Book Image

DIY Microcontroller Projects for Hobbyists

By : Miguel Angel Garcia-Ruiz, Pedro Cesar Santana Mancilla
Book Image

DIY Microcontroller Projects for Hobbyists

By: Miguel Angel Garcia-Ruiz, Pedro Cesar Santana Mancilla

Overview of this book

We live in a world surrounded by electronic devices, and microcontrollers are the brains of these devices. Microcontroller programming is an essential skill in the era of the Internet of Things (IoT), and this book helps you to get up to speed with it by working through projects for designing and developing embedded apps with microcontroller boards. DIY Microcontroller Projects for Hobbyists are filled with microcontroller programming C and C++ language constructs. You'll discover how to use the Blue Pill (containing a type of STM32 microcontroller) and Curiosity Nano (containing a type of PIC microcontroller) boards for executing your projects as PIC is a beginner-level board and STM-32 is an ARM Cortex-based board. Later, you'll explore the fundamentals of digital electronics and microcontroller board programming. The book uses examples such as measuring humidity and temperature in an environment to help you gain hands-on project experience. You'll build on your knowledge as you create IoT projects by applying more complex sensors. Finally, you'll find out how to plan for a microcontroller-based project and troubleshoot it. By the end of this book, you'll have developed a firm foundation in electronics and practical PIC and STM32 microcontroller programming and interfacing, adding valuable skills to your professional portfolio.
Table of Contents (16 chapters)

Connecting a solar panel to the Blue Pill board

Firstly, we need to learn about two components: the solar panel and the voltage measurement sensor. After learning the basics, we can build our solar energy measurement system.

Introducing the solar panel

Sunlight carries energy. When sunlight collides with a semiconductor, some energy is changed into moving electrons, generating current. Solar cells (also known as photovoltaic panels or PV panels) were created to take advantage of all the sunlight that reaches our planet. When sunlight reflects off a PV panel, the current output is constant; this is known as direct current (DC) electricity. This DC can be used to charge batteries and power microcontrollers such as the STM32 Blue Pill.

The following screenshot shows a solar panel for use with electronic components, such as our solar energy demonstration system:

Figure 11.1 – Solar panel

Figure 11.1 – Solar panel

To facilitate the connection and operation with this...