Introduction: COVID-19 Dashboard (Simple & Easy)

About: Maker | Electronics Engineer | Full-stack Software Developer | Build, Automate, Innovate |

Everywhere there's a huge outbreak of the Novel COVID-19 virus. It became necessary to keep a watch on the current scenario of COVID-19 in the country.

So, being at home, this was the project I thought of: "An Information Dashboard" - A Dashboard that provides realtime updates about the COVID-19 state of any country. No more need to keep the TV on or keep watching at various websites.

The design of the project was not the important part. But making something useful, using the components that were handy was the challenge. I built two different versions of the dashboard using two different kinds of displays. But this instructable will focus on using OLED Display.

This project will surely help you build a simple dashboard interface to keep you updated.

Watch the project in action in the video.

Step 1: Ingredients

For this project, you need:

1) ESP32 / ESP8266 Board x 1 (I have used ESP32)

2) OLED Display Module (You can use any kind of display, you have with you. I have used a 0.96" OLED Display with yellow & blue color sections)

3) Connecting Wires, 4.7kohms Resistors x 2 (optional)

4) That's it ! :-)


Step 2: Cooking Time

Its time to connect all the gathered components. Connect the OLED display to ESP32 as per the following :

ESP 32 =====> OLED Display

GPIO22 =====> SCL

GPIO21 =====> SDA

3V3 =====> VCC

GND =====> GND

Nowadays, OLED Displays have on-board pull-up resistors. If your OLED Display has no on-board pull-up resistors, you need two 4.7k ohms resistors. Connect these resistors as follows:

1) Between SDA and 3V3

2) Between SCL and 3V3

I used resistor leads as connection wires instead of normal wires to give it a different structure approach. You can connect the OLED Display and other components using normal wires.

Once you are done with the connections, cross-check everything before moving to the next step.

Step 3: The Heart of the Project

The heart of the project is the API from where the data is fetched at specified intervals.

The API is available at http://covid.vinteq.in/api and is completely free to use. (Currently Deprecated)

The data we get from this API contains Real-time Live COVID-19 Data and Historical COVID-19 Data of a specific country. More information can be obtained by logging into your account.

Register yourself to get your AUTH-KEY. You need to add this AUTH KEY in the code before uploading the code to ESP32. Edit the Code and Upload it !

Make sure you have installed the ESP32/ESP8266 boards in Arduino.

Download the Code.

Step 4: Wrapping It Up...

And a small but extremely useful project is finished ! Happy Making !!! :-)

Hope you liked this simple project. Make yourself one, and comment it out in the Comments Section.

Here, is the second version of the dashboard in the video that I made using 2.4" TFT LCD + Arduino UNO + ESP8266.

#StayHome #StaySafe #LetsFightCoronaVirusTogether