17 minutes of pure tech - I remember when we had this quality of tech-exploration and project building on mainstream TV with Microlive etc.... but thankfully we have Chris, and this great channel. Cheers Mr Barnatt and the hard work you do to educate and entertain us.....
Your channel reminds me of those old BBC coding programmes that they used to show when I was a kid... Filling our heads with fancy ideas, sparking our imaginations and above all showing us that this arcane magic was within our very grasps if we just pushed our envelopes a bit and tried something new. I honestly feel that the Pico W is now where the original RPi intended to be... with the added benefit of wifi!
Another project for my grandsons to have a go at. Thanks for explaining in such a straight forward way. I’ll just open the little toolbox and the box of bits, set up my iPad for them to watch you tell them what to do and I’ll slope off and have a glass of cider, cheers!
Great parenting idea! I'm going to put that one in my back pocket for when my son comes of age. The sheer variety of microcontrollers and SBCs will be overwhelming in a decade. I suppose it'll make for some fun toy robots though.
It is totally silly that every project I get into wit pico or rpi, Christopher has already done it, and to make matters more interesting, he actually gets his project to a point of same complexity that I am interested in, like sensor data shown on oled display, etc. Thank you for your videos, Christopher
It's funny, but I originally bought my PiZeroW to do that task... and have been too "distracted" to get it running. Now it is not just possible, but easier, with even less hardware, and even lower power demands. The way of the computer world in microcosm. Thank you Chris.
It's funny but I have a PiZeroW I purchased for this too but haven't used because I couldn't figure out how to power it outside. Thanks Chris for making me aware of the PicoW, I'll be grabbing one of them now.
@@kaiying74 Jamie, I found that one of my USB power banks for adding power to a phone will run a PiZeroW. The other one will not. But it is worth your trying a few before buying if you too have the need to power one outside and without any trailing wires. Obviously the same power bank would be great for a Pico.
Once again you show this is a 'real' computing channel as opposed to a gaming channel so many of the bigger ones are. It’s surprising how many people want to learn about the things you show us how to do. I also think you have one of the best comment sections full of knowledgeable people.
I started building my own just before this video came out. I had been meaning to update it as it was a prototype. It was a Pi Zero W connected to a 12v 7ah lead-acid battery and using OpenPyXL to record the values. I have finally finished the project by changing it to running on a Pico W, using Powerboost 1000c from Adafruit and a 4000mAh LiPo connected to 2 6-volt solar panels. I might upgrade it again once I acquire a Pico 2, as it draws less power. However, I want to finish the backlog of other projects before buying anything new. Thank you so much for this video, Chris! Yours is one my absolute favourites on TH-cam! Looking forward to seeing a video on Pico 2!
I’ve been fighting the good fight against lack of humidity in my house and I’m absolutely going to build this for the front of my house where my existing sensors can’t reach!! Great video!
I feel like im back in the classroom, only this time I want to learn. Thank you for the great content. Now im off to integrate this into my Home Assistant.
A very versatile addition to RPi family. I love the projects re-creating 8-bit computers using the Pico - it's amazing how powerful these SOCs have become!
I really want to thank you for all your hard work in your channel. I'm saving a lot of your videos and learning from them so I can do amazing stuff like this with my daughter when she's old enough to understand the basics of it.
I have watched MANY tech videos. You are EXTREMELY good at making these kinds of videos. They are to the point, clear, cover the important parts without going down rabbit holes - and best of all, provide quality resources that actually help. Please keep it up! And if you arent already covering this topic and are very brave, consider ROS2 tutorials (without using containers). Thanks again. Subbed. (I’ve seen your work before but have no clue why I wasn’t subbed already. I just assumed I was already as you’re that good!)
Great, as usual. Especially in projects that aren't likely to have external documentation, legibility > golfed code every time. (When the time comes to change something, you'll know why.) I would quibble about the output format, though. Transmit only the variable data, (identifiable as fields, CSV being a good first choice), not the constant decoration. KISS. Dollars to doughnuts, a subsequent change will make it necessary to process the data in a different way, (e.g. as input to some sort of controller), and you don't want to have to dig the numbers out of the surrounding text. That can always be added in the HTML.
In this hot weather I think it's a good idea to use PICO to control a fan and a humidifier to justify the room temperature, or maybe we can clone an Air Conditioner IR signals then use that to write a little program to make it act like crazy, or, what about converting an old washing machine with mechanical program selector to a digital one. So many applications for this lovely little PICO Thanks Chris and have a nice weekend
Greetings, another relaxing Sunday morning with Explaining Computers. Now I need to go out and purchase a Pico W. Thank you once again for the quality information. Stay well my friend!
@@ExplainingComputers YES, indeed! Sadly, in short supply locally as everything else. One to a customer at Microcenter in the U.S. and must purchase in-store.
What a neat idea! I live in a rural area, so all the weather apps that I can get on my phone and the internet do not show me the weather conditions in my immediate vicinity -- they all grab data from the nearest official weather station which is easily 20 miles away, perhaps 25. This would give me a great way to quickly check the conditions outside my house -- even remotely, if I opened a port on my router and redirected the Pico's web-server to that port. Plus it'd just be a cool flex to be able to show this off to my friends and family. 🙂 Thanks!
