Interactive Christmas Decoration – Part 1

Folks, Christmas is coming and it is time to build some interactive Christmas Decoration! We will use a micro controller called ESP8266. To make it easy we will work with the NodeMCU. It is basically an ESP8266 with an USB port. Let’s go!

Software preparation

Arduino IDE installation

If you haven’t already installed the Arduino IDE (Softthis is the perfect time. Go to https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software and download the software matching your operation system.

Board drivers installation

Open the Arduino IDE and click on Arduino>Properties. Under Additional Boards Manager URLs add: http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json

Click OK and in the menu go to Tools>Board>Boards Manager. In the search field type in esp8266 and install the package esp8266 by ESP8266 Community .

Connect the NodeMCU with you computer and in the Arduino IDE go to Tools>Board and select NodeMCU1.0 (ESP-12E Module).

Almost there! Only one more step: Go to Tools>Port and select the Port of the NodeMCU. Usually it is called something like SLAB_USBtoUART.

(If you are not sure, disconnect the NodeMCE and open the menu. Connect it and reopen the menu again. The port what appears only when the NodeMCU is connected is the right one)

The Complete Tutorial

• Interactive Christmas Decoration – Part 1: Preparation
• Interactive Christmas Decoration – Part 2: Make it blink
• Interactive Christmas Decoration – Part 3: Server and LED
• Interactive Christmas Decoration – Part 4: Server, LED, RGB
• Interactive Christmas Decoration – Part 5: Analog Input with LDR

---

Dieser Beitrag ist auch auf Deutsch verfügbar: Workshop: Interaktive Weihnachtsdekoration Teil 1 – Vorbereitung