Arduino IoT Cloud Lesson 1: Light

Step 1: Requirements

1X Arduino Nano 33 IoT

1X breadboard

3X jumper wires

1X LED light

1X 220 Ohm resistor

Arduino Build

Step 2: Setup Arduino Create

First we go board configure in Arduino Create. Go to: https://create.arduino.cc/. You will then see the main menu. Select IoT Cloud here. If you are already logged in, you will be taken to a screen that says “Your Things”. If you are not logged in yet, you must log in or create an account. Arduino Create is free, but a paid version is also available. Depending on what you want to do with Arduino Create and how much you use it, you can choose between these versions. 

When you are logged in and on the IoT Cloud page there is a box that says "Create New Thing", select it. You will now be taken to a new screen. Here you can get a board select. Since we are working with an Arduino Nano 33 IoT in this project, select this one. You come to a new page where some things are explained. To board to configure, select “Start”.

Now connect your Arduino Nano 33 IoT to your computer via a USB cable. If the computer is the Arduino board you will automatically go to the next step. In this step you need to name your Arduino Nano 33 IoT. We have named ours “EVJ-33-iot”. But you can give yours a name of your choice.

as soon as you board have given a name, select ”Next”. Now you can board configure. You will get the option ”No Thanks” & ”Configure”. Select ”Configure”. The Arduino Nano 33 IoT features a Microchip ECC508 crypto chip† This chip is used to identify your board when linked to your Arduino account. Once the chip is configured it is board ready for use. Now select ”Back to Cloud”, you will come to ”Create New Thing”

Here we enter a name and choose it board what we want to use. When you have entered this, select "Create".

Now that you have created your Thing you can add a property. In this project the property is a (red) LED light. Select ”Add property”
On this page we give the LED a name. In this case ”Led_red”. For the type we select ”ON / OFF (Boolean). A Boolean is a data type with only 2 possible values.
At "Permission" you select "Read & Write". We do this because we can turn the LED on and off from the IoT cloud.
We also leave Update on “When the value changes”, this ensures that when the value of the property / variable changes within the sketch of the board, this value is immediately sent to the Cloud. Once you have entered all this, select ”Create Property”

Step 3: Building and Wiring

Step 4: Programming

We now go back to the first tab. Here we are going to write the code. Like any Arduino Sketch, the code consists of 2 parts. The void setup and the void loop. The setup is executed once as soon as the board starts up or when the reset button is pressed. The loop continues to repeat as long as it is board on.

There are already a few standard lines of code ready. We describe these below.

#include "thingProperties.h"

Imports all variables and functions from the tab ”thingProperties.h”.

setDebugMessageLevel(2);

Sets the desired level of log messages to be displayed in the serial monitor. This is now set to level 2, but we can change it from 0 (which records errors only) to 3 (which records EVERYTHING!). If something is not working with the wifi or cloud connection, it is easier to find the problem if it is set to a higher level. For now we can leave it as it is.

Serial.begin(9600);

Initializes the serial monitor to display and read it.

delay(1500);

Wait 1,5 seconds to give the serial monitor the time it takes to initialize.

initProperties();

Initializes the properties as defined in thingProperties.h. 

ArduinoCloud.begin(ArduinoIoTPreferredConnection);

Initializes the Arduino Cloud with the aforementioned ConnectionManager.

ArduinoCloud.update();

This covers a lot of things behind the scenes, including synchronizing the values ​​of properties between the cloud and the board, checking the connection between network and Cloud, and other logic. If the value of a property changes in the sketch, the library will automatically detect it and notify the Cloud, so that such value is reflected in the Arduino IoT Cloud Dashboard† Likewise, when the value of a property in the Dashboard is changed, the library will update the corresponding value on the device.

Below is the code you can use to make the Light work.

#include "thingProperties.h"
#define LED_PIN 2
void setup () {
pinMode (LED_PIN, OUTPUT);

Serial.begin (9600);
delay (1500);

initProperties ();
ArduinoCloud.begin (ArduinoIoTPreferredConnection);
setDebugMessageLevel (2);
ArduinoCloud.printDebugInfo ();
}

void loop () {
ArduinoCloud.update ();
}

void onLedRoodChange () {
digitalWrite (LED_PIN, led_red);
Serial.print ("The led_red is"); // This is displayed in the monitor
if (led_red) {
Serial.println (“ON”); // When the LED is on you will see ”The led_red is ON” in the monitor
} Else {
Serial.println (“OFF”); // If the LED is off you will see ”The led_red is OFF” in the monitor
}
}