Preamble Years ago, back in 2015, when I started to learn Arduino, one of the first projects was a connected coffeepot. It got own web server serving a “rich” HTML page controlling the coffeepot from the Internet via REST API. …

The second article continues the Connected Espresso Machine project (part 1) and will cover the question of how to control AC load via the microcontroller programmatically. Theory There are only two AC components in my espresso machine that can and should be managed with the microcontroller: boiler and pump. Both have…

Last time we implemented the first abstraction for relays to control the boiler and the pump. At the same time, the boiler has two thermistors on its side to determine the boiler temperature range. This gives us an opportunity not only to switch the boiler either on or off, but…

Following the third part about controlling the Boiler from the microcontroller, this one is to connect another mechanical component of the espresso machine, but as input. The toggle is on the front panel and has four states: off (neutral) make steam (left) boil (right) pour water (far right) Originally it…

After the last part, most of the components are wired and have their own object representation, so it’s time to encapsulate everything we wrote till this moment in the main class to provide a single API (class) to control the espresso machine and execute commands regular espresso machines do. Just…

As Main Class controlling the Espresso Machine is completed, we can start moving into the “Connected” features! So in this article, we will set up Wi-Fi communication using NodeMCU but also introduce Over-the-Air updates to be able to update the firmware of the Espresso Machine in assembled state. The information…

In the last article, the firmware was configured to be updated Over-the-Air so nothing stops from embedding NodeMCU and the whole controller board into the shell of the espresso machine to return its look back to the original! For a long time, it was taken apart and all the prototyping…