ESP8266 IOT sensing with Blynk

Basically the internet of things, or IoT, is a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.

Evolution of IOT

The internet of things is also a natural extension of SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition), a category of software application program for process control, the gathering of data in real time from remote locations to control equipment and conditions.

SCADA systems include hardware and software components. The hardware gathers and feeds data into a computer that has SCADA software installed, where it is then processed and presented it in a timely manner. The evolution of SCADA is such that late-generation SCADA systems developed into first-generation IoT systems.

Designing of our first IOT system

Here we are using ESP8266 Nodemcu module which collects the realtime data from the temperature/humidity sensor (DHT-22) and the soil moisture sensor once every second.

I have created this arduino code where we are collecting this sensor data and sending it over to Blynk hosted API with the help of Blynk libraries.

1. Download the latest library Blynk_Release_vXX.zip file from the GitHub page and extract the zip file to the Library location of Arduino software.
2. Download Blynk App on Android or iOS device and follow these steps for getting started.
3. Download the code from my github repository.

git clone https://github.com/saurabh221089/esp8266_iot_blynk.git

Generate your auth token from app and update it in the code.

char auth[] = "53e4da8793764b6197fc44a673ce4e21";

Change you SSID and Password in the code and flash this code on your ESP module.

char ssid[] = "wifi4u";  //Enter your WIFI Name
char pass[] = "abcd1234";  //Enter your WIFI Password

In the created project on the app, assign the Virtual Pins to the Variables in the program to PULL the data from the API and show it on the app dashboard. 

Blynk.virtualWrite(V5, h);  //V5 is for Humidity
Blynk.virtualWrite(V6, t);  //V6 is for Temperature
Blynk.virtualWrite(V7, m);  //V7 is for Soil Moisture

Flash this code on your NodeMCU module and run the app on the same time to start monitoring.

If you just want to build a static weather monitoring module without any networking involved. You can create a weather monitoring station with ESP8266 and an OLED display.

All the best my friends for your exploration into IOT world. Happy IOTing!!