Blynk-controlled Stag Beetle

I got a broken old stag beetle toy with a wired remote control. I modified it so that it can be operated remotely from a smartphone with BLE!

Constitution

Using BLE equipped microcomputer Adafruit Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE and motor driver to control stag beetle from Blynk application of smartphone.

Assembly

• [1] Cutting wire

There were four enameled wires in gold, green, red, and blue inside the wiring. There were two motors in the stag beetle toy.

Motor 1 (Gold - Blue) and Motor 2 (Red - Green) operate as follows:

• [2] Wiring / Connection of microcontroller and motor driver

The MODE pin of the motor driver is connected to GND.

• [3] Making scissors

I made scissors with plastic board because it got broken.

Setting the Blynk

• Create a new project. Select the Arduino UNO in hardware, because there is no Adafruit Feather 32u4 BLE yet. AUTH TOKEN will make a note so you use at the time of Arduino code generation (send mail).

• Place the BLE widget and the button widgets.

• Button widgets setting. Set each of the four Button Widgets OUTPUT to Virtual Pins V0 - V3.

Arduino Program

Latest library is located in the following: https://github.com/blynkkk/blynk-library. The Adafruit Feather 32u4 Bluefruit LE is used here, so the Arduino code is generated in reference to the following:

[Example] -> [Blynk] -> [Boards_BLE] -> [Adafruit_Feather_32u4_BLE]

#define BLYNK_USE_DIRECT_CONNECT 
#define BLYNK_PRINT Serial 
#include <BlynkSimpleSerialBLE.h> 
#include <Adafruit_BLE.h> 
#include <Adafruit_BluefruitLE_SPI.h> 
#include <SPI.h> 
// You should get Auth Token in the Blynk App. 
// Go to the Project Settings (nut icon). 
char auth[] = "YourAuthToken"; 
// SHARED SPI SETTINGS (see adafruit webpages for details) 
#define BLUEFRUIT_SPI_CS               8 
#define BLUEFRUIT_SPI_IRQ              7 
#define BLUEFRUIT_SPI_RST              4    // Optional but recommended, set to -1 if unused 
#define BLUEFRUIT_VERBOSE_MODE         true 
// Create ble instance, see pinouts above 
Adafruit_BluefruitLE_SPI ble(BLUEFRUIT_SPI_CS, BLUEFRUIT_SPI_IRQ, BLUEFRUIT_SPI_RST); 
void setup() { 
 Serial.begin(9600); 
 pinMode(6, OUTPUT);  
 pinMode(11, OUTPUT);  
 pinMode(12, OUTPUT);  
 pinMode(13, OUTPUT);  
 ble.begin(BLUEFRUIT_VERBOSE_MODE); 
 ble.factoryReset(); // Optional 
 ble.setMode(BLUEFRUIT_MODE_DATA); 
 Blynk.begin(auth, ble); 
} 
//Button Wedget V0 
BLYNK_WRITE(V0) { 
 if(param.asInt()){ 
   //motor2 Reverse rotation 
   digitalWrite(6, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(11, LOW);  
   digitalWrite(12, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(13, HIGH); 
 }else{ 
   digitalWrite(6, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(11, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(12, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(13, HIGH);     
 } 
} 
//Button Wedget V1 
BLYNK_WRITE(V1) { 
 if(param.asInt()){ 
   //motor1 Forward rotation 
   digitalWrite(6, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(11, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(12, LOW);  
   digitalWrite(13, HIGH);  
 }else{ 
   digitalWrite(6, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(11, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(12, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(13, HIGH);     
 } 
} 
//Button Wedget V2 
BLYNK_WRITE(V2) { 
 if(param.asInt()){ 
   //motor2 Forward rotation 
   digitalWrite(6, LOW);  
   digitalWrite(11, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(12, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(13, HIGH);  
 }else{ 
   digitalWrite(6, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(11, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(12, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(13, HIGH);     
 } 
} 
//Button Wedget V3 
BLYNK_WRITE(V3) { 
 if(param.asInt()){ 
   //motor1 Reverse rotation 
   digitalWrite(6, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(11, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(12, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(13, LOW);  
 }else{ 
   digitalWrite(6, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(11, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(12, HIGH);  
   digitalWrite(13, HIGH);     
 } 
} 
void loop() { 
 Blynk.run(); 
}  

Blynk Connecting BLE

• Click on the BLE widget of the project.

• Click on the "Connect BLE device".

• Then connect to "Adafruit Bluefruit LE" by clicking "OK".

Operating

Nice moves!