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995. Physical Computing

From API to LED: Our friend WeMos

Meet our new friend, WeMos D1, aka WeMo, aka WeBro

WeMos D1, aka WeMo, aka WeBro

WeMos is going to use its wifi chip to gather information from the web, and eventually – hopefully – interpret that information and do something about it; namely lighting up some LEDs!

WeMo solves a few of the challenges of physically disconnecting the LED and API. Instead of communication through a wired serial connection as we did last time, WeMo will communicate with a website such as cyrstal.calebfergie.com. The website will have some simple information to be parsed by WeMo.

With the help of a video and example from educ8 (thank you), the WeMo is working! It connects to the internet and gets information back. Below, it is connecting with my website and getting the value 001.20% – along with a bunch of other nonsense characters:

With this working, the next step is to include some text parsing so that this value can be properly interpreted, as well as actually linking the value to the API – an extension of the previously written p5 code – likely to be converted to JavaScript for the web.

WeMo can also be powered externally with DC electricity. This is great for making the unit a standalone piece. With this micro-controller, the API to LED journey would now look like this:

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