ultra-remote (ESP-IDF variant)

work in progress... stay tuned

preferring arduino-esp32? have a look at this: fast ESP32 Wi-Fi remote control (arduino-esp32 variant)

what is it

• a fast and small ESP32 Wi-Fi remote control with buttons for a PC or smartphone
• the profile picture shows an engineering sample of the device (documentation will follow on Hackaday.io)

project main objective

• implement the fastest Wi-Fi remote control around for your PC or smartphone

project status as of current git (see protocol output)

• 180ms average time span between keypress (wakeup) to status (received from remote machine)
• any pull requests to improve the current results are very welcome

basic functionality

• wake up after key press
• connect to Wi-Fi
• send an ascii command to one or multiple remote machines
• receive status for one or multiple commands
• go to deep sleep again
• wake up to deep sleep typically passes in less than 200ms

features

• ultra fast (see project status)
• ultra small (see profile picture)
• various key pad sizes are supported (currently 1 - 16 buttons)
• low deep sleep current of about 5uA (measured 0.5V over 100k shunt)
• only a few and cheap hardware parts are required
• easy to build. some experience with SMD is beneficial though (documentation will follow)
• battery operated (CR123 A 3V)
• keymap/ profile switching per multi button press
• commands distributed across multiple wireless access points are supported
• acoustic feedback via buzzer for success/ failure activity provided on supported models
• OTAable per HTTP (press key before inserting the battery)

runtime environment for a PC

• access point hardware in use: Raspberry Pi 4 Model B Rev 1.4
• access point software in use: debian version 11.6/ hostapd version 2:2.9.0-21
• remote target software to control: ucspi-tcp version 1:0.88-6

runtime environment for a smartphone

• smartphone is configured to provide an Wi-Fi hotspot
• Termux and Tasker apps are setup and running
• remote target software to control: netcat-openbsd 1.219-1-0

build environment

• ESP-IDF

how to build

• setup ESP-IDF as documented here

• then

    . ~/esp/esp-idf/export.sh
    git clone git@github.com:sp4rkie/ultra-remote-idf
    cd ultra-remote-idf
    idf.py -DCMAKE_C_FLAGS='-DESP32_2' flash monitor
  

debug protocol output as of current git

    rst:0x5 (DEEPSLEEP_RESET),boot:0x13 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)
    configsip: 0, SPIWP:0xee
    clk_drv:0x00,q_drv:0x00,d_drv:0x00,cs0_drv:0x00,hd_drv:0x00,wp_drv:0x00
    mode:DIO, clock div:1
    load:0x3fff0030,len:1416
    load:0x40078000,len:14800
    load:0x40080400,len:4
    0x40080400: _init at ??:?

    ho 8 tail 4 room 4
    load:0x40080404,len:3348
    entry 0x40080598
    TP01: 43
                # <-- first trace point after 43ms
    VBat: 1520mV
    TP02: 87 WiFi issued
    cmd: 87 @beep= f:1000 c:1 t:.05 p:.25 g:-20 ^roja ^ -> rpi-5.toh.cx@8889
                # <-- CMD sent 87ms after key press
    TP03: 123 WiFi connected
                # <-- asynchronous callback from Wi-Fi after 123ms
    RSSI: -73 DE 0x14 0x00
    stat: 151 #[XX]#[0]#[0]#[xxx]#[0]#[0]
                # <-- STATUS reveived after 151ms(!) since key press (aka wakeup)
    E (155) wifi:NAN WiFi stop