Introduction

Imagine a device that combines technology with an elegant design, bringing functionality and style to any desk. We have developed our latest project: an innovative gadget that not only displays the time accurately, but also monitors the temperature and humidity of the environment and can send and receive important information through an internet connection. It is composed of an ESP8266, allowing you to develop countless projects with the Internet of Things.

In this article, we will introduce the creation process of this fascinating device and present the structure of the control board provided by PCBWay to carry out communication with the internet and control of the TFT display. In addition, we will explore the 3D modeling process that brought to life the sophisticated design, combining aesthetics and functionality to transform a simple gadget into a piece of technological decoration.

Below we present the complete structure of the weather and climate gadget with the ESP8266.

What will you learn at the end of this article?

• Creation of the communication system between the control board and the TFT display,
• Reading the BMP280 sensor,
• Structure of the gadget's 3D model,
• And much more.

Do you want to have access to all the files for this project? Go to the PCBWay website now and download the 3D model and the electronic board files.

Now, let's get started and understand how this project works.

Development of time and weather gadget with ESP8266

The weather gadget is an essential device to have on any desk, because in addition to displaying the time, date and weather conditions, you can change the firmware and communicate with various APIs on the internet through the ESP8266.

The framework that was created is open source and you can develop whatever you want. Below we have the project structure with an exploded view of each part that makes it up.

As you can see, the gadget is made up of the following parts:

• Front enclosure,
• Cover enclosure,
• Printed circuit board with ESP8266,
• TFT display,
• And power battery.

First, let's understand the structure of the electronic circuit on the printed circuit board.

Electronic Schematic of the Printed Circuit Board

The 3D electronic design of the printed circuit board is shown in the figure below. As you can see, it consists of an ESP8266 and several terminals that will be used to connect the board directly to a TFT display

Below we have the electronic structure of each circuit block that forms the control board.

The printed circuit board is made up of 5 electronic circuit blocks. Below we have each of them.

• TX and RX pins for code transfer,
• ON/OFF LED circuit to signal the board is powered,
• Circuit for configuring the buttons for programming modes,
• ESP8266 circuit, and
• TFT display connection pins.

The combination of all these circuits ensures the process of transferring code from the computer to the ESP8266. This process is performed using the two Flash and Reset buttons.

They are responsible for configuring the ESP8266 for programming mode. The user must use a USB-SERIAL converter and transfer the code via the RX and TX pins.

After transferring the code, the ESP8266 will start executing the application and send the information to the TFT display. It can be used to display the time, weather conditions and other parameters of interest that can be obtained from various APIs on the internet.

After transferring the code, the ESP8266 will start executing the application and send the information to the TFT display. It can be used to display the time, weather conditions and other parameters of interest that can be obtained from various APIs on the internet.

After assembling the structure of the electronic board with the display, we created 3D modeling of the electronic housing of the time and weather gadget.

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