Microcontrollers

I’ve merged in some significant updates to the NanoBLESensors project. Hop over to GitHub to check them out.

I’ve created a new simple Arduino sketch using a variety of Temperature/Humidity sensors. (https://github.com/tjpetz/EnvironmentSensorTests. Of note in this simple example is using the DHT11 sensor with a Nano 33 BLE Sense board.

The Arduino Nano 33 BLE (Sense) and the Nano 33 IoT expose SWD pads on the bottom of the board. These pads expose the SWD interface that enable debugging when used with an SWD compatible debugger such as the Segger J-Link Mini EDU.

The pads on the bottom of the Nanos are very small (and as we’ll see later quite fragile). Normally you would use some form of test fixture and pogo pins to connect to the pads. I don’t have that. Some approaches show soldering dupont wires to the pads and then connecting to the J-Link via and adapter.

I’m working on tracking down and resolving a humidity problem in our home. While I have some basic measurements of humidity through our Nest Thermostat and a Canary device I want broader coverage so I can measure localized problem areas. The relatively new Arduino 33 BLE Sense looks to be a great device to meet my needs.

I’m creating a simple network combining BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) and WiFi. I’m planning to use an Arduino 33 BLE Sense to measure the environment. the Arduino 33 BLE Sense doesn’t have Wifi. I’m planning to use an Arduino 33 IoT to act as a “gateway”, polling the Sense for measurements and periodically publishing them to an MQTT broker. The MQTT broker will be Mosquitto running on a Raspberry Pi.