Python script I also needed to install Python on my machine, which is pretty easy in Visual Studio code by just adding the Python extension.

With all that in place and after a bit of back and forth to get the image to download correctly via the serial port I was indeed able to confirm that my Arducam Mega 3MP is working properly and I can now use it to take photos.

Phew. That took a long time and a lot of effort. I think my major oversights, listed above, really held me back here along with the usual physical connection challenges. Now, I have a much better understanding of what the camera can and can’t do and what I need to actually see an image and most importantly the Arducam Mega 3MP is finally actually working!

ACEBOTT Smart car – Bringing it all together

It is now time to bring all the pieces together on the Acebott Smart Car and make it a movable platform that can stream live video.

I’ve taken the standard ACEBOTT ESP32 Smart Car Starter Kit with Mecanum Wheels and added the ACEBOTT Bluetooth Controller Expansion for QD001 (QD010) to control its movement. I have also added the ACEBOTT ESP32 Camera Expansion pack for Smart Car (QD002) to give the car vision.

You can see that I have kept the ultrasonic sensor from QD001 and simply mounted the camera (QD002) on top to facilitate pan left and right. I could have added an additional servo to control this independently of the ultrasonic sensor, however in the end I decided that it was easier simply to print a 3D mount so the camera unit could sit above the ultrasonic senor and take advantage of the pan left and right servo already in place. I could refine the design with a separate 3D printed mount for the camera unit if desired, but for the sake of getting things working I’ve decide to stay with thsi method.

I have detailed how to get the PS3 controller (QD010) working with the robot car (QD001) here –

https://blog.ciaopslabs.com/2025/12/28/connecting-a-joystick-controller-to-an-acebott-esp32-smart-car/

and I have covered off getting the camera (QD002) working stand alone here:

https://blog.ciaopslabs.com/2025/12/31/connecting-a-webcam-to-an-acebott-esp32-smart-car/

You’ll find the code and documentation in those articles. At a minimum you’ll need to program the camera (QD002) to support the creation of a web server so it can stream the video to a device.

To mount a device with a screen (an old iPhone) to the PS3 controller (QD010) I found this:

Universal smartphone mount for DUALSHOCK 3 (PS3 controller)

that I could 3D print. I did need to slight extend the width of the base to suit my controller but it worked a treat.

The above version of the holder was my first printing attempt where I broke the lower part of the base holder when attempting to fit on the controller. This lead to me slightly lengthening the model the second time around that fixed the issue. The initial broken model is secured here using some rubber bands but the re done version fits perfectly.

With the code loaded into the robot car (QD001) and the camera (QD002) as well as having the PS3 controller (QD010) connected the end result looks like:

Connecting a webcam to an ACEBOTT ESP32 Smart Car

With a PS3 style controller connected to an Acebott ESP32 Smart Car my next task was getting the add QD002 ACEBOTT ESP32 Camera Expansion pack for Smart Car working.

I had previously tried to get an Arducam Mega 3MP working and failed miserably, but was highly motivated to overcome that setback with a purpose built camera add on in the Acebott QD002.

Things did not get off to a great start because the connection process required the camera to be connected to the UART port of the driver board.

The problem with that is the UART port conflicts with the serial port for uploads and monitoring. This mean hat I needed to disconnect the camera UART connection every time I wanted to update my code and then with it reconnected there was no real way to monitor the result. I either need to go to great lengths to program up and connected a different UART on the board or find another solution.

The easiest solution was to simply upload the code on the ESP32 camera to enable a web server to stream the code directly from the camera board. You’ll find that code here:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Acebott/Smartcar/QD002/ACEBOTT%20QD002%20Camera%20Car%20V3.8/webcam.cpp

and the documentation for it here:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Acebott/Smartcar/QD002/ACEBOTT%20QD002%20Camera%20Car%20V3.8/webcam.md

Thus, the camera board will boot, connect to WiFi, run a web server, report that IP address to the serial console of the web camera board and then stream the camera video there.

I cannot tell you how satisfying it was to finally seeing streamed images on my screen. It had taken a long time to to get here but now, finally, I was ready to finish assembly of the car and mount camera onto it!