Although relatively simple, this video reminded me why I love tech myself! The moment you launched the website, I knew it will work, but it still felt satisfying seeing it in action. Well explained and I really hope it will help newcomers with the microcontroller basics. Will be making my honours dissertation using a Pico W system this year, so I hope my faculty likes it as well :) Cheers!
I'm waiting for quality MQTT library for Pico W. At this point I can work around it with sockets or other network connections from more advanced Pi Zero and Linux but it would be great to just push data into queue and process it later.
It shouldn’t take too long as it’s also available on other wifi microcontrollers. But I agree that it’s a priority requirement for networked microcontrollers.
@@SergiuszRoszczyk I agree, but I think it won’t take long for a C MQTT client to pop-up. It’s a simple enough protocol, but it depends on the ip stack implementation of the pico how easy it is to use. Especially TLS, that’s always non-trivial. But when MQTT C lib is there, I’ll finally be in on the pico. The pico W finally made it a viable platform for me. And I’m actually excited for it now. On its release I didn’t see it as a rival to the ESP32s I tend to use.
Awesome. I've seen this guy being used as mod for classic consoles such as The original Xbox, PS2 and Xbox 360 but never for this application. Great to see it is this versatile. Keep it up, Sir 👍
Really like the practical and very useful projects using the inexpensive pi series computers. Thank you for your hard work creating these great educational videos. You really do a great job explaining things in a very straight forward way with a little humor mixed in for fun.
As ever, a really interesting and engaging project, superbly explained. Thank you, Chris! Perhaps well understood by most, the two major learning points for me were: a) the importance of indenting code; although I could get the code to read the sensor and send the reading to the shell in the first segment of the tutorial, an error was generated in line 53 whenever I later tried to run the full code. I eventually worked out that the 'while True:' statement, and subsequent lines were not indented appropriately on my Pico code. b) the second point was to remember to press the 'STOP' icon before trying to run newly edited code. Very satisfying to get it all working!
Two minor points: Drag and drop between drives is already a copy operation, not a move, so no need for all the right-click, copy, right-click, paste. Secondly, the first view of the page is potentially showing very old data (what the values were when you previously viewed the page) - socket.accept() will block until the next new connection arrives - try moving the BME read to immediately *after* the client.recv(1024) to see guaranteed-current values.
Most times it is easier to ‘click’ the mouse, then move elsewhere, then ‘click’ again… rather than having to hold down the button while moving the mouse. In my case, neurological damage makes this the case… holding the button down is difficult, it often ‘shakes’ loose…. Clicking if far more exact. In my case.
Awesome. My only fun addition would be implementing a code to change the colors of the text to either red, yellow or green depending upon the threshold of values for instant telling if everything is within normal range.
After much head scratching have managed to get this interesting project working late 2023! Since this video was made the Pi OS has become 'Bookworm', the only way I could get it to work for me was to use all software that is pre May '23. Was not straightforward, which is good as I learnt something.😁
Fantastic demo. Really sticks the point and keeps things simple, but understandable and with all the detail a person would need to do lots of variations on this great project. Note though: you appear to be relying on the wifi connection receiving the same IP address you got when you were tethering the board. It's true that this is very likely with most home use wifi routers, but certainly not guaranteed. A more robust project (i.e. not just a demo) would probably implement discovery features, like maybe adding NetBIOS support or some other name service, or a broadcast query/response protocol, or something like that. For the purposes of this demo, a couple of possible suggestions: the most straightforward is to just remind users that if they don't see the board at the IP address they expected, check the client list of their wifi router. For extra credit, while you're adding a status LED to the board, also add a small dot-matrix display that will show the IP address (or maybe just use that display as the status also :) ).
Oh sweet, a coding project. I suspect you are wise to keep it to a brief description, as I can't imagine other people are as enthusiastic as I am for random python or whatever, but I could watch that kind of content all day.
Yes, I too am always impressed by wireless real-time connections and measurements from my own devices and programs. Something magical about it. Like when writing my own code directly to the PC VGA and Serial controller registers. No BIOS, no DOS/WIN, no Driver Libraries. This is not quite a fully satisfying bare-metal driver but it does feel nicer than the vast majority of IoT "commercial" development systems and interfaces. (Always too much bloat for local and personal use. And nearly always WWW internet dependent too.)
I love the idea of a weather station... but coding is a bit above my "pay grade"... Great video Sir.. Wish I could have watched every last step of this in real time to learn more. You make awesome tech videos Sir!!
For any Ubuntu Linux users: Thonny is in the repos (sudo apt install thonny) and your user account needs to be in the 'dialout' group ("sudo adduser yourUserName dialout" followed by logout/in). To select the pico in Thonny: Run=>Select Interpreter=>/dev/ttyACM0
Adding the wireless functionality is such a great idea which opens so many new opportunities for enthusiastic users. Thanks for showing me how transmit data using formated string output. I really appreciate it 👍!
