ACEBOTT ESP32 Smart Car Starter Kit with Mecanum Wheel

In my on going quest to get a camera working on a robot car and failing with an Arducam, I cam across an existing kit that has an add on extra of a camera. It is the:

with

ACEBOTT ESP32 Camera Expansion pack for Smart Car

which is going to make achieving my goal much, much easier.

To get the Smart car working you’ll need to nuy some batteries:

1 x CR2025 for the Infra Red Controller

2 x 18650 to the motors and controller board

Assembling the car is pretty straight forward and the kit give you a few spare items for those that you invariably drop on the floor and lose, which is nice. The main challenge I had was with the wiriing. It is always a good idea of take a photo of the components , both sides, BEFORE you assemble them so you can read the pin settings. Case in point, here is the Ultrasonic senor after I had to disassemble it to get the pin settings.

Hopefully, that saves someone else having to do same.

Here are some more I took of the motor shield board because reading the numbers for the connectors was challenging.

With everything finally assembled and powered up I wanted to wire some code to test all the sensors were working correctly. I used this for my tests:

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

It will flash the LEDs, move the servo for the ultrasonic sensor, test the IR receiver, play tunes on the buzzer and test all the wheels, forwards and backwards for you.

All teh driver files and the instructions can be downloaded here. This will give you everything you need for all the Smartcar kits and add ons.

My next step will be to code the Smartcar so that it moves in response to commands sent to it via the Infra Red controller. Stay tunes.

Keyestudio Sun Follower kit

Since the last post on the KS0172 I have completed a number of additional projects:

Light Intensity

Code = https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Keyestudio%20KS0172/Lesson_8/main.cpp

Servo motor

Code =

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/tree/master/Iot/Keyestudio%20KS0172/Lesson_9.1

and

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Keyestudio%20KS0172/Lesson_9.2/main.cpp

This has all been leading up to building this:

which I have also now completed. The code is here:

https://github.com/directorcia/Azure/blob/master/Iot/Keyestudio%20KS0172/Lesson%2011/main.cpp

I still need to get a

Polymer Lithium Ion Battery, 18650 Cell (3.7V 2600mAh)

so it can run stand alone rather than plugged into a USB port to provide power, however it does work! Yippee!

I think this kit is a great starter option and I would have been much better off commencing my IoT journey here rather than going hard core with just a single processor. The way the kit takes your through individual components and concepts, all building to the final sun follower was fantastic. The instructions were easy to follow, provide great information making it super simple to move through all the steps.

This was my first time actually using an Arduino development board and I can now understand why it is such a popular option. There is no soldering, all you need to do is plug and play. The connections are colour coded and easy to access and understand. Reflecting on how easy this kit an dteh Arduino controller is make me regret going down the route I took and the extra hassle, such as soldering pins, to get my initial projects to even work. Geeze, I did it the hard way.

The challenge is that unless you know someone skilled in IoT you won’t know where to start. However, starting with something like this is really the way to go I would suggest. It allows to grasp the concepts and see results quickly which no only reinforces learning but makes things far less frustrating due to something like a bad soldering joint. I just wish someone had recommended I start with a project like this rather than they way I did.

I’m now a big fan of the Arduino development board and will be looking ot utilise it in a few upcoming projects I have in mind. I think the Arduino is also going to let me resurrect my stalled Arducam Mega camera project. However, if you are looking to get into IoT then look no further than the Keyestudio DIY Solar Tracking Kit I suggest.

Tamiya V-1 Fieseler Fi103 Flying Bomb Scaled Plastic Model Kit