Slowly but surely the electronics industry is moving away from discrete microcontrollers and towards boards that have sensors and extra functionality built in. This means that rather than buying a microcontroller and then needing to connect a bunch of external circuitry up to it in order to test of the functionality and create cool projects, you can do a range of things with a single device with extra on-board features.
Particle has seen this and introduced a rather fantastic product called the Internet Button.
And it is glorious!
It’s a Particle Photon with a circular shield that has 11 RGB NeoPixels, a 3 axis accelerometer, 4 heavy duty tacile buttons, a Piezo speaker, stackable breakout headers, all in a sleek, circular container that can be used to contain everything.
The best part is that Particle have created a supporting library for it that demonstrates every feature in an amazingly creative way. We can make music, create light shows, create motion gestures, and best of all, use the button input to control the internet!
The Goal
Today we’re going to get our Internet Button setup, and try out some of the awesome examples in the Internet Button library.
The Gear
All you’ll need to follow along is your very own Internet Button! Everything we’re doing is contained in this fun, compact package.
Setting up the Internet Button
Getting started with this amazing bit of tech is super easy. Open up the container and take out the Photon with the Internet Button board, and white plastic top still attached (the USB cable plugs in with this on). Claim your Photon as detailed in our Getting Started with Particle Photon, and just like that, we’re ready to test run some awesome apps.
The Code
For today’s tutorial we’ll be using the applications found in Particle’s Internet Button library. Create a new app (it can be called whatever you want), and go to the Library tab, search for Internet Button, and include that library in your new app. If you’re not sure how to do this, check out our Getting Started with Particle IDE tutorial for more info.
Now go back to your app and click on the link for the Internet Button library. Up the top you’ll be able to see the various examples for using all of the available functionality. The easiest way to use one of these examples, rather than forking it, is to select all the code, copy it, then go back to your app, and copy it into your own app. Because we’ve already included the Internet Button library, make sure you select everything in your app, from the #include to the end of the void loop(). The new code we’re copying in has the #include line for the library so we don’t need to worry about copying over it.
Following this process, go ahead and try out some of the different examples included, and feel free to modify them as you like, test of the different functionality, and get inspired for your own awesome Internet Button Projects!
What Now?
Trying out the included examples is great, but sometimes you need to start from the ground up to really make a product your own. In our Webhooks with Particle.io tutorial we’ll be using the Internet Button to create an LED weather station, so check that out, and remember to put your awesome projects up on our website for some store credit!