Easy to understand and a great introduction to the raspberry pi pico w! Will be great if you can show us how to activate a fan when a certain temperature has been reach.
hello from France. Juste a short sentence (i'm afraid that my comment costs 100000 € of data center's electricity...) : Excellent video !! thanks a lot 👌
Great Stuff. I realized the project you explained, step by step, in about 45 min...and added also the LED and board temperature as per RPI Foundation code. Thank you for these fantastic videos.
Imagine Chris going outside without a computer! How long would he survive? Femtoseconds would be my guess. 😉 But seriously great video as usual Chris! Might get a Pico W
Had a 'mind throwback' to watching late night 'Open University' lectures on BBC TV in the early 1970's :-) however powered up here by Chris to the nth degree! Oh & just for the record I did get my Open Degree (BEd) with the very first batch of OU Graduates at the end of 1972 :-)
Thanks, Chris! This is just what I wanted - I will have a couple of those sensors with me tomorrow. Bought the Pico W a few weeks ago - this will be fun! 😊
Great video! I have, however. become increasingly irate at the skyrocketing prices of the Raspberry Pi and using ESP32 at every opportunity in place of the Pi. I hate how RPi foundation start the board at a low price and then charge more for essentials such as pin header and wi-fi that are pretty much part of any project. I have grown increasingly fond of the ESP32-WROOM and got 4 of them for US $6 each and they come with WiFi antenna and pin headers soldered - no questions asked. I work with local schools that are financially strapped and with skyrocketing prices of Raspberry Pi, the ESP32 has proved to be a lifesaver! Thanks for this video and as always, I enjoy your channel.
A board like this NEEDS to have communications capability. I was a bit disappointed when I first bought my original PICO. All that i/o and no way (directly) to let the world know about it. (At least without a bunch of additional stuff)
Thank you for sharing this idea. I have been needing a way to monitor my attic, and this would sure be a good project to help me feel more comfortable with Python and Raspberry Pi.
Thanks very much Chris! I am going to do as Sprocket N and get the grandkids going on this project. Very clear and fun! Thanks for your time making these. Best regards, Robert
Let's add control of a power outlet or two to switch on or off a fan (and/or a heat lamp) as appropriate to automate the moderation of the ambient temperature inside of a chicken coop. Note, the chickens have requested this be tested as a SAFETY CRITICAL application.
I had an idea a while ago of doing something like this with a server capturing the data with location and the mixing it with google maps to give near realtime weather data. It would need quite a few people to join but i figured would give you much more localised weather prediction abilities.for that it would need wind speed and direction data and also a way to detect rain. This maybe a starting point to do this.
Nice simple tutorial, thanks! Ended up building something similar but a little more involved myself, using the Waveshare environmental Sensor, I send the reading over wifi to MTQQ and then graph them using NodeRed/InfluxDB/Grafana combination, the PicoW is great!
No worry, i also get nervous when i read "unstable" labelled on any software name i download out of the internet lol Thanks for the great tutorial as always ans have a wonderful week ahead
I used to be more adventurous... and energetic. Reinstalling a system was simply re-deploy from the last image... but this pico baby??? Anyway onwards into the uncharted where great learning opportunities awaitd - nice to have Chris as our Captain on board! Ahoy Sir.swords of honour😊
I've really enjoyed the wireless weather station video a fun & interesting project to make! Thank you Chris for another interesting Sunday & much appreciated, looking forward to the next one. :)
Enjoyed this excellent video. This month our average high temp is about 97.2 C . This project can't change that but it can help with thermostat settings.Thanks for an excellent practical presentation.
Wonderful video. And perfect timing (for me anyway). I had just turned on TH-cam to look for a video on how to set up a Pico and Thonny. I decided that I'd watch your weekly video before searching for the video I wanted. And what do you know? Your video was on the topic I needed. Thanks! (PS: I joined your channel. I hope it helps.)
Thanks for this, and for becoming a channel member. It certainly helps, and I hope that you have found the member only video and other content in the Community Tab: th-cam.com/users/explainingcomputerscommunity
Very interesting Chris. An excellent project executed flawlessly. I don't know how you come up with differing ideas every week, but i am glad you do. Thanks for sharing have a peaceful week.
I got my Pico W a couple of weeks ago and I finally have some time to play with it. I'm not sure what project I will do with it first, but I'm thinking a binary clock might be fun. Anyway, another fine video. Thank you!
The PICO W uses a sensor or two and has wireless at a very good price. It essentially solves a problem that has existed for a while - placing a multiple sensors. Not least I will be looking at these for water leak detection. Most sensor makers make moisture sensors. Normal raspberry Pis are ok for one offs but when you want multiple sensors the price gets up. The pico was ok and all, but without communication its uses are limited.
I received an order of 5 RPi Pico W boards from the Pi Shop on Friday. They are getting easier to buy. I plan to use one to replace an RPi 3B weather station to make the 3B available for another use. I currently use MQTT to transmit the data and I also plan to use MQTT to transmit data with the Pico W. I have other projects where I can replace a RPi with a Pico or Pico W.
This video reminds me of the channel update video. Its going to be hard to cater to "everyones" tastes, simply because of the amount of various topics you cover. I for one enjoy these "project" videos, and so far I have _not_ found a "sub-topic" or "project application" that does not have a bearing on my ability to use said projects in a practical way, filling a real world nead.
