Smart gardening with NodeMCU (esp8266)

This project...

It includes:

• DDNS client to support network without static IP
• Web server to control the pins state
• ...

Prerequistes

Install Arduino libraries within the Arduino IDE by following this guide.

Select as board "Generic ESP 8266".

HOW TO

After having installed all the library and plugins listed below (EasyDDNS, ESPAsyncWebServer, LittleFS) you need to:

• copy the file config/user_data_example.h, rename it as config/user_data.h, and place your data. Notice that this private data can not be commited in this repo since the config/user_data.h file is listed in the .gitignore file
• select Tools > ESP8266 LittleFS Data Upload to upload the data folder files onto your device (index.html, style.css)
• upload your sketch

DDNS for esp8266

Since I did not have a static IP, this project includes also the implementation of a Dynamic DNS (DDNS). For this purpose, the EasyDDNS library was included in the code. Multiple DDNS services are supported, namely "duckdns", "noip", "dyndns", "dynu", "enom", "all-inkl", "selfhost.de", "dyndns.it", "strato", "freemyip", and "afraid.org".

I personally used "duckdns" since it is a free and open-source platform, but any of the above should work fine.

To include this library, follow the steps on the EasyDDNS GitHub page.

Web server

Install ESPAsyncWebServer:

• Click here to download the ESPAsyncWebServer library. You should have a .zip folder in your Downloads folder
• Unzip the .zip folder and you should get ESPAsyncWebServer-master folder
• Rename your folder from ESPAsyncWebServer-master to ESPAsyncWebServer
• Move the ESPAsyncWebServer folder to your Arduino IDE installation libraries folder

Install LittleFS plugin to be able to pack sketch data folder into LittleFS filesystem image, and upload the image to ESP8266 flash memory.

Installation

• Make sure you use one of the supported versions of Arduino IDE and have ESP8266 core installed.
• Download the tool archive from (https://github.com/earlephilhower/arduino-esp8266littlefs-plugin/releases).
• In your Arduino sketchbook directory, create tools directory if it doesn't exist yet.
• Unpack the tool into tools directory (the path will look like <home_dir>/Arduino/tools/ESP8266LittleFS/tool/esp8266littlefs.jar).
• Restart Arduino IDE.

Usage

• Open a sketch (or create a new one and save it).
• Go to sketch directory (choose Sketch > Show Sketch Folder).
• Create a directory named data and any files you want in the file system there.
• Make sure you have selected a board, port, and closed Serial Monitor.
• Select Tools > ESP8266 LittleFS Data Upload menu item. This should start uploading the files into ESP8266 flash file system. When done, IDE status bar will display LittleFS Image Uploaded message. Might take a few minutes for large file system sizes.

Useful links

Set a LAN static IP on ESP8266: https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp8266-nodemcu-static-fixed-ip-address-arduino/

Build a Web Server using SPIFFS: https://watchitgroup.wixsite.com/website/post/part-4-lesson-2-nodemcu-web-server-using-spiffs-and-dht11-sensor Since SPIFFS has been deprecated, I substitued every SPIFFS instance with the more modern LittleFS according to this link.