Internet of Things

Python & NodeMCU

Serial Communication
IoT Team, BFCAI
Data Transmission

▪ All data transmission systems in their most basic form have a

sending device at one end and a receiving device at the other.
Wired vs. Wireless Communication
Parallel Communication

▪ In parallel communication, where many bits are sent at the same time.
Serial Communication

▪ Serial communication is simply a way to transfer data.

▪ The data will be sent sequentially, one bit at a time.
UART Protocol

▪ UART means “Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter”.

▪ UART represents the hardware circuitry (module) being used for the
serial communication.
▪ UART is sold/shipped as a standalone integrated circuit (IC) or as an
internal module within microcontrollers.
▪ The UART protocol allows you to communicate between 2 boards.
▪ When you use serial communication between PC and Arduino,
you’re using the UART protocol.
UART Protocol: Baud Rate

▪ The baud rate specifies how fast the data is sent over the bus and it is
specified in bits-per-second or bps.
▪ You can actually choose any speed for the baud rate.
▪ However, there are specific values that are known as industry standards.
▪ The most common and widely-used standardized value is 9600.
Serial.begin(9600);
▪ In the serial port context, “9600 baud” means that the serial port is capable
of transferring a maximum of 9600 bits per second.
▪ Other standard baud rates include: 1200, 2400, 4800, 19200, 38400,
57600 and 115200.
UART Protocol: Transmitter and Receiver

▪ When device A wants to transmit data to device B, it will share data via its
transmitter’s pin and device B receiver will receive the sent data.

UART1 UART2
UART Protocol: Transmitter and Receiver

▪ In UART communication, both transmitter and receiver must agree on the

exact same baud rate for a successful data transmission.

UART1 UART2
UART Protocol: Data Packet

▪ The data being transmitted/received in UART serial communication is

organized into specific blocks called packets.
▪ UART packets usually start with “start bit” which is a logic LOW and is
used to signal the receiver that there is a new coming packet.
▪ Data bits are the actual data bits being transmitted to receiver.
▪ Parity bit allows the receiver to check the correctness of the received data.
▪ Stop bits are used to signal the end of the data packet being sent.

Start Bit Data Bits Parity Bit Stop Bits

(1 Bit) (5 to 9 Bits) (0 to 1 Bit) (1 to 2 Bits)
DHT11: Temperature and Humidity Sensor

▪ The DHT11 sensor measures humidity and temperature values serially

over a single wire.
▪ It sends a 40-bit data stream containing both temperature and humidity.

8-bit integral RH

8-bit decimal RH

8-bit integral Temp

8-bit decimal Temp

8-bit check sum

DHT11: Specifications

Criteria Description
Operating Voltage 3.3V to 5.5V
Communication Serial
Output Signal Digital
Temperature Range 0°C to 50°C
Temperature Accuracy ±2°C
Humidity Range 20% to 90%
Humidity Accuracy ±5%
Refresh Rate ~ 2 seconds
DHT11: Pinout

VCC S GND
DHT11: Installing Library

▪ Go to Tools → Manage Libraries.

DHT11: Installing Library

▪ Search DHT sensor library by Adafruit, and install it.

DHT11: Installing Library

▪ Click Install all, if this message appears.

DHT11: Hardware Components

▪ NodeMCU ESP8266
▪ DHT11 Sensor
▪ Jumpers
▪ Breadboard
DHT11: NodeMCU ESP8266 Pinout
PIN GPIO Why Not Safe?
HIGH at boot
D0 GPIO16
Used to wake up from deep sleep
D1 GPIO5 -
D2 GPIO4 -
Connected to FLASH button
D3 GPIO0
Boot fails if pulled LOW
HIGH at boot
D4 GPIO2
Boot fails if pulled LOW
D5 GPIO14 -
D6 GPIO12 -
D7 GPIO13 -
Required for boot
D8 GPIO15
Boot fails if pulled HIGH
DHT11: Circuit
DHT11: Steps

1. Connect breadboard power (+) and ground (-) rails to NodeMCU

VIN and ground (GND), respectively.
DHT11: Steps

2. Plug the DHT11 sensor into the breadboard.

DHT11: Steps

3. The sensor GND pin connects to the ground on NodeMCU.

DHT11: Steps

4. The sensor Power pin connects to the VCC on NodeMCU.

DHT11: Steps

5. Wire up the sensor Data pin to the analog pin D5 on NodeMCU.

DHT11: Code
#include "DHT.h" // Import DHT library
#define DHT_PIN D5 // Digital pin connected to the DHT sensor
DHT dht(DHT_PIN, DHT11); // Initialize DHT sensor

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600); // Start serial monitor
dht.begin(); // Start DHT sensor
}

void loop() {
delay(2000); // Wait a few seconds between measurements

float h = dht.readHumidity(); // Read humidity

float t = dht.readTemperature(); // Read temperature as Celsius

// Check if any reads failed (to try later)

if (isnan(h) || isnan(t)) {
Serial.println("Failed to read from DHT sensor.");
return;
}

// Print temperature
Serial.print("Temperature: ");
Serial.print(t);
Serial.print("°C ");

// Print humidity
Serial.print("Humidity: ");
Serial.print(h);
Serial.println("%");
}
NodeMCU & Python Serial Communication
NodeMCU & Python Serial Communication

▪ The objective of this part is to establish a serial connection between a

Python program and an Arduino/NodeMCU/ESP-32 program.
▪ In the Python program, we will use the PySerial module to be able to
establish the serial connection.
▪ The easiest way to install PySerial is by using pip.
>> pip install pyserial
▪ We will need to know the port and the value of baud rate, to be used later
in the Python program.
NodeMCU & Python Serial Communication
NodeMCU & Python Serial Communication: Installing PySerial

