this post was submitted on 05 Jul 2023
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Arduino

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Project was to display tide information (time and height) on an LED panel. Fingers crossed the image loads!

OK, it's not an Arduino as such, it's an ESP32, but I programmed it on the arduino IDE. I get the time from an NTP time server and tide data from an API. A bit of messing around with daylight savings times and I display the next four tides on the Hub75 LED matrix. Date and clock is shown on the other side. Every 24 hours I pull new data down and sync the clock.

The good: It works as planned.

The bad: API keys and wifi creds are all hard coded so will need a firmware update if either change. Don't think I have sufficient pins left to allow me to read from an SD card.

The ugly: The wiring behind it is not beautiful. The code could do with a review and tidy. - Maybe even a bit of error handling wouldn't go amiss. Red and Blue are a bit jarring so close together and the blue is a bit swamped , especially when the brightness is turned down.

I may make an enclosure to keep it all together and keep the dust off and add a pir sensor to turn the display off when there's no movement. Or I may get bored and dismantle it!

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[โ€“] YellowGas 2 points 2 years ago

That looks awesome! Do you plan on 3D printing an enclosure or making something out of wood or another material?

I appreciate the ESP32 builds here as well. I appreciate the walkthrough and love to hear how people do some of these things.

[โ€“] RandomUser 1 points 2 years ago

I don't yet have a 3d printer, and it's a bit large to print in single pieces. I'm toying with the idea of a black plastic 2-3mm front, have tested it and the LEDs will shine through rather nicely. The case can then be whatever I have laying around, painted black. May do the edges in either brass or alu L section as it'll make the construction a bit easier. All depends on time really.