A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO BUILDING SMART DEVICES

Part 2A: Building The Smart Controller

As part of the series of write-ups on how to build a smart device, this is the first one. Read the introductory article before coming to this one. The key objective of this article is to make you aware of the basics of microcontroller

Who should read this?

This series is an interesting one and even if you are not a techy, it may actually interest you because of the potential of commercialization it has. However, I would suggest that if you are one of the following categories, read this article:

• You are a technology enthusiast and want to explore smart devices.
• You are a techy and trying to understand the basics to Microcontroller Programming.
• You are an entrepreneur and wants to explore the field of smart devices.

What skills and equipment do you need?

To cover this article, it is advisable to have the following skills and equipment:

• Knowledge of C/C++. It is not absolutely mandatory, but a bit of C/C++ will help you. Now-a-days, every programming language is pretty similar and even if you know Java, PHP, C# etc., it will be okay to follow this article.
• You should have a computer (laptop or a desktop) with at least one USB port available and preferably running latest Windows or Mac OS.
• You need to download and install the Arduino Studio. All the examples here are created using Arduino Studio version 1.8.10.
• You need to purchase the following items either from online shops or from a local electronic accessories shop:
  • Few 5 mm LEDs (search in Google). These are very cheap and shouldn’t cost you more than Rs. 2 per piece in India.
  • 4 or 2 pin 12mm x 12mm Tactile Switches (search in Google). 10 number of such switches will cost you about Rs. 50.
  • One unit of Arduino Uno (search in Google). These should cost around Rs. 350 per piece in India.
  • One unit of NodeMCU ESP8266 (search Google). These should cost about Rs. 250 in India.
  • Few 220 Ohm resistors which is required to drive the LEDs using 5v (search Google). You can buy 50 pcs for about Rs. 40.
  • Couple of breadboards (search Google). They cost around Rs. 100 each in India.
  • Few male to female jumper wires (search Google). A set of 30 to 40 pcs will cost you around Rs. 50.