Back to Basics: Building a Buggy

Although I built a handful of various types of buggies during university, I have always wanted to build another one. There is something about putting together a buggy and watching it work that is very satisfying.

I recently came across one of my old drawings from high-school of a buggy that I had wanted to build but never got around do it. So I decided to collect up some of bits and bobs and put together a very rudimentary buggy just to make my lock-down weekend a little bit exciting.

From what I remember from when I was drawing this I wanted a bunch of features on it, like;

• Pull out control panel
• Automatic docking for charging
• Use as balance-bot and
• Line following

Setting up WiFi communication between Raspberry Pi and ESP8266 with MQTT

One of the fundamental components in setting up your DIY smart home or IoT project is to set-up the communication method between your devices and the server.

Given the most accessible wireless network to most of us is our home WiFi, I will be using the MQTT protocol to send messages over WiFi. The main server for this will be a Raspberry Pi and the devices (or clients) are ESP8266, ESP32 or similar devices

CoViD-19 Social Distance Enforcing Device

Hope you are keeping safe in 2020!

Social distancing is one of the top recommended ways to stop the spread of CoViD-19 disease by the WHO. It is also important to make sure that this is enforced at all times as people can be absent minded or accidentally come close to each other. This is especially true in crowded areas like hospitals and work places.

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

To mcontinuously onitor and enforce this I have come up with a simple ESP based  device. The idea is to provide everyone working in one location with this device that will continuously monitor if there is a similar device around them. If there is another similar distance around them close to a preset distance of roughly 1 meter or 3 meters according to the regulations in the location and use of PPE, the device will light up or ring loudly alerting the wearer to move away from the location or to be extra cautious.

Project SpiderWeb

Project SpiderWeb is my domestic answer to the fourth industrial revolution. IoT is one of the key words that gets tossed around during these times. As there is much potential in what can be achieved with devices across the house that talk to each other and exchange and analyse data, I have started my own IoT project (SpyderWeb) - for the love of technology, of course!