A natural evolution and a challenge of this battery powered project would be to try to optimize power consumption as much as possible. Maybe using deep sleep in the 10 sec intervals if possible. The ability to power the Pico directly from a Li-Ion cell is also nice in that respect. ESP8266 or ESP32 were a natural choice for a similar project until now, but you run out of i/o pins very fast. It's nice to have alternatives to choose from
I was debating whether to pick up some of these. I've had some ideas I wanted to try but didn't want to dedicate my pi4 or Zero 2W devices to them. This looks perfect.
@ExplainingComputers Some fake profile just commented on this comment trying to impersonate you. Their profile had only 5 subscribers and emulated yours.. Trying to coax me into messaging on Telegram and then claiming I won a PC. There was no giveaways mentioned in your videos... Can you confirm if it was you or indeed an impersonator? Thanks.
It was not me -- it is a fake account as you have found. It is now banned from posting on this channel, and all all involved parties have been informed of the scam.
Its funny how a so tiny chipset (BME280) that is designed to have the smallest footprint possible on a board is packed in such a huge board and the fact that this IC is 3.3Volt compatible is making this chunk to look even more ridiculus. Nice tutorial BTW. All it needs is a intercom protocol with some security to make it work with an IOT ecosystem.
Great video, thank you. I always enjoy a video that necessitates a soldering iron! I use an old WEMOS in a similar capacity but that only reports temperature. That Bosch sensor is a bit pricey if you have a lot of temperatures to monitor. Looking forward to further videos on this theme.
Would it be easy to attack a solar charger to that power bank, so that the Pico W can essentially become a persistent, independent weather sensor for your network?
![F.HERO Ft. JSPKK x ลำไย ไหทองคำ x M-PEE - ไม่สนิทบิดหมด (Thai Riders Anthem) [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kPJZ0UihBfk/mqdefault.jpg)
17 minutes of pure tech - I remember when we had this quality of tech-exploration and project building on mainstream TV with Microlive etc.... but thankfully we have Chris, and this great channel.
Cheers Mr Barnatt and the hard work you do to educate and entertain us.....
totally agree
A couple of minutes in and I was getting that Microlive feel
"Television is something the Russians invented to destroy American education." -- Paul Erdős. But then the Internet came to rescue us.
Totally agree mate
Your channel reminds me of those old BBC coding programmes that they used to show when I was a kid... Filling our heads with fancy ideas, sparking our imaginations and above all showing us that this arcane magic was within our very grasps if we just pushed our envelopes a bit and tried something new.
I honestly feel that the Pico W is now where the original RPi intended to be... with the added benefit of wifi!
Another project for my grandsons to have a go at. Thanks for explaining in such a straight forward way.
I’ll just open the little toolbox and the box of bits, set up my iPad for them to watch you tell them what to do and I’ll slope off and have a glass of cider, cheers!
Great parenting idea! I'm going to put that one in my back pocket for when my son comes of age. The sheer variety of microcontrollers and SBCs will be overwhelming in a decade. I suppose it'll make for some fun toy robots though.
It is totally silly that every project I get into wit pico or rpi, Christopher has already done it, and to make matters more interesting, he actually gets his project to a point of same complexity that I am interested in, like sensor data shown on oled display, etc. Thank you for your videos, Christopher
Dunno why but I always get BBC tomorrow’s world vibes when I watch you
It's funny, but I originally bought my PiZeroW to do that task... and have been too "distracted" to get it running. Now it is not just possible, but easier, with even less hardware, and even lower power demands. The way of the computer world in microcosm. Thank you Chris.
Yeah, every generation gets faster and cheaper. Probably even easier. I just love how Computers are so great for our lives.
It's funny but I have a PiZeroW I purchased for this too but haven't used because I couldn't figure out how to power it outside. Thanks Chris for making me aware of the PicoW, I'll be grabbing one of them now.
@@kaiying74 Jamie, I found that one of my USB power banks for adding power to a phone will run a PiZeroW. The other one will not. But it is worth your trying a few before buying if you too have the need to power one outside and without any trailing wires.
Obviously the same power bank would be great for a Pico.
Once again you show this is a 'real' computing channel as opposed to a gaming channel so many of the bigger ones are. It’s surprising how many people want to learn about the things you show us how to do. I also think you have one of the best comment sections full of knowledgeable people.
I started building my own just before this video came out. I had been meaning to update it as it was a prototype. It was a Pi Zero W connected to a 12v 7ah lead-acid battery and using OpenPyXL to record the values. I have finally finished the project by changing it to running on a Pico W, using Powerboost 1000c from Adafruit and a 4000mAh LiPo connected to 2 6-volt solar panels. I might upgrade it again once I acquire a Pico 2, as it draws less power. However, I want to finish the backlog of other projects before buying anything new. Thank you so much for this video, Chris! Yours is one my absolute favourites on TH-cam! Looking forward to seeing a video on Pico 2!
I’ve been fighting the good fight against lack of humidity in my house and I’m absolutely going to build this for the front of my house where my existing sensors can’t reach!! Great video!
