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Love Actuator (linear of course)

Many times in the past I've fiddled with electronics projects and thought "That'd be useful one day for <insert some long term unicorn quest that's never going to happen>".

So for instance many moons ago in a magnanimous gesture to help out a disinterested thimblerigger, I slaved over an L298N project as part of a commercial gin venture where a motor rocked a gin barrel and <blah blah blah> long story short I gave away the hardware and software and did not get any gin! 😲🤬

Anyhoo, I've nearly recovered my benign composure and here we are in 2025 and I have need for a motor driver to push a linear actuator around so it in turn can torment a window (louvre to be precise) into opening and closing.

Enter the L298N in all it's glory. Go you H-Bridge motor driver.

I'm also going to once again make the code available to you for free, but this time you can buy your own damn hardware! 😂

The whole shebang worked pretty well and you can check out the github repo for the code and the video linked below for insight into my process.

Any questions feel free to ask in the comments section below the video - also please consider supporting the channel by liking, subscribing and sharing as the YT algorithm is punching me in the guts a bit at the moment!

Take care y'all.

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A "real life" ESP32 OTA experience

Quite awhile ago I programmed an ESP32 OTA framework for updating ESP32 firmware "over the air" - in other words it is possible to update the firmware (the actual code running on the ESP32) live at the site of the device with no internet, WiFi etc required.

That video (and blog) showed proof of concept but the project was a bit contrived (simply reporting and responding to temperature). 

In the back of my mind were two unresolved issues:

1. Would this work on a "real" project - in this case the control of "grow lights" in a Hot House scenario, and

2. I should really clean up the code to make it more friendly, and furthermore take potential users through the long and boring process of modifying the base files and uploading to an ESP32 in preparation for deployment.

Hence - this video (and some code reworking)!

Firstly I use the KC868 A6 that we have seen before (blog and video).

Then I download the new github repo (linked here)

The next step is to download the LittleFS upload framework for the Arduino V2 IDE (V1 is slightly different - see this link)

Then there is interminable waffle as I put together this project - but feel free to step through to the onsite testing if you're a bit bored! I've also put timestamps in the video description for your pleasure.

All the files on the repo - enjoy the video - try the like and subscribe button, they're free - and also please comment in the section below the video to give me some feedback/suggestions!