SmartBlynkie™© ioT Game

I have never been a fan of computer games but I knocked this up anyway. Introducing the SmartBlynkie™© ioT Game, the fun way to learn about some of the Blynk widgets.

Once I have added WiFi Manager I will probably put up the QR code and bin file on Github for you to try.

Edit: Github link with QR code and Smartphone link is https://github.com/pieman64/SmartBlynkie-ioT-Game
(bin file to follow as soon as possible).

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You are my hero … This will be fun xD

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@Lichtsignaal my wife is a bit of a gamer and she wasn’t very impressed. She thinks I should be working, not designing games. It came about when I started playing with Blynk’s new Set Property feature and the blinking LED’s reminded me of the old Simon game.

There is a version of Simon available for Smartphones and I noticed the Android version alone has between 1,000,000 and 5,000,000 downloads.

Anyway, back to work for me.

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It might take us some time to integrate WiFi Manager into the project so if anyone wants to “beta test this exceptional engineering application” (spouse speak for play the game) send us the following details by private Community message once you have loaded up the project on your Smartphone:

  1. Your Blynk Token
  2. Your Router SSID
  3. Your Router Password.
  4. Your local server IP or confirmation you are using Blynk’s cloud server.

ESP WiFi connections only at this stage, none of that “shield” nonsense.

We will then send you the required bin file.

Costas

(anyone want to knock up the iPhone version?)

Quick screenshot of Ken Taylor’s branch of WiFiManager where we have added 8 “Blynk parameters” for the SmartBlynkie™© ioT Game App.

These 8 fields are 4 tokens and 4 server IP’s (or FQDN’s).

So the plan is to allow users to be able to connect to 4 different servers to play the game. Perhaps Blynk’s cloud server and up to 3 local servers. We still have some coding to do for this but it should be a simple set of 4 IF statements, working through the tokens and IP addresses. Obviously users will still need to change the server settings in the app manually as they move from location to location. This is fairly straightforward when you have done it a few times.

One tip we would give is to use the same email address and password on each server you access and then you are not wasting time changing them in the app.

Also at this stage we are not looking to add a further 8 parameters to WiFi Manager for 4 SSID’s and 4 passwords so we expect the user to use the same access details wherever they are i.e. ensure all SSID’s and password are identical at the wireless Access Points you use.

It wouldn’t be difficult to add these extra parameters but we think with app’s like ESP Connect you should be able to change the access details on the fly from your Smartphone. Ken Taylor’s branch of WiFi Manager allows you to leave the SSID and Password fields blank and it will use the details you already have in the ESP. So it is just the Blynk token and server details that need to be updated and verified with WiFi Manager.

We are getting top side with Ken Taylor’s branch of WiFi Manager and ESP Connect for interaction with Blynk. So now you can play the SmartBlynkie™© ioT Game wherever you can find a WiFi connection

This is our Serial Monitor having intentionally set the wrong Blynk cloud server token in WiFi Manager. You will see it tries to connect to the Blynk server a couple of times and then it moves on to our local Pi Zero server and connects.

Local ip: 192.168.10.97
WiFi connected with IP address: 192.168.10.97
[1169] Blynk v0.3.8 on ESP8266
[5001] Connecting to blynk-cloud.com:8442
[5201] Invalid auth token
[10202] Connecting to blynk-cloud.com:8442
[10375] Invalid auth token
[13170] Blynk v0.3.8 on ESP8266
[15376] Connecting to 192.168.10.229:8442
[15693] Ready (ping: 11ms).
[20694] Connecting to 192.168.10.229:8442
[20726] Ready (ping: 12ms).
Connected to local server
ESP MAC is 5C:CF:7F:8B:28:E2
pinSda = 2
[21819] Time sync: OK
Date is: 04/09/2016 and the time is now 21:14:16
[22805] Time sync: OK

Below is an extract from our setup() which creates the Serial Monitor output above, hope you find a use for it.

Serial.print("WiFi connected with IP address: ");
  Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());  
  if(pinSda > 1){  // this is just a test to say if pinSda in WiFi Manager is set to > 1
    // sketch will try a few connections, in the order they were put in WiFi Manager   
    Blynk.config(blynk_token1, blynk_server1); // Blynk Cloud Server
    int mytimeout = millis() / 1000;
    while (Blynk.connect() == false) { // try to connect to server for 10 seconds
      if((millis() / 1000) > mytimeout + 8){ // try local server if not connected in 9s
        // assume local server success if Blynk cloud failed
        strcpy(connectionStatus, "Connected to local server"); 
                          // failed to connect to Blynk cloud server so try local server
        Blynk.config(blynk_token2, blynk_server2); // Local Server access details
        mytimeout = millis() / 1000;
        while (Blynk.connect() == false) {  // try to connect to server for 10 seconds
          if((millis() / 1000) > mytimeout + 8){ // try for less than 9 seconds
            break;  // blynk.run() will kep trying to connect
          }
        }
      }
    }        
  }

Latest screenshot, now using the Player widget. Bin file should be available real soon.

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@Dmitriy @Pavlo @psoro @Lichtsignaal @Dave1829 and everyone else could you please take a look at our quite detailed GitHub README for the SmartBlynkie™© ioT Game

Specifically can you try the shared project QR code at the bottom of the README and let us know how it goes. Specifically interested in feedback from iPhone users but Android feedback is also very welcomed.

Hope to have the bin file uploaded and the section relating to esptool.py completed before morning.

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I think I broke your game :slight_smile: and ESP :slight_smile:

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@Dmitriy it might have been me as I just rebooted the ESP but I do seem to be getting quite a few ESP resets.

I notice the spelling of my name is now a rather odd Costas:

Do you think that is due to your funny language keyboard?

If you think that’s funny, take a look at mine! I’ll try to get you some feedback tomorrow (when my phone is recharged). I can also charge my iPhone and see how that goes.

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I just “saw” a game run on my phone from an anonymous player with a less than impressive score of minus 66. So something appears to work even if it is a bit flakey at the moment.

@Costas, thanks for sharing! This could be the first competition between Blynkers!
I’m trying to use the project sharing feature without luck, “your Esp was disconnected” every few seconds…

I’m the one with minus 66!!! hahaha

Hi Jose,

That might be because there are over 500,000 people trying to play the game at the same time :slight_smile:

My internet connection has been a bit flakey today too. This websites and others were taking forever to load up.

Currently the Wio Link is plugged into a USB power bank that I only got about 60 minutes ago and it’s not charged up but it is plugged into the mains. I will try direct mains power to the Wio to see if that helps.

Ok Costas, let’s wait for the bin file to load the game into my ESP! :slight_smile:
Meanwhile I’ll install esptool.py and prepare the rest.
Regards!!

184, for now, lol … and that’s on Droid4X, LOL.

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Just looked down at my phone and this is what I saw.

So you are the current high scorer (verified) Blynker!

I think just before you played the game I had moved the Wio to full mains power and connection to our main router which should have helped.

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Yay! And that with a couple beers tucked safely in the belly, haha.

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Just uploaded the bin to GitHub so it is available for download now.

I have just downloaded it myself and will knock up the notes for esptool.py shortly. Some people will be able to flash the bin without any notes but one way is to flash a basic local OTA update, browser version, sketch to your ESP with Arduino IDE and then select the downloaded bin file.

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Top player is erased with clr button. You can store top player in any Vpin on server and restore via Sync as from EEPROM.