The popular Arduino boards are supported!

Makers, hobbyists, artists and Arduino enthusiasts can now use Blinkit in combination with there Arduino to not only just Blink leds, but also as a quick starting point to create there own custom projects that are activated on Steem related actions!

What is Blinkit?

Blinkit is a notification software that can be used to give regular (inexpensive) widely available devices a Steem purpose.

Supported devices:

• USB Sticks (with read/write status light)
• Philips hue lamps
• Sonoff smart Wifi switches
• Arduino (newly added, tested with Arduino Uno r3)

Blinkit can look for new Steem account Upvotes and Followers, and it can notify on new Posts made by a user.

More devices will be added in the near future.

Blinkit is free and open source, and can be downloaded from the Blinkit Github page

https://github.com/techtek/Blinkit

What is Arduino?

A open-source electronic prototyping platform enabling users to create interactive electronic objects. https://www.arduino.cc/

Arduino integration into Blinkit

This integration is made in collaboration with @electronicsworld over the last two weeks he developed the code that needs to be uploaded to the Arduino, he explains how his side of the implementation works in his post: post

My work focused on making and integrating the functions we wanted to bring into the Blinkit interface and backend.

New Features

The following new features have been added to Blinkit:

Arduino Screen

Arduino screen and the related settings.

• Blink on upvotes, followers and posts
• Set the number of blinks and the delay between blinks for each led
• Connection settings

Arduino Console and it functions

The Arduino Concole window makes it possible to test changes made to the Arduino code by makers, diyers, from within the Blinkit interface.

• Serial monitor
• Send serial commands
• Test buttons to test the upvote, follower and post led.

How is it implemented ?

To be able to send commands to the Arduino from the interface (vb .net) and from the backend (bat scripts) a serial connection needs to be made with the right COM port settings. Connections to the Arduino need to be closed after sending a command, otherwise the Arduino wont accept the new command from the front / backend.

Send the mode to Arduino

In the near future, beside "3x single colour led" a extra mode will be added, "RGB led".
arduinosendmode.exe, sends the mode to the Arduino.

This is the code from arduinosendmode.exe it loads the by the user saved baudrate and COM port and sends the mode (m1). The executable get called by the interface when the save button is pressed.

Send a command to the arduino

To send data to the Arduino from the Upvotes followers and posts bat scripts and the interface, arduinosendcommand.exe is added.

This is the code from arduinosendcommand.exe it loads the by the user saved baudrate and COM port and sends the command (u, f, or p). The executable get called by arduinoupvotes.bat, arduinofollowers.bat or arduinoposts.bat when the related Steem action is detected by the bat script.

Arduino Console

Once a command is send to the Arduino the above code receives and displays the feedback coming from the Arduino into the Arduino console window

Test buttons

The 3 buttons at the bottom can be used to directly send a Upvote, Follower or Post command to the Arduino to see the effect on the connected leds (or relay, motor driver etc)

The following files are added to the repository

• arduinosketch.ino (This file needs to be uploaded to the Arduino)
• upvotesarduino.bat (looks for upvotes to a user)
• followersarduino.bat (looks for followers to a user)
• postsarduino.bat (looks for posts made by a user)
• arduinosendcommand.exe (send the commands to Arduino)
• arduinocommand.txt (this is used to store the command)
• arduinosendmode.exe (send the prefured mode to the arduino for now there is only one mode "3x single colour led")
• arduinomode.txt (this is used to store the mode)

Because the arduinosendcommand.exe and arduinosendmode.exe are compiled, there code is added into 2 seperate text files, if someone wants to improve it or complile it by themselfs.

• arduinosendcommandVBbcode.txt
• arduinosendmodeVBcode.txt

• README is updated wih instructions for Arduino

• Wiring diagram is added that shows how to connect the leds.

• The Blinkit VB .net project source files are updated

Any left over bugs?

To try make everything work a lot of bugs where killed, and the latest github commit is the current workable result, and it should work without problems, But if you find a bug you can contribute a Bug report with Utopian or get in touch on Discord and report the issues.

Technical Support

Technical support is available, if you may encounter a problem, or if you want to know if your device is supported or will be supported in the near future.

How to contribute?

Do you have a question, or suggestion for Blinkit?
Do you want to make other devices compatible and make Blinkit better?

Feel free to contact me on Discord or leave a comment.

Please don't hesitate and get in touch!