4. BUILD THE SCRIPT AND
WEB BUTTON
To remotely tell the Boron to activate the opener,
you’ll need a script for the board and a web page
with a virtual button that accesses it. I modified
the code from the Buzz Wolf dog collar project
by Nancy Yi Liang (particle.hackster.io/nyl/buzz-
wolf-837db0) to make a simple interface for our
gate opener.
First, go to makezine.com/go/cellgateopener to
download the opener code and web-button HTML
(see end box for QR code).
In the Particle IDE at build.particle.io, create a
new app for your Boron (Figure
K
). I called mine
“gateopener.” Paste in the code for the controller
and upload to your device.
On the HTML, there are two fields to update in
the code for your specific board: device_id and
access_token. You can find your Device ID on
Particle’s console at console.particle.io/devices.
The Access Token can be a little trickier to
locate;the published methods didn’t work well
for me. What I did to find ours was to click the
device link from the same Particle console page,
and then click the Terminal tab under the Events
section. A popup window will show your Device ID
and Access Token (Figure
L
) inside the displayed
URL. Copy the token number and paste it into the
code above.
CAUTION: Don’t share your Device ID and
Access Token publicly! They will grant anyone who
knows them access to your Particle device. The
way we’ve published it here, a simple look at the
HTML page source reveals both of those sensitive
elements. If you will share your web app with anyone
else, you’ll want to utilize a personal server so you
can keep the Device ID and Access Token private.
Particle has documentation on doing this:
docs.particle.io/datasheets/app-notes/an032-
calling-api-from-web-page
Save this document as an HTML file and upload it
to your website.
When you navigate to that page on a browser
(desktop or mobile, both work the same), you
should now see a plain webpage with a blue
button that says “CLICK GATE” (Figure
M
)
—press that button and a few moments
later you’ll see the LED on the remote light up.
It’s working!
5. FINAL STEPS
From here, you can carefully tuck your
breadboard into an enclosure (Figure
N
). Be sure
to tie a knot into the power cord inside the case so
PROJECTS Cell Gate Opener
Device ID
Access token
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