<p></p>



<figure class="wp-block-video"><video controls src="blob:https://eduengteam.com/0a40081e-18f5-46ef-88a4-e4e3f14b945c"></video></figure>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote has-text-align-center is-style-large"><p>Make a battery-powered WiFi temperature sensor with a GUI dashboard on the Raspberry Pi in minutes with Node-RED</p><p></p></blockquote>



<h1>Materials Needed:</h1>



<h2>HARDAWARE</h2>



<ul><li>Things On Edge IOT Cricket Wi-Fi module</li><li>Battery Holder,AAA x 2</li><li>Raspberry Pi 3 Model B</li></ul>



<h2>Software</h2>



<ul><li>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</li><li>Node-RED</li></ul>



<ul><li>MQTT</li></ul>



<h2>Tools</h2>



<ul><li>Soldering Iron</li></ul>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="https://maker.pro/storage/3jTQSGa/3jTQSGaj5PencFtLRooY8UvOU0K0M4LNmIBWKGsM.jpg" alt="Node-Red"/></figure></div>



<p>In this project,we walk the audience through how to build a battery-powered WiFi sensor (i.e. temperature) button or any other Internet of Things end node with Cricket and incorporate it,without writing any code or programming to Node.js-RED. We use <a href="https://eduengteam.com/getting-started-with-raspberry-pi" data-type="page" data-id="3656">Raspberry Pi</a> to host Node.js-RED on our local area network.</p>



<p>This project can be carried out by makers at all expertise levels and may require some basic soldering,however it doesn’t call for coding or programming. At the end of this project you will have a solid understanding of how you can develop your own system and easily expand by adding your own IoT end nodes to the program.</p>



<p>Our system will be based on the MQTT communication protocol,which is the most widely used communication method for home automation systems. We plan on using Mosquitto MQTT broker,and if you require it,we recommend following our RPi  MQTT project,in which we describe how to set up it first.</p>



<h2>Prerequisites</h2>



<ul><li><a href="https://thepihut.com/collections/raspberry-pi/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-b" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Raspberry Pi</a> (we used ver. 3 for this project)</li><li><a href="http://thingsonedge.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">IOT Cricket WiFi module</a></li><li><a href="https://thepihut.com/products/2-x-aaa-open-battery-holder-with-jst-ph-connector" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2xAAA battery holder</a></li><li>2xAAA batteries</li></ul>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="https://maker.pro/storage/TcUSeVA/TcUSeVAbTsLkiTJ3zecvK2W6l8w2HaXwJJyTF1Nw.png" alt="RPi_Cricket_assembled.png"/></figure></div>



<h2>What is Node-RED?</h2>



<p>It's a simple event-driven tool for putting together your own automation system.</p>



<p>"Node-RED is a programming tool for wiring together hardware devices,APIs,and online services in new and interesting ways," according to their website. "It provides a browser-based editor that makes it easy to wire together flows using the wide range of nodes in the palette that can be deployed to its runtime in a single-click" (ref. nodered.org)</p>



<p>The best way to learn it is by doing it yourself. There are countless resources on the Internet. However,this simple project will certainly provide you an in-depth look into how to get started with our WiFi Cricket module and then integrate it into your system.</p>



<h2>Installing Node-RED on RaspberryPi</h2>



<p>You can find the most up-to-date official instructions how to install Node-RED on RPi here: <a href="https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/raspberrypi" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/raspberrypi</a></p>



<p>However,for the sake of this project,it is as simple as running this single command line on the Raspberry Pi:</p>



pi@raspberrypi:~ $ bash <(curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/node-red/linux-installers/master/deb/update-nodejs-and-nodered)



<p>The install should be completed successfully before an output follows.</p>



All done.
  You can now start Node-RED with the command  node-red-start
  or using the icon under   Menu / Programming / Node-RED
  Then point your browser to localhost:1880 or http://{your_pi_ip-address}:1880




<p>We would like Node-RED to be running permanently as a service in the background. So,whenever we restart RPi,the Node-RED system will automatically be started up at boot time. We just need to run the following set of commands.</p>



<pre class="wp-block-code"><code>pi@raspberrypi:~ $ node-red-start

// Press Ctrl-C (it doesn't stop Node-RED it keeps running as a service in a background)

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ sudo systemctl enable nodered.service</code></pre>



<p>In the background,Node-RED is operating. To do so,we'll need the RPi's IP address,which we can get by typing:</p>



pi@raspberrypi:~ $ hostname -I
192.168.1.126 <- our RPi IP address,yours will be different

 



<p>Now we can open its editor from a web browser using in our case the following address: <strong>http://192.168.1.126:1880</strong></p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><img src="https://maker.pro/storage/jzZFH3A/jzZFH3AsaJJM2izplxzAQRACoKiNhPkNz2AeknID.png" alt="01-empty-Node-RED.png"/></figure>



