Case for ESP8266 WiFi Color Display Kit Weather Station

thingiverse

I picked up the ESP8266 WiFi Color Display Kit from ThingPulse (https://thingpulse.com/product/esp8266-wifi-color-display-kit-2-4/) and also available on Amazon out of curiosity for the 8266. After building and programming it with the weather station application, I was really impressed and decided a weather station it would remain. It's Arduino-like using the WeMos ESP8266 D1 Mini Pro as the brains and WiFi connection. I designed this case thinking I had given enough room for a micro USB connector to fit inside the case but nope. When the cable I ordered with the right angle connector showed up, it didn't fit. Way too big. So, if you use this case unaltered, you'll also need a https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14567 or equivalent. As is, I had to cut it down a little but now it fits like a champ. See photos for details. The shield will just break off if you flex it a few times and then the small piece of plastic can be cut off leaving the fingers to solder to. I used some hot glue to act as strain relief as well as insulate from wire to wire. Once it's all buttoned up, there shouldn't be any movement inside the case, but while closing up it protects. You also need four M3x12 screws and washers (preferably fiber - some traces are near one of the mounting holes) to mount the WiFi Color Display Kit to the inside of the front bezel. Weight is also needed along with a little silicone. The shelf around the display is important because it spaces the display away from the inside edge of the bezel so it doesn't false trigger the touch circuit. Mine printed with about 0.5 mm of clearance but if you are getting false triggers or even a blank screen, you may need to put some washers under the display circuit board to get more space. I also built the kit as the thin version and used a couple of layers of double stick foam tape to space the boards apart to prevent shorting. The USB cable routes through the tunnel and the plug gets set in place to neaten it up but it's not necessary. Mine came out a little loose so I used a small amount of silicone to lock it in place. I made the case to stand the display up and tilt it back 10 degrees from the vertical for easy viewing and tapered the bezel around the display since the display is a touch screen which you use to select pages and alternate between 12 and 24 hour clocks. Since it's programmable, you can add other functionality if you wish. Back to the case, though. I put pockets (A) on either side of the tunnel (B) used to route the USB power/programming cable. The pockets are to put clay, epoxy or other glue and shot, sand, or nuts/washers for weight if desired. The front bezel is clearanced by 0.5 mm on all sides but is still a tight fit into the case back when printed on my printer. It's a press fit but you want to be able to remove it if ever necessary. There is a better connector out there but it just barely doesn't fit in this case. Anyone making their own case might want to use this since it's a little cleaner. I think sanding the little circuit board a bit would clearance it enough, but I just used the other connectors and can't say if this one would work or not. https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10031 Micro USB connectors are great but the molded-over parts are huge. It's unfortunate this WiFi color display kit orients the connector like it does. But a little fix and all is good. It makes for a beautiful little project. Modification... There are some really nice capacitive touch switch modules available that just need power, ground, and output a logic level. There’s one that I’ve been using (TTP223 Touch Key Switch Module <$1 each at Amazon) and it’s easy to just double stick tape it to the top of the box and mod the software to wake up the display and change the display screens with just a touch instead of having to press on the screen itself. There’s a few I/O pins that aren't used in the circuit and it’s easy to just make one an input and use it instead (or in addition to) a screen touch. I didn’t take and pictures when I had it open to do this mod but it works a treat. The touch modules are easy to add switch functions to these kinds of projects without any holes.