This is the firmware for the Blot Bot drawing machine. It is written in C++ due to the libraries used, however most of the code I wrote followed C code constructs.
You must install the PlatformIO core. The install page suggests installation via VSCode. Alternatively, you could install it on your system, via the documentation.
Next, clone and enter this project's repository, and run make build. If all goes well, you will see (somewhere) the message: 'Successfully created esp32 image.'
You can edit Blot-Bot's parameters in the definitions.h file.
You must set the following parameters:
- L_PULSE, L_DIRECTION, L_ENABLE - the pulse, direction, and enable GPIO pin for the left motor.
- R_PULSE, R_DIRECTION, R_ENABLE - the pulse, direction, and enable GPIO pin for the right motor.
(ESP32 GPIO specifications) - NW_SSID - the SSID of the network the ESP32 will connect to.
- NW_PASSWORD - the password of the network the ESP32 will connect to.
You can optionally edit:
- SOCKET_PORT - the port the socket server will be made on. (default 8180)
- MAX_MOTOR_SPEED - the maximum steps/second the motors will move. (default 500)
- MIN_PULSE_WIDTH - the minimum step pulse width, in μs. (should be configured accordingly to your stepper motors) (default 300)
- INS_BUFFER_SIZE - can be adjusted depending on the RAM of your specific ESP32 model. 675A (default 32768)
Note: From experience, anything under 8192 bytes can cause network instability. Anything over 32768 bytes can take more than a second to send, which results in ink-blots on the page, depending on the pen.
To flash the firmware to your ESP32, connect it to your computer and run make upload
To monitor its serial ouput, run make monitor
To upload and then monitor, you can run make upload_monitor
Having flashed the firmware, and monitored to make sure it joins the network successfully, the firmware is good to go! It now awaits a client to tell it what to draw.
This firmware is licensed under the GPL v3 license, as per AccelStepper's licensing.