TeleShaper: Distant Design Collaboration With ESP32/8266
Introduction: TeleShaper: Distant Design Collaboration With ESP32/8266
The aim of this project is to integrate material manipulation at all stages of the design process, making the development more interactive. Due to the contemporary situation of remote interaction and travelling restrictions, this project explores the possibility of a remote physical collaboration at any stage of the design process, irrespective of the location of the contributors (even across continents)
Our project has three parts which are connected over internet:
1. The origami surface to be manipulated.
2. Remote Controller 1: Made of copper strips and paper
3. Remote Controller 2: Made of fabric and conducting threads.
The project was undertaken as part of the Computational Design and Digital Fabrication seminar in the ITECH masters program.
Contributors:
* <PERSON>
* Pelin Asa
* Pinaki Mohanty
Supplies
Common
* ESP32 or ESP8266
* Jumper wires
* Voltage regulator (optional, helpful for externally powering ESP32)
* Power banks or 9V batteries (optional, if powering externally)
* Scissors
Surface Manipulation Setup
* Origami Paper
* 5 Servo Motors (SG90)
* 9V battery (recommended to power the motors separately)
* Cardboard
* Paper Clips
* Strings
* Aluminum or Plastic Box frame with connectors
* Long copper wires
* Paper Straws
* Double-sided Tape
Controller 1
* Copper tape
* Paper
* LEDs (for checking the touchpads are working)
* ~220 Ohm resistors (for LEDs)
Controller 2
* Conductive thread
* Fabric (for sewing the threads onto)
* Needle
* LEDs (for checking the touchpads are working)
* ~220 Ohm resistors (for LEDs)
Step 1: ESP32/8266 Setup
* To install your respective board to Arduino IDE go to File>Preferences
* In the ‘Additional Boards Manager URLs” section enter:
+ For ESP32: https://dl.espressif.com/dl/package_esp32_index.json
+ For ESP8266: https://dl.espressif.com/dl/package_esp32_index.json
* Go to Tools>Board>Boards Manager
+ For ESP32: Install esp32 by Espressif Systems
+ For ESP8266: Install esp8266 by ESP8266 Community
* Connect your ESP to your computer with a micro USB cable
* Go to Tools>Board and select your respective board (ESP32 Dev Module or ESP8266)
* Change the upload speed to 115200
* Select your COM port
* If the port does not come up you might need to check your USB cable or install the CP210x VCP driver from: https://www.silabs.com/developers/usb-to-uart-bridge-vcp-drivers
* To check if your ESP connects to Wi-Fi you can upload the web server example from File>Examples>WiFi>SimpleWifiServer and change the ssid and password lines to you
* If uploading fails hold the Boot/IOO button when you see Connecting…. 382
and click EN button once uploaded
* Open the Serial Monitor at baud rate of 115200 and check if you are connected to your Wi-Fi network
Debugging:
Brownout detector was triggered error: This error is caused by low voltage. It might be caused by your power source. If you are powering through micro USB, try a shorter cable. If powering externally check your voltage and try different batteries, you can supply 5 - 10V to 5V pin on ESP32 or up to 3.3V to 3.3V pin. Never power your ESP with 2 sources at the same time or supply more than 3.3V to the 3.3V pin.
You can also disable the brownout detector by uncommenting WRITE_PERI_REG(RTC_CNTL_BROWN_OUT_REG, 0) on line 68 and the necessary libraries on lines 11 and 12 in the touch sensors code.
Step 2: Connecting to Blynk Server
To connect our devices over different networks we used the Blynk platform (blynk.io). Through the Blynk server you can control a device connected to Wi-Fi with another device on a different network anywhere in the world with almost no delay in response time.
* Install the Blynk app on your phone and create an account
* Create a new project and add devices selecting your specific board (ESP32 Dev board or ESP8266) You will need to add each device that will be used in the project and receive their authorization tokens in the email. 977