<p>In the background,Node-RED is operating. To do so,we'll need the RPi's IP address,which we can get by typing:</p>



<h2>Using Node-RED to receive MQTT messages</h2>



<p>So,it's a very simple and frictionless way to get MQTT data in Node-RED. All we have to do is to set up a "mqtt in" node.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><img src="https://maker.pro/storage/RV2CLSV/RV2CLSVSBaLPGdD61CTRilo03ouaICPe5HbS05Vu.png" alt="02-Node-RED-mqtt.png"/></figure>



<p>Then we need to set up the mqtt node by clicking twice on it,configuring the IP address and port,and using whatever MQTT broker we need for this project. You can use any MQTT broker for this project,but we are using MQTT brokers installed on the RPi that manages Node-RED. Note you can use whatever broker you want,however,we are using RPi MQTT broker for this project.</p>



<p>In our case it is:<br>Server: <strong>192.168.1.126</strong> (alternatively you can type <strong>localhost</strong>)<br>Port: <strong>1883</strong></p>



<div class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><figure class="aligncenter"><img src="https://maker.pro/storage/s6LUdmi/s6LUdmi80IKLrchS8E60XMjxaZXqYLYg1YAMN6Gz.png" alt="03-Node-RED-mqtt-broker.png"/></figure></div>



<p>We're going to temporarily receive all our messages through our MQTT broker by designating a topic.</p>



<p>We will change our focus to a specific area once we know what device we want to use.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><img src="https://maker.pro/storage/ScFOah8/ScFOah8RmYkHzpfMAdrwYnsVxTK05edqvPLfxxJA.png" alt="04-Node-RED-mqtt-topic.png"/></figure>



<p>Our MQTT receiver is configured. Now we can attach "<strong>debug</strong>" node to print out all the messages coming from the MQTT broker. Press the "<strong>Deploy</strong>" button.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><img src="https://maker.pro/storage/yDZ93Mn/yDZ93MnKpi00qpilY8ltDbBjIrA7vPpBZUg9jubs.png" alt="05-Node-RED-mqtt+debug-out-empty.png"/></figure>



<h2>Make WiFi sensor and send data via MQTT</h2>



<p>We use <a href="https://thingsonedge.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">IOT Cricket WiFi module</a> to make a sensor which will be sending a temperature value every 30 seconds to our system. It will run on a battery so we can stick it anywhere at home or a garden. Later you can also use <a href="https://thingsonedge.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cricket </a>to build various battery powered sensors,alarms,buttons,switches and connect them easily by using the same approach to Node-RED.</p>



<p>In the first step let's attach batteries to Cricket.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><img src="https://maker.pro/storage/5lG80B0/5lG80B0Q9HYxrZazeYat3pqXGuYcynVTxfVTrAA9.png" alt="cricket_battery.png"/></figure>



<p>In order to do that open Cricket's configuration panel (see the full steps <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/u/1/d/e/2PACX-1vSLMmeT7LHo52Tu5rUoHpomhnLPz2Lr2JFKQCZevg8mKUv2M87bdbqb_7Al5pN9mxoxY2aqX-CRyLHk/pub#h.fwbz2wdnfcqi" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>):</p>



<ol><li>press the Cricket button for 5 seconds</li><li>connect to "<strong>toe_device</strong>" hot spot from any device with browser capabilities</li><li>set the following settings (as shown on the image below,please adjust IP address in "url" box to your RPi)</li></ol>



<p>We should observe inbound messages from the broker in the debug tab. However,it is now empty because no device is transmitting messages. To communicate data here,let's construct a basic temperature sensor using Cricket.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><img src="https://maker.pro/storage/PXNLSZp/PXNLSZpdqdHdpf45cGIhtgClkC9kHMkyUA2nJG9L.png" alt="cota-sqr.png"/></figure>



<p>we set it to wake up every 30 seconds,the frequency is good for playing around with data and setting up this project. However once you are done with this project,please change it to make it more sense for example set it to 1 hour or so - it will save the battery a lot.</p>



<p>Now we can exit from the configuration mode.</p>



<p>Our device is ready to receive cricket data every thirtyth of a second,and our Node-RED system is also receiving this information. You can check these in the debug chamber that is shown on the right side of the screen in the picture.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-style-default"><img src="https://maker.pro/storage/VJxTyFj/VJxTyFjpcQxRhZ22RoL4kezqdkw2kzkokC1hCjC6.png" alt="06-Node-RED-mqtt+debug-out-printouts.png"/></figure>



<p>However there is one extra component called "<strong>node-red-dashboard</strong>",which we have to add to Node-RED. In order to do that,click on the account icon and select "<strong>Manage palette</strong>" as shown on the image below:</p>



<p></p>

Raspberry Pi,Wifi Sensor and Node-Red

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Raspberry Pi,Wifi Sensor and Node-Red

Raspberry Pi,Wifi Sensor and Node-Red

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