▪ To establish a serial connection between a Python program and an

NodeMCU program, you can use the PySerial library, which allows
communication with serial ports.
>> pip install pyserial
NodeMCU & Python Serial Communication: Circuit
NodeMCU & Python Serial Communication: NodeMCU Program
#include "DHT.h" // Import DHT library
#define DHT_PIN D5 // Digital pin connected to the DHT sensor
DHT dht(DHT_PIN, DHT11); // Initialize DHT sensor

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600); // Start serial monitor
dht.begin(); // Start DHT sensor
}

void loop() {
delay(2000); // Wait a few seconds between measurements

float h = dht.readHumidity(); // Read humidity

float t = dht.readTemperature(); // Read temperature as Celsius

// Check if any reads failed (to try later)

if (isnan(h) || isnan(t)) {
Serial.println("Failed to read from DHT sensor.");
return;
}

// Print temperature
Serial.print("Temperature: ");
Serial.print(t);
Serial.print("°C ");

// Print humidity
Serial.print("Humidity: ");
Serial.print(h);
Serial.println("%");
}
NodeMCU & Python Serial Communication: Python Program
# Import the PySerial library for serial communication
import serial

# Initialize serial communication

ser = serial.Serial('COM5', 9600)

try:
while True:
# Check if there is data available in the input buffer
if ser.in_waiting > 0:
# Read all bytes until a newline character is detected
line = ser.readline()

# Decode the bytes into a UTF-8 string

line = line.decode('utf-8', errors='ignore')

# Remove whitespaces from the beginning and the end

line = line.strip()

# Print data
print(line)
except:
# Close the serial connection
ser.close()
print("Serial connection closed.")
NodeMCU & Python Serial Communication: Output
Python & NodeMCU Serial Communication
Python & NodeMCU Serial Communication: Circuit
Python & NodeMCU Serial Communication: Python Program
# Import the PySerial library for serial communication
import serial

# Initialize serial communication

ser = serial.Serial('COM5', 9600)

try:
while True:
# Get command from the user
cmd = input('Enter the command: ')

# Send command to NodeMCU

ser.write(cmd.encode())
except:
# Close the serial connection
ser.close()
print("Serial connection closed.")
Python & NodeMCU Serial Communication: NodeMCU Program
#define LED_PIN D6 // Define LED pin

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600); // Start serial monitor
pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT); // Initialize the pin D6 as an output
}

void loop() {
// Read the incoming byte if available
if(Serial.available()){ // Check if there is a message available
char cmd = Serial.read(); // Read the incoming byte

if(cmd == '1') // If command is '1'

digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH); // Turn on LED
else if(cmd == '0') // If command is '0'
digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW); // Turn off LED
}
}
Voice-Controlled Lamp
Voice-Controlled Lamp: Installing SpeechRecognition

▪ To convert speech to text in Python, you can use SpeechRecognition

library, which provides an interface to various speech recognition engines.
>> pip install SpeechRecognition
Voice-Controlled Lamp: Installing PyAudio

▪ The SpeechRecognition library relies on PyAudio library.

>> pip install pyaudio
Voice-Controlled Lamp: Python Program
import serial
import speech_recognition as sr

ser = serial.Serial('COM5', 9600) # Initialize serial communication

recognizer = sr.Recognizer() # Initialize the recognizer

try:
while True:
try:
# Capture audio from the microphone for 2 seconds
with sr.Microphone() as source:
print("Say something.")
audio = recognizer.listen(source, phrase_time_limit=2)

# Use Google Web Speech API to recognize the speech

print('Processing voice ...')
text = recognizer.recognize_google(audio, language='ar-EG')
print(f'You said: {text}')

# Send command to NodeMCU

if text == '‫'نور اللمبه‬:
ser.write('1'.encode())
elif text == '‫'اطفي اللمبه‬:
ser.write('0'.encode())
except sr.UnknownValueError:
print("Google Web Speech API could not understand audio.")
except sr.RequestError:
print("Could not request results from Google Web Speech API.")
finally:
repeat = input('\nRepeat? ')
except:
ser.close()
print("Serial connection closed.")
Voice-Controlled Lamp: NodeMCU Program
#define LED_PIN D6 // Define LED pin

void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600); // Start serial monitor
pinMode(LED_PIN, OUTPUT); // Initialize the pin D6 as an output
}

void loop() {
// Read the incoming byte if available
if(Serial.available()){ // Check if there is a message available
char cmd = Serial.read(); // Read the incoming byte

if(cmd == '1') // If command is '1'

digitalWrite(LED_PIN, HIGH); // Turn on LED
else if(cmd == '0') // If command is '0'
digitalWrite(LED_PIN, LOW); // Turn off LED
}
}
References and Tutorials

▪ DHT11 Sensor Interfacing with NodeMCU

▪ Interfacing of DHT11 Sensor With ESP8266 nodemcu
▪ DHT11 Temperature & Humidity sensor on NodeMCU
▪ Interface DHT11 DHT22 with NodeMCU Using Web Server
▪ ESP8266 DHT11/DHT22 Temperature and Humidity Web Server
▪ pySerial Documentation
▪ ESP32 / ESP8266 Arduino: Serial communication with Python
▪ Raspberry Pi Arduino Serial Communication
▪ The Ultimate Guide To Speech Recognition With Python
▪ A Guide to Speech Recognition in Python