Adafruit IoT Monthly: Dial-Up WiFi, MIDI Juggling Balls, and more!

IoT Projects Listen to Wi-Fi data, just like the dial-up days! AOL recently disconnected their dial-up service. Nick Bild said he “felt sad” about the “end of an era”. He built a project to capture Wi-Fi data and convert it to audible signals. While dial-up was sending analog signals (audio), this project mimics this by modulating the digital Wi-Fi packets into audible noises and plays it back through a speaker. The link past the break has a great write-up about how Nick got this fun project working. - HackaDay Mini UPS for your Wi-Fi Router A simple UPS (uninterruptible power supply) built out of low-cost parts to keep a WiFi router online during a short power outage or spike. - HackaDay.io Rugged LoRa Repeater for Off-Grid Communications While increasing the LoRa (Long Range) radio communication output’s power is illegal, Bertrand Selva developed a repeater to broadcast signals over extremely long distances. The repeater is “ultra-discreet”, uses low-cost materials (D batteries, standard PVD pipe fittings), and can run over five years in an off-grid location. - HackaDay.io My fan worked fine, so I gave it WiFi Ellis Clayton designed a fully reversible modification for a Vornado 633DC fan to control it remotely over WiFi. The final result is concealed entirely within the fan’s housing, leaving no visible modification. - Adafruit Blog Pool Party Notifier Build an internet-connected pool notifier to alert the neighborhood that your pool party is underway! When your pool is ready for guests, press a button on a web dashboard to send the flag up. We’ve also designed a 3D-printed enclosure to house the project. - Adafruit Learning System ESP-NOW LED Juggling Balls Interactive, wireless musical LED juggling balls using the low latency ESP-NOW protocol. The juggling balls can wirelessly trigger MIDI notes based on catch detection with an accelerometer, and bridge messages to your computer or USB Host synthesizer. - Adafruit Learning System IoT News and More! Nest Gen1/Gen2 Get a New Lease on Life Breathing new life into bricked and outdated Nest Generation 1 & 2 thermostats, this project replaces the proprietary Google firmware with open-source firmware, allowing users to regain control over their devices. This firmware is also completely decoupled from Google’s servers and services. - GitHub Ikea Launches New Smart Home Product Line No more ZigBee hubs for IKEA smart homes! IKEA is finally launching 21 new smart home products — all built to work with the Matter standard. - IKEA Raspberry Pi Unveils the $18 Compute Module RP3 Low-cost castellated “stamp” style module borrows the RP3 from the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W and puts it in a new form factor for Chinese customers. - Hackster