Good luck!
As usual. One of the best videos. I must say " Nobody can explain things like you"... Thank you for such an amazing tutorial.
I feel like im back in the classroom, only this time I want to learn. Thank you for the great content. Now im off to integrate this into my Home Assistant.
Best of luck!
These rasbi is livesaver for every engineer especially students and amateur who starting up on engineering, cheap reliable, and quite performance!
The bit outside at the end got me good, thanks for explaining computers to us for all these years, you truly are a treasure
Thanks for watching.
A very versatile addition to RPi family. I love the projects re-creating 8-bit computers using the Pico - it's amazing how powerful these SOCs have become!
A new "Low Tech" demonstration... of very high level, as you are used to it! Hats off to you and thank you!
I really want to thank you for all your hard work in your channel. I'm saving a lot of your videos and learning from them so I can do amazing stuff like this with my daughter when she's old enough to understand the basics of it.
i think this tiny project is quite useful specially in this days that the weather is going berserk
I have watched MANY tech videos. You are EXTREMELY good at making these kinds of videos.
They are to the point, clear, cover the important parts without going down rabbit holes - and best of all, provide quality resources that actually help.
Please keep it up! And if you arent already covering this topic and are very brave, consider ROS2 tutorials (without using containers).
Thanks again. Subbed. (I’ve seen your work before but have no clue why I wasn’t subbed already. I just assumed I was already as you’re that good!)
Welcome aboard!
Great, as usual. Especially in projects that aren't likely to have external documentation, legibility > golfed code every time. (When the time comes to change something, you'll know why.)
I would quibble about the output format, though. Transmit only the variable data, (identifiable as fields, CSV being a good first choice), not the constant decoration. KISS.
Dollars to doughnuts, a subsequent change will make it necessary to process the data in a different way, (e.g. as input to some sort of controller), and you don't want to have to dig the numbers out of the surrounding text. That can always be added in the HTML.
In this hot weather I think it's a good idea to use PICO to control a fan and a humidifier to justify the room temperature,
or maybe we can clone an Air Conditioner IR signals then use that to write a little program to make it act like crazy,
or, what about converting an old washing machine with mechanical program selector to a digital one.
So many applications for this lovely little PICO
Thanks Chris and have a nice weekend
Greetings, another relaxing Sunday morning with Explaining Computers. Now I need to go out and purchase a Pico W. Thank you once again for the quality information. Stay well my friend!
Greetings! A very different kind of board to the LattePanda 3 Delta. :)
@@ExplainingComputers YES, indeed! Sadly, in short supply locally as everything else. One to a customer at Microcenter in the U.S. and must purchase in-store.
What a neat idea! I live in a rural area, so all the weather apps that I can get on my phone and the internet do not show me the weather conditions in my immediate vicinity -- they all grab data from the nearest official weather station which is easily 20 miles away, perhaps 25. This would give me a great way to quickly check the conditions outside my house -- even remotely, if I opened a port on my router and redirected the Pico's web-server to that port. Plus it'd just be a cool flex to be able to show this off to my friends and family. 🙂 Thanks!
I was just curious how these little boards work...watched this video....now I'm like "shut up and take my money!" Thank You for this video!
It sounds like you have developed an interest in the Pico! :)
Although relatively simple, this video reminded me why I love tech myself! The moment you launched the website, I knew it will work, but it still felt satisfying seeing it in action. Well explained and I really hope it will help newcomers with the microcontroller basics. Will be making my honours dissertation using a Pico W system this year, so I hope my faculty likes it as well :)
Cheers!
Great to hear that you are using a Pico W in your dissertation. :) Fantastic.
I'm waiting for quality MQTT library for Pico W. At this point I can work around it with sockets or other network connections from more advanced Pi Zero and Linux but it would be great to just push data into queue and process it later.
What's wrong with the existing MQTT libraries?
@@Jimmy_Jones have you seen C one?
There is one from Paho but it is for C++ and not exactly works on Pico. It works fine on STM32 HAL.
It shouldn’t take too long as it’s also available on other wifi microcontrollers. But I agree that it’s a priority requirement for networked microcontrollers.
@@CallousCoder there are some use cases. But I want C so for now it is screwed anyway ;)
@@SergiuszRoszczyk I agree, but I think it won’t take long for a C MQTT client to pop-up. It’s a simple enough protocol, but it depends on the ip stack implementation of the pico how easy it is to use.
Especially TLS, that’s always non-trivial. But when MQTT C lib is there, I’ll finally be in on the pico. The pico W finally made it a viable platform for me. And I’m actually excited for it now. On its release I didn’t see it as a rival to the ESP32s I tend to use.
Awesome. I've seen this guy being used as mod for classic consoles such as The original Xbox, PS2 and Xbox 360 but never for this application. Great to see it is this versatile. Keep it up, Sir 👍
Don't forget the GameCube! Go PicoBoot!
@@AmyGrrl78 Yes. It's been used in so many of them I can't remember them all at times 🤣. Go PICO Go Go.
Agreed, Chris is a very versatile guy.
@@jeyendeoso His versatility lies in his team-up with Mr Scissors and Stanley the Knife. They make a computer super team of sorts.
