Introduction: Automated TimeKeeper
When I was in high school I created a timekeeper with Arduino UNO for my school, it worked pretty well, the only issue with it was that I hardcoded the timetable in the code, years later, I got to know about esp8266 thanks to Rui Santos. So with this new knowledge, I created a new version of the timekeeper which included a web interface for uploading also I had some help from my aunt who is a web developer for the website part of the project, you don't really need any developer or tech experience to use it, as far as you know how to use a browser and connect to wifi then you are good to go. It was very fulfilling when I completed the project, although I add new updates once in a while, to follow up on the updates you can watch my GitHub repo.
Supplies
Supplies and Tools needed
1. NodeMCU esp8266 esp 12E
2. DS1307 RTC module
3. 5v relay
4. 1N4001 diode
5. LED
6. 2N2222A transistor
7. AC electric bell
Step 1: Schematic Diagram and Connections
Make your connections according to the schematic diagram above.
Step 2: LittleFS
LittleFS stands for Little File system, we will be using it to manage our files(HTML, CSS, bootstrap and our image). To use LittleFS for our project we need to download the LittleFS plugin, to download the LittleFS plugin click here. Follow the instruction on the GitHub repo to install the plugin.
Step 3: Code and Files
Click here to go to my GitHub repo and download the repository, while the repo is downloading please give a star to my repo. When the download is complete extract the zip file to your Arduino folder ( normally it should be in the documents folder, it is the same folder your Arduino sketches are stored in).
Step 4: Uploading Codes and Files
After the zip file has been extracted, you should now see a new folder Timekeeper_Bootstrap in your Arduino folder, open the folder and then you should two files, the data folder containing our web server files and our code(Timekeeper_Bootstarp.ino), double click on the code and Arduino IDE should launch automatically and open the sketch, when the sketch is open, navigate to tools in the top menu you should see a new option called "Esp8266 LittleFS Data Upload" Click on it and wait until the process is finished when it is done click upload to upload the code to the MCU. (" Make sure you selected the right board before uploading").
(photo by earlephilhower).
Step 5: Debugging
1. If you are having a problem uploading to the board, make sure you selected the right serial port and board
2. If you have a problem while uploading to LittleFS, close your serial monitor and try uploading again.