A solar-powered ESP8266 WiFi module joins the IoT

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Solar power fans, start your engines. I am going to build two of these ESP8266 solar-powered units. I will be setting up and executing a test on how much additional solar power you can get by tracking the sun on your solar-powered Pi or Arduino projects. I am running two computers side by side on solar panels, with one tracking the sun and the other facing due south. It should be interesting to find out the exact numbers. I collect all the data with a Raspberry Pi reading the JSON data from each solar-powered ESP8266 unit.

Questions & Answers

[UCC:interviewer]Q: [/UCC] I'm checking the connection of my I2C bus on my Raspberry Pi B+ using the command sudo i2cdetect -y 1, and I'm getting this result:

    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f
00: - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
20: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
30: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
40: - - - - - - - - 48- - - - - - -
50: - - - - - - - 57- - - - - - - -
60: - - - - - - - - UU- - - - - - -
70: - - - - - - - 77

0x48, 0x57, and 0x77 all make sense to me. But what is UU? I have a WeatherPiArduino board hooked up to my Pi.

Best regards, Sam

A: The UU generally means that the specific I2C address is already being used by some other bit of software. This can happen quite easily on the Raspberry Pi. See what else is using the address. 0x68 is the default address for a DS3231 on the WeatherPiArduino board, and you might start looking there. When it is cleared up you should see:

    0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 a b c d e f
00: - - - - - - - - - - - - -
10: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
20: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
30: - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
40: - - - - - - - - 48- - - - - - -
50: - - - - - - - 57- - - - - - - -
60: - - - - - - - - 68- - - - - - -
70: - - - - - - - 77

Infos

  1. "SwitchDoc Labs – Internet of Things" by John Shovic, Raspberry Pi Geek, issue 14, 2015, pg. 74, http://www.raspberry-pi-geek.com/Archive/2015/14/WiFi-and-the-Raspberry-Pi
  2. ESP8266: http://espressif.com/en/products/esp8266/
  3. Huzzah ESP8266: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-huzzah-esp8266-breakout/overview
  4. Adafruit tutorial for ESP8266 and Arduino IDE: https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-huzzah-esp8266-breakout/using-arduino-ide
  5. "Solar Power Management" John C. Shovic, issue 10, 2015, pg. 32, http://www.raspberry-pi-geek.com/Archive/2015/10/Managing-solar-power-systems-with-SunAir-boards
  6. JSON: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JSON
  7. FTDI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FTDI
  8. DC jack adapter cable: https://volcano.adafruit.com/products/2788
  9. Barrel jack to 2-pin JST: http://www.robotshop.com/en/sfe-barrel-2-pin-jst.html
  10. SwitchDoc Labs GitHub page: https://github.com/switchdoclabs/SDL_Arduino_ESP8266_Solar
  11. REST library for the ESP8266: https://github.com/marcoschwartz/aREST
  12. SunAirPlus INA3221 libraries: https://github.com/switchdoclabs/SDL_Arduino_INA3221
  13. SwitchDoc Labs blog: http://www.switchdoc.com/switchdoc-labs-really-useful-blogs/
  14. "SwitchDoc Labs – Matplotlib on the Rasp Pi" by John C. Shovic, Raspberry Pi Geek, issue 13, 2015, pg. 76, http://www.raspberry-pi-geek.com/Archive/2015/13/Understanding-your-data-with-graphs

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