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)

Showing the temperature on an LCD

This section describes how to display the IR temperature measurement on an LCD through the I2C bus. The temperature data is sent by the Arduino Uno to the Blue Pill, as shown in the previous section. Figure 12.8 shows a Fritzing diagram containing the microcontroller boards, the LCD, and the IR temperature sensor:

Figure 12.8 – The LCD connected to the I2C bus

Figure 12.8 – The LCD connected to the I2C bus

As Figure 12.8 shows, the LCD connection is simple. It requires four wires only, because the LCD used in this chapter is I2C-capable, having an I2C interface in the back. The following are the steps for connecting the LCD to the Blue Pill:

  1. Connect the LCD's ground (GND) pin to Blue Pill's ground (G or GND) pin.
  2. Connect the LCD's voltage (VCC) pin to Blue Pill's 5-volt (5V) pin.
  3. Connect the LCD's SDA pin to Blue Pill's B7 pin.
  4. Connect the LCD's SCL pin to Blue Pill's B6 pin.

Figure 12.9 depicts...