Twitter is a free social platform that can be very useful for your IoT project. You can use it instead of paying for a messaging platform. In this project, I will teach you how to use Twitter to send temperature alerts from your IoT project. The project utilizes ESP8266 WiFi module to connect Arduino to the internet. The WiFi module connects to your home WiFi for the internet. You can also use the ESP8266 alone but in this simple project, we shall use it together with Arduino Uno. For integration with Twitter, we use Thingspeak’s ThingTweet App. We connect to […]

A motor is a device that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. It is arguably the most important component in a robot because it is responsible for all the structural movements. In robotics, DC motor, stepper motor, and servo motor are the three common types of motors. Each is ideal for a particular application. In this project, the focus will be on the use and control of a DC motor. A DC motor is the simplest of the three aforementioned types of motors. It consists of two terminals. These terminals must be connected to a DC source such as a […]

A seven-segment display is one of the simplest and cheapest electronic display units. It is used to display numerical output that has few place values or decimal places. 7-segment indicators exist in different forms. Some of the common types are one-digit, 2-digits, 3-digits, and 4-digits display units. Of those that have more than one place value, there are those that have decimal points and colons. The seven-segment display units with decimal points are ideal for displaying numerical output with few decimal places while those that have colons are mostly used to display time. Though simple in design, a 7-segment display […]

When you want to incorporate short-range wireless communication in a project, infrared signal is one of the protocols you can consider. Infrared communication is the use of a modulated low-frequency light signal that can be used for short-range wireless communication between devices. It is the technology used by TV remote controls to operate a Tv remotely. There are multiple other devices that utilize the infrared remote controls as input devices. Similarly, you can use an existing IR remote control as input in your project. All you need is a simple IR sensor circuit and a microcontroller. The IR sensor circuit […]

Do you know that you could use your TV remote control as an input device to your DIY project? Better yet, are you aware that could repurpose your TV remote control to switch ON/OFF the lights in your house? Well, wonder no more because, in this article, you are going to learn how to easily decode your TV remote control and use it as wireless input control for your DIY project. How a TV Remote Control Works A TV remote control uses wireless communication technology to control the TV remotely. It simply works by generating an encoded or rather modulated […]

One of the first things to learn when beginning to build projects with various development boards is how to control simple outputs with simple inputs. Accordingly, the digital inputs and outputs are considered the easiest to start with because there is not much to worry about except the zeros and ones or rather the binaries. In contrast, analog I/Os require you to worry about the continuous variable states of data. In this simple arduino beginner project, you will learn how to control LEDs (as digital outputs) with a push button (digital input). In addition, you will also learn how to […]