You should press “Email” to get the right auth token that will be used later in the final code flashed to Particle. *If you’re unfamiliar with Blynk and you’re not sure how to use the app, please refer back to my previous A Smart Mailbox article(under section Blynk Mobile App ).įirst, let’s start by creating a new project.Įnter your project title and choose Particle Photon as your hardware model. Add widgets and function to your workspace.Get the auth token for linking the app with the hardware project.Photon has an embedded LED on pin D7 unlike Arduino UNO, which has an LED embedded on D13.įollow the steps below to build your first app to control Particle Photon: I will start with a simple functionality from Blynk to control the embedded LED on the Particle Photon board. This buzzer will be used as the alarm buzz, so we have to make sure it’s loud enough to be heard. Last sketch will let you test if the buzzer is working properly. This LCD will be used later to display date and time. I will explain the wiring of the LCD with Particle Photon and will provide you with the sketch that should be flashed along with the libraries required for this step. Next, I will get the screen to work properly with Particle. I’ll start by connecting Photon to an app called Blynk, then I’m going to do a simple test by blinking Photon’s embedded LED (on digital pin 7) from Blynk. Please follow the steps at your own pace. I’m going to break the project into several steps. You can easily create a folder and add all the files needed for your code, such as libraries used inside that folder. Particle is very much like Arduino’s IDE. To simplify the process, I have chosen offline IDE ( Particle Dev ). There are several ways to program your Photon, whether through the cloud (Tinker app) or through an IDE either online or offline. So just by looking at the LED you can tell which mode the Particle is in. It will blink in white if the WiFi module is off. For example, the device blinks in green when it tries to connect to the internet. The device has several modes that can be identified by the color of the embedded RGB LED. It’s essential to review the guide to better understand how the device works and to connects to the internet. I strongly recommend you read through Particle Setup Guide here before you move on. You can now send data directly from Particle to Azure and display results. Particle is one of my favorite microcontrollers (along with Arduino) in the market right now for the following reasons (credit: Particle):īeginning last year, users can start using Microsoft Azure in conjunction with Particle. Particle is a small microcontroller that enables you to connect your device to the internet and exchange data through web and mobile apps easily.

Smart alarm clock app