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What you will need:

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Project Background

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This tutorial will walk you through how to build your own RGB lights that can be controlled from the internet! Through this project, you will learn the basics of electronics, hardware, and software by setting up your own light module and writing code to interact with ThingSpeak to control your light.

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Setting up the LED Module

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To set up the LED Module, we first place the NodeMCU on the breadboard by placing the port side of the Node facing outwards and firmly pressing the Node into the breadboard. Make sure the NodeMCU is completely inside the breadboard or else the module may not be powered properly.

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Following this, add a jumper wire from the GND pin on the Node to the ”-” column on the breadboard. Following this, insert the longer side of the LED prong (Anode) into the same ”-” column where you placed the jump wire. Place the shorter side of the LED (Cathode) prong into another column in the breadboard.

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Place a second jumper wire from the D7 pin on the Node to the same row as the shorter prong of the LED. Finally, place your resistor between both jump wires and the corresponding prong on the LED. The resistor is used to control the flow of current to LED.

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Your board should look like this when you are done.

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\n \n \n// this tutorial. You can modify it according to your application\nunsigned int led = 1;\n\nWiFiClient client;\n\n\nvoid setup() {\n Serial.begin(115200);\n delay(100);\n \n pinMode(D7, OUTPUT);\n\n // We start by connecting to a WiFi network\n \n Serial.println();\n Serial.println();\n Serial.print(\"Connecting to \");\n Serial.println(ssid);\n \n WiFi.begin(ssid, password);\n \n while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {\n delay(500);\n Serial.print(\".\");\n }\n \n Serial.println(\"\");\n Serial.println(\"WiFi connected\"); \n Serial.println(\"IP address: \");\n Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());\n Serial.print(\"Netmask: \");\n Serial.println(WiFi.subnetMask());\n Serial.print(\"Gateway: \");\n Serial.println(WiFi.gatewayIP());\n ThingSpeak.begin(client);\n\n}\n\nvoid loop() {\n \n // get the last data of the fields\n int led_1 = ThingSpeak.readFloatField(channel, led);\n \n if(led_1 == 0){\n digitalWrite(D7, 1);\n Serial.println(\"D1 is On..!\");\n }\n else if(led_1 == 1){\n digitalWrite(D7, 0);\n Serial.println(\"D1 is Off..!\");\n }\n \n Serial.println(led_1);\n delay(5000);\n}\n

After this is complete, connect your NodeMCU with a micro-usb cable to your laptop and upload the code by pressing Cmd/Ctrl + U. While it is uploading, click on Tools > Serial Monitor to view log updates (such as connecting to Wifi and LED status).

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Following this, head back to your ThingSpeak channel, click on “API Keys” tab and copy the “Write to Channel Feed” API link. Paste the link in the browser and you should be all set! From this page, in the edit the url periodically, changing the “field1=” attribute to between 0 and 1 (this is to toggle the LED on and off). As you do this, you should see your LED turning on and off (there will be a delay) as well as status updates in the Serial Monitor Log.

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After a couple of changes to the “field1” value, you should see some data in your chart! The data represents the time the LED status changed and the status it was changed to.

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