How to Control LED Over the Internet with Raspberry Pi Pico W Using Dweet.io

This blog post I will guide you through How to Control LED Over the Internet with Raspberry Pi Pico W Using Dweet.io, a simple and effective platform for IoT developers. In the world of IoT (Internet of Things), the ability to control devices remotely over the internet has become increasingly popular.

Raspberry Pi Pico W is a microcontroller with built-in Wi-Fi, opens a lot of possibilities for IoT projects, including the ability to control devices from anywhere in the world.

To complete this project we need some very basic components, which I believe you have it already.

Step 1: Required Things

• Raspberry Pi Pico W
• LED (Light Emitting Diode)
• 220-ohm resistor
• Breadboard and jumper wires
• Micro USB cable for programming
• Thonny IDE installed on your computer

Step 2: Setting Up Your Raspberry Pi Pico W

Before diving into the code, ensure your Raspberry Pi Pico W is set up with the latest version of its Firmware you have already installed and running. If you are setting Raspberry Pi Pico W for the first time, I suggest you to go through this detailed step by step guide: How To Get Started with Raspberry Pi Pico in 2024.

Step 3: Connecting the LED to Raspberry Pi Pico W

Insert the LED into the breadboard. Connect the long leg (anode) of the LED to GPIO 0 of the Pico W through a 220-ohm resistor. Then, connect the short leg (cathode) directly to one of the ground (GND) pins on the Pico W.

Step 4: Create Thing on DWEET.IO

• Go to dweet.io website and click on Play
• Click on create a dweet for a thing
• Provide the thing name as “led_control“
• In the content provide

Step 5: Grab the Endpoint from DWEET.IO

• Click on GET request
• Provide the created thing name in the parameter “led_control“
• Click on Try it out!
• Grab the request URL https://dweet.io:443/get/latest/dweet/for/led_control

Step 6: Writing the Script for Control LED Over the Internet

• Connect your Raspberry Pi Pico W to the computer
• Open Thonny IDE
• Paste the below code for controlling LED over the Internet using Raspberry Pi Pico W

import network
import sys
import time
import requests
import json
from machine import Pin

wlan = network.WLAN(network.STA_IF)
led = Pin(0, Pin.OUT)

def connect_to_wifi():
    wlan.active(True)
    for _ in range(10):
        if not wlan.isconnected():
            print("Connecting to the network...")
            wlan.connect("YOUR_SSID", "YOUR_PASSWORD") # Make sure to provide your WiFi credentials here
            time.sleep(2)
            
        if not wlan.isconnected():
            print("Cannot connect to the WiFi, please check your credentials")
            sys.exit(0)
    print("Connected to IP: ", wlan.ifconfig()[0])
    


def call_api():
    if wlan.isconnected() == True :
        response = requests.get("https://dweet.io:443/get/latest/dweet/for/led_control")
        data = json.loads(response.content)
        led_command = data["with"][0]["content"]["value"]
        print(led_command)
        led.value(led_command)
        
connect_to_wifi()
call_api()

while True:
    if wlan.isconnected() == True:
        call_api()
    else:
        print("Something went wrong, please try again")
        sys.exit(0)
    time.sleep(1)
    

Breakdown of Control LED Over the Internet code:

1. Importing Libraries:
   • network: Provides functionality for network-related operations.
   • sys: Offers access to some variables used or maintained by the Python interpreter and to functions that interact with the interpreter.
   • time: Provides various time-related functions.
   • requests: Allows sending HTTP requests.
   • json: Enables encoding and decoding JSON data.
   • machine.Pin: Allows interaction with the GPIO pins on the microcontroller board.
2. Initializing Variables:
   • wlan: Initializes a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) interface, which is used to connect the microcontroller to a Wi-Fi network.
   • led: Initializes a Pin object for controlling the LED. Pin 0 is specified as the pin number, and Pin.OUT indicates that it’s configured for output.
3. Defining Functions:
   • connect_to_wifi(): This function is responsible for connecting the microcontroller to the Wi-Fi network. It attempts to connect to the specified Wi-Fi network (SSID and password) and retries up to 10 times if unsuccessful. If the connection fails after 10 attempts, the script exits.
   • call_api(): This function is used to fetch the latest LED control command from Dweet.io. It sends an HTTP GET request to the Dweet.io URL, retrieves the response, parses it as JSON, and extracts the LED control value from the response data. Finally, it sets the LED state based on the received value.
4. Connecting to Wi-Fi and Calling API:
   • connect_to_wifi(): The script first attempts to connect to the Wi-Fi network by calling the connect_to_wifi() function. If successful, it prints the IP address obtained from the network configuration.
   • call_api(): It then calls the call_api() function to fetch the LED control command from Dweet.io and control the LED accordingly.
5. Main Loop:
   • The main loop continuously checks if the microcontroller is connected to the Wi-Fi network. If it is, it calls the call_api() function to control the LED. If not, it prints an error message and exits the script.
   • After each iteration of the loop, it waits for 1 second before checking again.

Step 7: Deploy and Test

Save the file name as “main.py” into your Raspberry Pi Pico W device and click on Run.

Now go to dweet.io and click on created thing Post request and try to change the value to 0 and click Try it out. You will see LED would be turned off.

Conclusion

Using Dweet.io with your Raspberry Pi offers a simple and low-cost solution for getting started with IoT applications. This setup provides a robust foundation for more complex projects like home automation systems, allowing you to control various devices remotely.

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