Really like the practical and very useful projects using the inexpensive pi series computers. Thank you for your hard work creating these great educational videos. You really do a great job explaining things in a very straight forward way with a little humor mixed in for fun.
Looks like you’ve been hacked Chris.
20 degrees C!!! Lucky bugger, it's 29 down here in Hampshire!
As ever, a really interesting and engaging project, superbly explained. Thank you, Chris!
Perhaps well understood by most, the two major learning points for me were:
a) the importance of indenting code; although I could get the code to read the sensor and send the reading to the shell in the first segment of the tutorial, an error was generated in line 53 whenever I later tried to run the full code. I eventually worked out that the 'while True:' statement, and subsequent lines were not indented appropriately on my Pico code.
b) the second point was to remember to press the 'STOP' icon before trying to run newly edited code.
Very satisfying to get it all working!
Glad you got it working. :)
Two minor points: Drag and drop between drives is already a copy operation, not a move, so no need for all the right-click, copy, right-click, paste. Secondly, the first view of the page is potentially showing very old data (what the values were when you previously viewed the page) - socket.accept() will block until the next new connection arrives - try moving the BME read to immediately *after* the client.recv(1024) to see guaranteed-current values.
Came here to say the same thing.
Most times it is easier to ‘click’ the mouse, then move elsewhere, then ‘click’ again… rather than having to hold down the button while moving the mouse.
In my case, neurological damage makes this the case… holding the button down is difficult, it often ‘shakes’ loose…. Clicking if far more exact.
In my case.
Awesome. My only fun addition would be implementing a code to change the colors of the text to either red, yellow or green depending upon the threshold of values for instant telling if everything is within normal range.
A very nice idea! :)
After much head scratching have managed to get this interesting project working late 2023! Since this video was made the Pi OS has become 'Bookworm', the only way I could get it to work for me was to use all software that is pre May '23. Was not straightforward, which is good as I learnt something.😁
Yes, there is nothing on mainstream t.v. that can touch this channel.
Fantastic demo. Really sticks the point and keeps things simple, but understandable and with all the detail a person would need to do lots of variations on this great project.
Note though: you appear to be relying on the wifi connection receiving the same IP address you got when you were tethering the board. It's true that this is very likely with most home use wifi routers, but certainly not guaranteed. A more robust project (i.e. not just a demo) would probably implement discovery features, like maybe adding NetBIOS support or some other name service, or a broadcast query/response protocol, or something like that.
For the purposes of this demo, a couple of possible suggestions: the most straightforward is to just remind users that if they don't see the board at the IP address they expected, check the client list of their wifi router. For extra credit, while you're adding a status LED to the board, also add a small dot-matrix display that will show the IP address (or maybe just use that display as the status also :) ).
As you say, this is a demo about keeping things simple. As I recall, I do mention the IP issue in the video! :)
I absolutely LOVE these minimalistic little machines! 🙏💪
Oh sweet, a coding project. I suspect you are wise to keep it to a brief description, as I can't imagine other people are as enthusiastic as I am for random python or whatever, but I could watch that kind of content all day.
No, many of us are interested in Pi opportunities. However, we're busy doing other things and plan to do small projects on Pi, when we get time.
Yes, I too am always impressed by wireless real-time connections and measurements from my own devices and programs. Something magical about it. Like when writing my own code directly to the PC VGA and Serial controller registers. No BIOS, no DOS/WIN, no Driver Libraries.
This is not quite a fully satisfying bare-metal driver but it does feel nicer than the vast majority of IoT "commercial" development systems and interfaces. (Always too much bloat for local and personal use. And nearly always WWW internet dependent too.)
I love the idea of a weather station... but coding is a bit above my "pay grade"... Great video Sir.. Wish I could have watched every last step of this in real time to learn more. You make awesome tech videos Sir!!
These videos are pure gold - thank you so much.
You're very welcome!
For any Ubuntu Linux users: Thonny is in the repos (sudo apt install thonny) and your user account needs to be in the 'dialout' group ("sudo adduser yourUserName dialout" followed by logout/in). To select the pico in Thonny: Run=>Select Interpreter=>/dev/ttyACM0
Adding the wireless functionality is such a great idea which opens so many new opportunities for enthusiastic users.
Thanks for showing me how transmit data using formated string output. I really appreciate it 👍!
Easy to understand and a great introduction to the raspberry pi pico w! Will be great if you can show us how to activate a fan when a certain temperature has been reach.
Amazing I’ve thought about buying a weather station for my cabin in the woods. But now I think I will do this instead. Thank you!
hello from France. Juste a short sentence (i'm afraid that my comment costs 100000 € of data center's electricity...) : Excellent video !! thanks a lot 👌
this channel is always my happy place for Raspberry Pi things 😊
:)
Great Stuff. I realized the project you explained, step by step, in about 45 min...and added also the LED and board temperature as per RPI Foundation code. Thank you for these fantastic videos.
Great to hear! :)
Exactly what I was going to build, well once I can actually buy 1 or 2 in Australia! Thanks, you saved me some work on the web server side.
