Blastic scale

This is the software for an IoT scale, based on the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi, for the Precious Plastic project. The project is financed by the Precious Plastic Open Source Fund.

This software is in beta phase.

What it does

The scale is intended to be used by plastic recycling workshops around the world, to monitor the weights of recycled plastics. The weight data is uploaded to a data collection page, https://upload.preciousplastic.com/ (or a custom one).

Binary releases and upload

You can download the latest release from the Releases section.

The firmware can be uploaded to the board with arduino-cli, using the following script:

# from the project main directory
./scripts/arduino-cli/upload.sh [ blastic-scale.ino.bin file path ]

If the file path is omitted, the upload scripts look into the build folder created by the compile.sh script.

As of now, wifi connection parameters and other essential configuration can be set on a serial command line interface. After uploading, use:

./scripts/arduino-cli/monitor.sh

# now type these commands to configure wifi parameters and collection point
submit::collectionPoint my collection point
wifi::ssid my-network
wifi::password my-password

Please note that there is a tight integration between the WiFi module of the Arduino UNO R4 WiFi and the firmware payload of Arduino. You should flash the latest available firmware for the WiFi module, following instructions from here. We suggest using the espflash method, which should work on all OS and system configurations.

Compilation

The project can be built with the arduino-cli. Unfortunately, the Arduino IDE does not allow changing compilation flags, which is necessary for the correct compilation of this project.

First install the Arduino CLI, then compile the project:

# from the project main directory
./scripts/arduino-cli/compile.sh

PlatformIO build and development

We suggest developing on Visual Studio Code with the PlatformIO plugin.