Tamiya 1/35 German King Tiger Tank (Ardennes Front)

Tamiya 1/35 German King Tiger Tank (Ardennes Front) Scaled Plastic Model Kit

Paints

Recommended by Tamiya

TS-1 Red Brown

TS-2 Dark Green

TS-3 Dark Yellow

TS-46 Light Sand

X-10 Gloss Gun Metal

X-11 Gloss Chrome Silver

X-18 Semi-Gloss Black

XF-1 Flat Black

XF-10 Flat Brown

XF-15 Flat Flesh

XF-16 Flat Aluminium

XF-27 Flat Black Green

XF-5 Flat Green

XF-52 Flat Earth

XF-56 Flat Metallic Grey

XF-60 Flat Dark Yellow

XF-61 Flat Dark Green

XF-63 Flat German Grey

XF-64 Flat Red Brown

XF-65 Flat Field Grey

Connecting a joystick controller to an ACEBOTT ESP32 Smart Car

After being able to control the Acebott ESP32 Smart car via a web server my next aim was to control it using am Xbox/Playstation style joystick controller.

Initially I thought hat I could use an older Xbox style controller. Turns out these use 2.4Ghz wireless and a proprietary connection. Then I thought I could use a newer style Xbox controller that is Bluetooth, but it turns out they use Bluetooth 5 and use proprietary encryption. I did see a few of these working on the Internet but for the life of me I couldn’t get it to work.

I therefore asked AI which controller would be the easiest to get working and was told to get:

8BitDo Ultimate 2C Bluetooth Controller for Switch/Switch 2, Wireless Controller with 6-Axis Motion Control, Rumble Vibration, Refined D-Pad and Bumpers, and Hall Effect Joysticks (Blue)

This launched me into a world a hurt and failure (thanks AI). In short, this 8BitDo controller appears to also only be Bluetooth 5 and the Acebott ESP32 only supported Bluetooth 4.2 LE (Low Energy).

Making the same mistake twice (what’s the definition of stupidity again?) I asked AI to recommend a different ESP32 board that would work with the 8BitDo and was told that a “ESP32-C3 DevKit” would be the most reliable. I then went and bought an ESP32-C3 Mini Development Board. Even after being ‘100% sure’ that it would work, the AI could not make it work either.

I then came across the ACEBOTT Bluetooth Controller Expansion for QD001, which is designed for the Acebott Smart Car.

With this I finally could get the controller talking to the ESP32 on the Smart Car. However, to pair the controller and the ESP32 I needed to specific the MAC address of the controller, which is conveniently on the bottom of the controller. But to get the ESP32 to pair back to the controller I needed to embed the MAC address of the ESP32 Bluetooth connection into the controller. To do this it recommended using a Sixasix Pair tool. For the life of me, I couldn’t get this to work but with my Controller at least paired to the ESP32 I could send commands which is all I really wanted.

I got AI to rewrite the code to allow the PS3 style controller to control the movement of the SmartCar. I have uploaded the code here:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Acebott/Smartcar/QD010/car-ps3.cpp

I also needed to add some speed trimming of the motors because the car was veering off in one direction. The documentation for the above code is here:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Acebott/Smartcar/QD010/car-ps3-overview.md

This whole process proved much harder that I expected and getting a Bluetooth working initially as extremely frustrating given teh different versions and controllers, but now the ‘generic’ PS3 style controller works well!

ACEBOTT ESP32 Smart Car with web control

Now that I had my robot car working with IR I upgraded the code to also allow control via a web server hosted on the ESP32.

You’ll find the code for the controller here:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Acebott/Smartcar/with-web-serve.cpp

and documentation here:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Acebott/Smartcar/with-web-serve.md

More controller updates coming.

LEGO® Technic Ferrari FXX K 42212 Model Car Kit

https://www.amazon.com.au/Technic-Ferrari-42212-Building-Vehicle/dp/B0DWDRX69Q/

Done

ACEBOTT ESP32 Smart Car with IR Control

Screenshot 2025-08-28 080437

I got my ACEBOTT ESP32 Smart Car Starter Kit with Mecanum Wheel all wired and so the next challenge was to get it to move. Luckily, the kit comes with an Infra Red Remote control. I therefore wrote this code:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Acebott/Smartcar/irbuttonmap.cpp

To show me what all the buttons on the controller mapped to on the ESP32.

With that complete, I now wrote this code:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Acebott/Smartcar/irmovecontrol.cpp

to get the Smart Car to move by using the IR control. I documented the code here:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Acebott/Smartcar/irmovecontrol.md

The next step will be to run a small web server on the ESP32 and connect to that via local WIFI to move the car.