Thanks for BME280 info, and I go to put a selfmade tipping bucket for rain messure !🤠
That video flew by - I was totally fascinated by what that little Pico could do. Looking forward to more projects!
Greetings Chris.
Very interesting and informative. This will be great for running my garden railroad wirelessly. Thanks
So many possibilities with this board. I like the sound of your garden railroad. :)
@@ExplainingComputers I have TH-cam video on my channel of my trains. I’ll send a link on the members only side 🚀’s 🚂’s 🖥’s
sounds like you are on the right track
@@ironfist7789 - thanks, good comment. :)
Did you mean "Wirelessly" or without wires ?
Extremely grateful for your work - so glad that I stumbled upon your channel, exactly what I was looking for.
Afternoon Doc! . . . Hope you're well and everything is going to plan.
Thank you for all that you have done over the years! This video was amazing, and I always look forward to seeing your videos! Great work!
I love these projects you do Chris, thanks for the fun tutorial.
this is the content I had been waiting for since I ordered it on release day. thanks !
Sorry I took so long to post this! The launch of Linux Mint 21 got in the way last week.
Imagine Chris going outside without a computer! How long would he survive? Femtoseconds would be my guess. 😉 But seriously great video as usual Chris! Might get a Pico W
Had a 'mind throwback' to watching late night 'Open University' lectures on BBC TV in the early 1970's :-) however powered up here by Chris to the nth degree! Oh & just for the record I did get my Open Degree (BEd) with the very first batch of OU Graduates at the end of 1972 :-)
Greetings Dave. :)
Great little project. And nudging me towards adding a pico w to my ever expanding collection of raspberry Pis.
Thanks, Chris!
This is just what I wanted - I will have a couple of those sensors with me tomorrow.
Bought the Pico W a few weeks ago - this will be fun! 😊
Now this is what I call action! :)
@@ExplainingComputers I have my moments!
Now, if only it can predict when it will rain... 😅
Anyway, that was another banger of a video and one cool little project too!
Thank you,didn’t quite grasp it all, but as an amateur will watch it again.
Thanks for watching! There is a lot going on in the code here.
Great video! I have, however. become increasingly irate at the skyrocketing prices of the Raspberry Pi and using ESP32 at every opportunity in place of the Pi. I hate how RPi foundation start the board at a low price and then charge more for essentials such as pin header and wi-fi that are pretty much part of any project. I have grown increasingly fond of the ESP32-WROOM and got 4 of them for US $6 each and they come with WiFi antenna and pin headers soldered - no questions asked. I work with local schools that are financially strapped and with skyrocketing prices of Raspberry Pi, the ESP32 has proved to be a lifesaver! Thanks for this video and as always, I enjoy your channel.
Thanks for the video! Always enjoy your weather station videos.
A board like this NEEDS to have communications capability. I was a bit disappointed when I first bought my original PICO. All that i/o and no way (directly) to let the world know about it. (At least without a bunch of additional stuff)
Yes, the wireless connectivity on the Pico opens up all kinds of possibilities . . .
Incredibly interesting and fun video! Thank you and greetings from Kyiv! 🇺🇦❤️
Greetings from the UK! :)
Thank you for sharing this idea. I have been needing a way to monitor my attic, and this would sure be a good project to help me feel more comfortable with Python and Raspberry Pi.
I am impressed! I am still a bit sceptical about this micro controller.
Thanks very much Chris! I am going to do as Sprocket N and get the grandkids going on this project. Very clear and fun! Thanks for your time making these. Best regards, Robert
Good luck with it!
Let's add control of a power outlet or two to switch on or off a fan (and/or a heat lamp) as appropriate to automate the moderation of the ambient temperature inside of a chicken coop. Note, the chickens have requested this be tested as a SAFETY CRITICAL application.
All possible -- there are lots of lovely outputs on a Pico. Just needs a relay (or similar) control board.
I had an idea a while ago of doing something like this with a server capturing the data with location and the mixing it with google maps to give near realtime weather data. It would need quite a few people to join but i figured would give you much more localised weather prediction abilities.for that it would need wind speed and direction data and also a way to detect rain. This maybe a starting point to do this.
Nice simple tutorial, thanks! Ended up building something similar but a little more involved myself, using the Waveshare environmental Sensor, I send the reading over wifi to MTQQ and then graph them using NodeRed/InfluxDB/Grafana combination, the PicoW is great!
No worry, i also get nervous when i read "unstable" labelled on any software name i download out of the internet lol
Thanks for the great tutorial as always ans have a wonderful week ahead
I used to be more adventurous... and energetic. Reinstalling a system was simply re-deploy from the last image... but this pico baby???
Anyway onwards into the uncharted where great learning opportunities awaitd - nice to have Chris as our Captain on board!
Ahoy Sir.swords of honour😊
I've really enjoyed the wireless weather station video a fun & interesting project to make! Thank you Chris for another interesting Sunday & much appreciated, looking forward to the next one. :)
The addition of Wi-Fi to the Pico really adds to its potential. Looking forward to your future Pico robot video!
Greetings Perry! :)
Enjoyed this excellent video. This month our average high temp is about 97.2 C . This project can't change that but it can help with thermostat settings.Thanks for an excellent practical presentation.
