Voltage Error

I crunched another ~5 Hours trying to fix the original system and set up the new top system. I was searching for the source of the error that had dropped the voltage on the breadboard rails, and after inspecting every cable and rail, I found out that the problem was caused by the ESP32 sending packets too frequently, thus creating a disturbance in the voltage. I got around that problem by increasing the voltage until the system turned on, which, in my case, meant that because I increased the contrast a lot, the event was turning a row of empty squares into two rows. This was different from the fast flashing problem, and it was really hard to detect.

Top Circuit

I also assembled the other circuit after I fixed the first one, and I had some troubleshooting with the ESP-NOW connection and the screen receiving the low voltage. I broke a few solder joints along the way, and I had to combine the male-to-male and female-to-female cables to get the necessary male-to-female cable, which helped me identify some of the faulty cables that had been hiding.

For the past ~5.45 hours, I tried assembling parts once again, but I failed multiple times due to either one of my solders being broken, or ESP32 having power issues. After a long time of fixing, I gave up on using the power source while debugging, and I got the circuit to work on direct USB connection, so I narrowed it down to a problem caused by the battery, and my measurements with the multimeter confirmed that some of the voltage I gave was missing, thus causing ESP32 to rapidly open and close, and for blank white slots to appear on the LCD. I also wrote the code for the top part, and I got the MAC addresses of the ESP32s, so they can communicate now. Another thing to mention is that even in the slots of the power rail of the breadboard, the missing voltage is seen, so I am going to take another approach, and test elements one after another, but not individually since they all work individually.

I made some more progress on writing the code for the top ESP32. I mentioned in the Stasis that I will be using the ESP-NOW communication system to display the time as the main case calculates it. I now made a dummy MAC address and changed the message structure to send the data via direct text rather than unorganised bytes and an on/off signal.

I came here after Stasis closed while doing my project, so feel free to look at my project details and devlogs there.