MicroPython IoT Hackathon (featuring the ESP8266)

This repository contains the content needed to run a MicroPython-based IoT Hackathon using ESP8266 development boards. Atendees will work through a pre-defined project involving a light sensor and then explore more complex applications. Both hardware and software will be covered.

This content was originally developed for a project night hosted by the San Francisco Python meetup group. The content was designed to make this hackathon easily reproducable

Abstract

Due in large part to the availability of cheap, low-power, internet-connected microcontrollers, the Internet of Things is taking off. Python developers can get in on the excitement with MicroPython, an implementation of Python 3 that runs on very small devices with no operating system. MicroPython provides the standard Python REPL (read-eval-print-loop) interface, so you can interactively develop and debug applications on these small devices.

In this session, you will learn some basic electronics, wire up some sensors to a low-power wireless controller board (based on the ESP8266 microcontroller), load the MicroPython firmware, and interactively write simple applications to read from the sensors. We will also discuss how to connect to other systems via the MQTT messaging protocol and exchange ideas on larger projects that can be built at home for low cost with beginner-level knowledge.

The only prerequisite is to bring a laptop with a USB port. Here is a picture of the completed project:

Docs

The rendered HTML documentation is now available on readthedocs.org: http://micropython-iot-hackathon.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

Files in this Repository

The instruction book is built using the Sphinx documentation tool [1]. Here's an overview of the key files and directories:

docs/Makefile - used by Spinx to build HTML and other representations of the instruction book.
docs/_build - Sphinx creates and puts its output in this subdirectory. A make clean in docs/ will delete this directory and its contents.
docs/conf.py - configuration file for Sphinx
make_zip.sh - to build a zipfile with class content software and docs
example_code/ - subdirectory with Python example code
lecture.pptx - overview presentation to give at the start of the class.
lecture.pdf - pdf version of the overview presentation

Copyright and License

The documentation and text in this repository is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) license. This allows you to remix, transform, and distribute the content, provided you cite the original authors and provide your content under the same license as the orginal. See the file LICENSE-DOCS.txt for details.

Example code and any other software in this repository is made available under the MIT License. This allows you to reuse the examples, with very few restrictions. See the file LICENSE-CODE.txt for details.

Release History

Date	Version	Description
2017-01-18	1.1.0	Cleanup and additional details.
2017-01-16	1.0.0	Complete version, including MQTT.
2017-01-08	0.9.0	Initial public version. Still need to write MQTT section.

[1]	http://www.sphinx-doc.org/en/1.5.1/

mzdaniel / micropython-iot-hackathon