Wireless
For the installation to work, your sensor prototype needs to send data to your laptop without a cable.
This course uses Wi-Fi as the primary wireless medium, via the ESP32’s built-in radio.
Why Wi-Fi?
- Range sufficient for a room or café
- High bandwidth — can send many values per second
- Supported natively by the ESP32
OSC over Wi-Fi
Your microcontroller connects to the local Wi-Fi network and sends UDP packets directly to your laptop’s IP address.
See OSC for setup details.
Practical Tips
- Use a phone hotspot — turn on your phone’s personal hotspot and connect both your laptop and ESP32 to it
- Do not use eduroam — it blocks device-to-device communication
- Keep your sketch’s Wi-Fi credentials in a separate header file — never share them publicly
- If the connection drops, the ESP32 will need to reconnect — build reconnection logic into your sketch
Power for the Installation
For Assignment 2, your prototype must run untethered. Options:
- USB power bank — easiest, widely available, 5V USB-C output
- LiPo battery — smaller, requires a charging circuit (some boards like CodeCell have one built in)