🌐 WEEK 12: NETWORKING & COMMUNICATION

Network Integration

This week focused on establishing wireless connectivity and remote communication. Explored WiFi-enabled microcontroller boards, remote shell protocols, and sending messages between networked systems.

Documentation & Media

WiFi connectivity, remote shell access, and network testing

Connectivity Testing

Network diagnostics and remote shell validation

#!/bin/bash
# connectivity.sh - Test network connectivity with remote Raspberry Pi

# Test WiFi connection
echo "Testing WiFi connectivity..."
ping -c 5 8.8.8.8

# Test remote shell portal access
echo "Accessing Raspberry Pi Connect portal..."
raspi-connect status

# Test local network discovery
echo "Scanning local network..."
nmap -sn 192.168.1.0/24

# Verify remote shell tunnel
echo "Testing remote shell connection..."
curl https://connect.raspberrypi.com/api/status

# Log connectivity metrics
echo "Logging connectivity metrics..."
ifconfig | grep -E "inet|RX packets|TX packets"

echo "Connectivity test complete!"

Project Interconnection: Morse Code to Thermal Printer

This week's networking capabilities enabled a powerful integration across multiple class projects. I used the macbook thermal printer GUI to connect my week 2 morse code microcontroller project to my Mac, which remotely speaks to the thermal printer. This creates a complete end-to-end system: the microcontroller can transmit morse code, which is then converted to text through the GUI, and directly printed to the week 9 thermal printer output device.

The networking setup from this week allowed the two previously independent projects to communicate with each other. The morse code input from the microcontroller is captured through the network, processed by the week 13 Flask GUI application, and directed to the thermal printer as tangible output. This demonstrates the power of networked systems—allowing different hardware and software components to work together as an integrated whole.