Guide to control VEGA ARIES boards using Alexa App

In this tutorial, we will see how to control Internal LED in ARIES v3.0 board using Alexa App

We need to interface the ESP 01 WiFi Module with ARIES v3 Board to enable Wi-Fi on ARIES v3 boards. The ESP 01 is a low-cost Wi-Fi microchip, with a full TCP/IP stack and microcontroller capability. This small module allows microcontrollers to connect to a Wi-Fi network and make simple TCP/IP connections using Hayes-style commands.

ESP-01 Wi-Fi Module

ESP8266 (ESP 01) is a highly integrated chip designed for the needs of a new connected world. It offers a complete and self-contained Wi-Fi networking solution allowing it to either host the application or to offload all Wi-Fi networking functions from another application processor. ESP 01 has powerful on-board processing and storage capabilities that allow it to be integrated with the sensors and other application-specific devices through its GPIOs with minimal development up-front and minimal loading during runtime.

Its high degree of on-chip integration allows for minimal external circuitry. It is designed to occupy a minimal PCB area.

Prerequisites

Windows 10 or above/Linux (64 bit)
Arduino IDE
VEGA ARIES Board support package

Components Required

ARIES v3.0 Board
USB type C to USB type A cable
ESP 01 Wi-Fi module
Jumper Wires

Circuit Diagram

ESP8266 WiFi Module	ARIES v3 Board
VCC	+3V3
GND	GND
RXD	TX1
TXD	RX1
*EN	3V3

Connection pins for ESP8266 with ARIES v3.0

*Note: Connection of EN pin in ESP to VCC (3V3) of ARIES board is optional.

Procedure

We have to configure the Adafruit IO cloud server before uploading the program to ARIES microcontroller.

Follow the below steps for configuring Adafruit IoT cloud platform

SIGN UP on Adafruit from Adafruit IO if you doesn’t have an account. If you have Adafruit account use SIGN IN option and login with your credentials.

Click on feeds menu

Once the feed menu is opened, Click on New feed

Create a new feed by giving any feed name. Here we have used “demo” as the feed name. You can give any feed name and Click on Create

Now you can see the feed has been created as follows.

Now click on Dashboards menu

Click on New Dashboard for creating a dashboard

Give any Dashboard name you like. Here we have given “testDemo” as dashboard name and click on Create

Now you can see the dashboard has been created as follows.

Click on the Dashboard name you created, to open the dashboard.
Once you enter inside the dashboard you created, you can see a black page as follows. Click on the gear icon on the top right

This will open up a menu as shown in the below figure. Click on Create New Block

You can see the available blocks. Here we will be using the toggle block to control the LED ON/OFF functionality.

In the next step, Tick Mark the checkbox to link your feed with the dashboard and click on NEXT STEP

Give a block title for your selected block. Give Button on value as “1” and Button off value as “0” and click on Create Block.

Now the block has been created.

Click on the yellow key icon to Copy the Adafruit API key (Active Key) to replace the key in the Arduino code.

Click on feed -> Feed info. Copy the MQTT key to replace in the URL portion in the Arduino code

Procedure

Open and set up the Arduino IDE as described in Getting Started with ARIES v3.0.

Make sure you have selected ARIES v3 Board from Tools -> Board -> VEGA Processor: ARIES Boards -> ARIES v3
Select Tools -> Flash Mode -> Enabled
Select Programmer as VEGA FLASHER from Tools -> Programmer -> VEGA FLASHER
Also select appropriate port from Tools -> Port -> COM* (ARIES Board)

Now, Open Files -> Examples -> Under Examples for ARIES v3 -> UART-> ESP01 -> esp_get_Demo

Change the credentials on the code as shown in the image

Once the hotspot name, hotspot password,KEY and URL has been replaced with your’s, the procedure is completed.

Finally, Upload the code to ARIES v3 Board and then open the serial Monitor to check AT commands status.

Once all the AT commands are OK, then the data can be sent from the Adafruit cloud platform. You can open the dashboard you created in Adafruit to change the real time data in Adafruit server as shown in the below images. In the example program given, we are changing the toggle led button in Adafruit server to ON and OFF. When the Toggle led button is ON, the inernal LEDs in the ARIES board will turn on, and when the Toggle LED button is OFF the internal LEDs in the ARIES board will turn OFF.

Turn ON/OFF the toggle led button in Adafruit server and wait for few seconds to view the internal LED change in the ARIES board.

If you completed upto this portion, it means you have integrated the cloud control with ARIES board, Now we need to configure Alexa for working with ARIES boards.