Hello everyone!
I managed to work with this LattePanda board. I like it, it's getting more and more interesting. I used an external monitor with VGA input but for which I used an HDMI adapter. Unfortunately, it is a small monitor, a bit old, it is suitable as a monitor for a surveillance camera, so the image is not of very good quality, and the resolution does not fit perfectly, but that is not a problem.
For the future, I need to find more helpful solutions for this LattePanda, although the board is ventilated because it does not have a case, but it heats up so much that I cannot hold my fingers on it, so it must be cooled with a fan, or at least with a radiator. Then, I would like to print a 3D case to protect it, I can find a 3D printer in town.
I have to say that I didn't expect the storage memory to remain so small, but I don't have many programs to install at the moment.
Now I use LattePanda standalone, I mean, I did not mount it in any case yet, or in the waterproof enclosure received because it does not seem to be safety (most likely because of the RJ45 connector that we all know about). But obviously the goal is to use this waterproof enclosure as well as the connectors mounted on it.
As I said in the first blog, I was thinking of starting with something easier, so I took a DHT22 (AM2302) and an LCD1602, and after gathering some more information I found out that I can use the internal Arduino (Leonardo ) easier than I thought (I don't know what I had imagined
). So I put in front of me a pinout for LattePanda V1 and made the connections with the modules I have. DHT22 is connected to pin D7, and for the LCD display I also used an I2C driver, so the connections for the display are D2(SDA) and D3(SCL). If I read correctly, the GPIO pins comply with the specifications of an Arduino (40mA), I'm not sure about those power pins marked with 5V, how much current they can give, but I haven't powered more than one sensor and an LCD so far. I will keep that in mind. I didn't make an electronic diagram because I think the circuit is quite simple. In the pictures below you can see how they look.
I uploaded a sketch and everything is going quite well, the results are gratifying, there don't seem to be any deviations or oscillations of the measured values.
But I would like to take more advantage of this LattePanda and its resources. Through my small projects that I played with previously, I also ran NodeRed, I liked the dashboard with all those Gauge or Chart widgets. So I made some additions to the sketch to be able to import the data from DHT22 into Node Red, then display them nicely with the help of widgets.
I looked for instructions on how to install Node Red and got down to business.
I used DHT22 to measure the temperature and humidity in the room and I displayed this data both on the LCD (offline, let's say) and through Node Red (online), thus using the IP address I can access the data with my mobile phone. This interests me the most, to use a wireless connection.
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Display Temperature and Humidity on LCD |
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The dashboard contains a tab named "LattePanda DHT22", and two groups named "Temperature" and "Humidity". Each group contains a gauge widget and a chart widget, so the measurements can be seen in a much more interactive and good looking way, I say. I have established some thresholds and maximum limits for the measured temperature and humidity, 100 would be a difficult value to reach for T, more plausible for H.
Unfortunately, I also have some bugs that need to be fixed, although the data is transmitted, when I run Node Red in Command Prompt I still get a message like "Unexpected token...". I still don't know where the problem is, but I'm working on it to fix it.
The next steps would be to use another sensor, a soil moisture type, and monitor if my little flower in the apartment needs water (maybe I should change the soil in the vase instead 
). For this reason, I should insure the LattePanda as best as possible, the relatively high humidity around the flower can damage the board, but once I have solved the problem with the case I will get rid of these worries. I need to make some additions to the sketch and add something to the flow in Node Red.
As a power supply for LattePanda, I used a 12W power supply, but when I place LattePanda in the waterproof case, I have to power the board through one of the connectors mounted on the case, or there would be the option of using batteries, so I get portability, but it is unlikely that I will use this method now.
I will post the entire Node Red sketch and flow in the last blog, when I complete the hardware circuit.
Thank you.
See you next time.