Wow! 97 C is HOT!
Wonderful video. And perfect timing (for me anyway). I had just turned on TH-cam to look for a video on how to set up a Pico and Thonny. I decided that I'd watch your weekly video before searching for the video I wanted. And what do you know? Your video was on the topic I needed. Thanks! (PS: I joined your channel. I hope it helps.)
Thanks for this, and for becoming a channel member. It certainly helps, and I hope that you have found the member only video and other content in the Community Tab: th-cam.com/users/explainingcomputerscommunity
@@ExplainingComputers Thanks.
Very interesting Chris. An excellent project executed flawlessly. I don't know how you come up with differing ideas every week, but i am glad you do. Thanks for sharing have a peaceful week.
Greetings Brian. :)
I got my Pico W a couple of weeks ago and I finally have some time to play with it. I'm not sure what project I will do with it first, but I'm thinking a binary clock might be fun. Anyway, another fine video. Thank you!
The PICO W uses a sensor or two and has wireless at a very good price. It essentially solves a problem that has existed for a while - placing a multiple sensors. Not least I will be looking at these for water leak detection. Most sensor makers make moisture sensors.
Normal raspberry Pis are ok for one offs but when you want multiple sensors the price gets up. The pico was ok and all, but without communication its uses are limited.
Christopher, you are definitively the best. Thanks a lot.
Thanks. :)
I think I have a Labour Day weekend project. I want to ensure that the temperature in my chicken coop doesn't get too cold over the winter.
Simple, useful and inexpensive tech. I love it. 🙂
Thanks for another great video Chris.
Thank you so much for this bit of tech education. We appreciate it greatly.
Thanks for watching!
I received an order of 5 RPi Pico W boards from the Pi Shop on Friday. They are getting easier to buy. I plan to use one to replace an RPi 3B weather station to make the 3B available for another use. I currently use MQTT to transmit the data and I also plan to use MQTT to transmit data with the Pico W. I have other projects where I can replace a RPi with a Pico or Pico W.
This video reminds me of the channel update video. Its going to be hard to cater to "everyones" tastes, simply because of the amount of various topics you cover. I for one enjoy these "project" videos, and so far I have _not_ found a "sub-topic" or "project application" that does not have a bearing on my ability to use said projects in a practical way, filling a real world nead.
Terrific, especially the webpage for the readings. Well done 👏🏼👏🏼
A natural evolution and a challenge of this battery powered project would be to try to optimize power consumption as much as possible. Maybe using deep sleep in the 10 sec intervals if possible. The ability to power the Pico directly from a Li-Ion cell is also nice in that respect. ESP8266 or ESP32 were a natural choice for a similar project until now, but you run out of i/o pins very fast. It's nice to have alternatives to choose from
I was debating whether to pick up some of these.
I've had some ideas I wanted to try but didn't want to dedicate my pi4 or Zero 2W devices to them.
This looks perfect.
Great teacher every time i learn from you thank you for your efforts
This is such a cute and tidy little project! Well done!
@ExplainingComputers Some fake profile just commented on this comment trying to impersonate you. Their profile had only 5 subscribers and emulated yours.. Trying to coax me into messaging on Telegram and then claiming I won a PC. There was no giveaways mentioned in your videos... Can you confirm if it was you or indeed an impersonator? Thanks.
It was not me -- it is a fake account as you have found. It is now banned from posting on this channel, and all all involved parties have been informed of the scam.
That as some solid editting on the plugging in of the USB to the computer as we all know it takes at least three goes :D
Its funny how a so tiny chipset (BME280) that is designed to have the smallest footprint possible on a board is packed in such a huge board and the fact that this IC is 3.3Volt compatible is making this chunk to look even more ridiculus. Nice tutorial BTW. All it needs is a intercom protocol with some security to make it work with an IOT ecosystem.
Another fresh video And You Looking Good Chris :)
Good video, added to my winter project list, and give it an outdoor winter test in my screened in porch.
Great video, thank you. I always enjoy a video that necessitates a soldering iron! I use an old WEMOS in a similar capacity but that only reports temperature. That Bosch sensor is a bit pricey if you have a lot of temperatures to monitor. Looking forward to further videos on this theme.
Instead of a BME280, you could also get a BMP280, which doesn't have the relative humidity.
May lm71 also make it for temp in the digital. Cheers
Would it be easy to attack a solar charger to that power bank, so that the Pico W can essentially become a persistent, independent weather sensor for your network?
Hello, Chris.
It is always nice to find a new EC drop.
Thank you, Mr. Barnatt!
I want to set up a personal weather station so this is interesting.
Have a GREAT day, Neighbor!
Thanks, you too!
I would hope to see many more vid's on the fun you can have with the Pico ... and just what the Pico actually is and isn't.
Thanks. I have a Pico playlist here: th-cam.com/video/peLH-HNza44/w-d-xo.html
@@ExplainingComputers Thanks for the links, I need to do some studying here. I got my cup of tea ready now ...
I'm considering making a drip irrigation system for my planter boxes, weather control would be a very interesting proposition!