Read more
Pico W Simplified focuses on the wifi possibilities of the Raspberry Pico W microcontroller.
The book starts with a short course on the, easy to learn, MicroPython language. All through the book new sensors are introduced. The discussed sensors are button, led, digital thermometer, motion sensor, light dependent sensor and vibration sensor. For each sensor there is a breadboard layout that explains how to connect it to the Pico W. And there is a software example.
The main focus of this book is however on Wifi.
The book shows how to send sensor readings to web services like Thingspeak, to build a nice dashboard with diagrams and gauges. It also shows how to use Ping to, for example, automatically switch a lamp on if you arrive at home from work. There is a tutorial on Pushbullet that shows how to send an alarm to your phone when a certain critical temperature is reached or a door is opened. And there are tutorials on how to send messages and sensor readings to Telegram and Dweet.
The last chapter shows how to build a webpage. The webpage can be accessed from your phone, tablet or computer and even from all of these at the same time. The webpage not only displays sensor readings, but also includes buttons to set leds, lamps, motors, fans, pumps etc. on or off.
The electronic hobbyist who wants to start with the Internet of Things but thinks that the learning curve is to steep will be pleasantly surprised.
About the author
Luc started writing in the early days of the computer history when computers consisted of a calculator-like keyboard and display. His first programs were written in machine-language.
Later he moved on to the CBM64, wrote a book about this legendary computer, and wrote stories for several magazines. Next to that he wrote some very successful software packages.
After the CBM64 era he wrote stories for Atari, Amiga and Apple oriented magzines.
In recent years Luc started building his own 3D printer and worked with the modern computer languages like Python, C++ and Javascript.
Luc wrote a book on the famous ESP32 and on the Raspberry Pico.
He maintains his own weblog that until now attracted more than 130.000 visitors.
