At first, I was leaning towards using the Raspberry Pi for my hardware. But after a chat with my good friend Alex, he recommended the ESP 32. I did a quick Google search and found out these devices are big in the IoT (Internet of Things) world. The ESP 32 board, with its W i-Fi and Bluetooth, is tiny — exactly what I needed.
Being new to this, I thought the best way forward would be to get some expert help. So, I headed to Fiverr to see if anyone could assist. Spending a couple of hundred dollars for someone to write the initial software and give me hardware pointers seemed like a smarter move than spending all my time trying to figure things out on my own.
I found this guy on Fiverr who seemed to have heaps of experience with IoT devices, especially the ESP 32. After giving him a brief overview of my project, he said he could help and gave me a custom price.
While waiting for the Fiverr order, I started writing the software for the API in Laravel. That’s where I feel most comfortable, and I quickly got the basics up and running. I also ordered an ESP 32 along with a few other hardware items. Once they arrived, I dove into learning how to write and upload software to the device.
One of my first wins was getting a sample project to run that made the on-board LED blink. This gave me a good foundation to understand the software and how to load it onto the device. By that point, I had the API and the portal all set for the first version.
The Fiverr order arrived early! Exciting, right? But then I hit a snag. The amplifier I ordered needed soldering. I thought it would be a quick run to a DIY store in Dubai to grab a soldering iron, but no luck at two different stores. So, I ordered one from Amazon right then and there. The soldering took me back to my school days, and let’s just say it wasn’t as easy as I remembered. After soldering, I tested the setup and… no sound. After a quick consultation with my Fiverr contact, we figured out I had connected the speaker incorrectly. Once fixed, we loaded a test project onto the device, and finally, I heard the sweet sound of success!
With a few tweaks to the API and some updates to the device software, I also ordered a set of amplifiers with the soldering already done. I wanted to be sure everything was connected perfectly. And now? Everything’s up and running!