Book Image

Hands-On Internet of Things with Blynk

By : Pradeeka Seneviratne
Book Image

Hands-On Internet of Things with Blynk

By: Pradeeka Seneviratne

Overview of this book

Blynk, known as the most user-friendly IoT platform, provides a way to build mobile applications in minutes. With the Blynk drag-n-drop mobile app builder, anyone can build amazing IoT applications with minimal resources and effort, on hardware ranging from prototyping platforms such as Arduino and Raspberry Pi 3 to industrial-grade ESP8266, Intel, Sierra Wireless, Particle, Texas Instruments, and a few others. This book uses Raspberry Pi as the main hardware platform and C/C++ to write sketches to build projects. The first part of this book shows how to set up a development environment with various hardware combinations and required software. Then you will build your first IoT application with Blynk using various hardware combinations and connectivity types such as Ethernet and Wi-Fi. Then you'll use and configure various widgets (control, display, notification, interface, time input, and some advanced widgets) with Blynk App Builder to build applications. Towards the end, you will learn how to connect with and use built-in sensors on Android and iOS mobile devices. Finally you will learn how to build a robot that can be controlled with a Blynk app through the Blynk cloud and personal server. By the end of this book, you will have hands-on experience building IoT applications using Blynk.

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Table of Contents (10 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Get in touch
Free Chapter
1
Setting Up a Development Environment
Setting Up a Development Environment
What is Blynk?
The Blynk app builder
Getting parts
Setting up software on Raspberry Pi
Installing prerequisite software on Raspbian
Connecting Raspberry Pi with Blynk Cloud
Summary
2
Building Your First Blynk Application
Building Your First Blynk Application
Controlling an LED
Building the Blynk app
Adding a Button widget
Running the project
Playing the app
Using virtual pins
Configuring Button widget with virtual pin
Modifying the main.cpp file
Running the project
Summary
3
Using Controller Widgets
Using Controller Widgets
Creating a project
Slider
Step
zeRGBa
Joystick
Summary
4
Using Display Widgets
Using Display Widgets
Value Display
Labeled Value
LED
Summary
5
Using Notification Widgets
Using Notification Widgets
Twitter
Notification widget
Email
Summary
6
Connecting with Sensors on Your Mobile Device
Connecting with Sensors on Your Mobile Device
Accelerometer
Light sensor
Proximity sensor
Summary
7
Setting Up a Personal Blynk Server
Setting Up a Personal Blynk Server
Setting up a Blynk server on Raspberry Pi
Connecting the Blynk app builder with the server
Using the administration interface
Summary
8
Controlling a Robot with Blynk
Controlling a Robot with Blynk
Choosing a chassis kit
Creating a Blynk app
Motor driver
Summary
9
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
Leave a review - let other readers know what you think

Playing the app

Now, your Raspberry Pi is successfully connected with the Blynk cloud at https://www.blynk.cc/. The following steps show you how to use the app to control the LED attached to GPIO pin 18:

  1. Tap the Play button on the toolbar:
Tapping Play button on the toolbar
  1. This will switch you from edit mode to play mode, where you can interact with the hardware. The play button is replaced with a Stop button that allows you to go back to edit mode:
Application in play mode
  1. You can tap the chip icon (the icon like a microprocessor) to see the device status, whether it is online or offline. The following screenshot show that the Raspberry Pi is online:
Checking device status: Raspberry Pi is online
  1. If your Raspberry Pi is offline, the notification looks as shown in the following screenshot. There are several reasons it can go offline. Some of them are:
    • Lost internet...
Previous Section
End of Section 6
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