NodeMCU12e + Shield Base with Tft Nextion an
Experiment for IoT Projects
Antonio Carlos Bento
Universidade Nove de Julho
Computing Science Dept
São Paulo, Brazil
acb01@hotmail.com
Abstract— This article presents the results of an experiment
with devices developed for the Internet of Things with the devices
NodeMCU12e and Nextion, because it is an emerging technology,
it is perceived the rapid growth in the development of projects
that intend to collaborate with human activities, carried out
daily, facilitating the control and monitoring activities, or even
individuals, such as patients, people with special needs, the
elderly, children. Due to this rapid growth, there is still a lack of
content in academic materials that can contribute to new studies
on the subject. The results presented with this project guide the
development of new projects, more complex and robust,
contributing to the academic and technical knowledge related to
automation and robotics.
Keywords—IoT; NodeMCu12e; Nextion; internet; display
I. INTRODUCTION
As a general objective, this article presents the results of an
experiment on the use of the internet of things, considering
interface devices such as the Nextion display, a NodeMCU12e
type controller, these devices being very common in the
international market, having low cost and simple often used in
automation and robotics projects.
With the rapid and constant evolution of technical projects
for the Internet of Things, the motivation for the development
of this work is related to personal and professional experience,
during classes and trainings for students of computers and
systems, due to the identification of absence of academic
materials that can serve as a basis for studies and guidance to
students.
The Internet of Things as explained by CERP [8], IoT
[16] and Gartner, is a communication network that allows the
connection of things, or objects that are normally used daily
by people, this is possible due to the use of small devices that
can be connected to the objects, performing an automation
process, interconnected by a network communication, which
can be by radio, or the internet.
This manuscript is divided as follows considering the titles
of each phase of the research method, in the topic of
bibliographic review, the study materials are presented, such
as review of scientific literature, documents, manuals,
academic articles, discussions in technical forums. In the topic
of methods and materials should be presented the scientific
research methods used during the project, as well as technical
details on the materials.
In the topic of results and discussions, the results of the
experiment should be presented, demonstrating how the
process was carried out, the device configurations and
programming code lines, discussing the main points that
served as a basis for the study, besides presentation of a real
solution, which may serve as a basis for future studies.
II. BIBLIOGRAPHY REVIEW
The basis of the IEEE was the main source of research for
the development of this manuscript, since it is an
internationally known information base, being used mainly by
scientific and technical means, representing the large amount
of academic research materials, collaborating with workshops,
congresses and various events on issues involving electronics,
networks, communications equipment and devices, among
other baselines such as robotics and automation.
Coo reinforces CERP [8] and ITU-T [16], the Internet of
Things is present daily in people's lives, several systems,
companies and services use resources for integration and
communication between devices at a distance, thus facilitating
monitoring and control of activities, as well as the automation
of processes, performed by machines or equipment, such as in
smart homes, security and control services.
The works presented by Bento [5], show the results of
studies in which devices were used for the Internet of Things,
making comparisons and evaluating the results by experiments
that can collaborate for the creation of academic and
professional projects, being this one of the parties that involve
the results of projects developed for automation and robotics
classes.
During the researches at the IEEE bases, it was possible to
perceive the lack of significant contents that can collaborate
with the development of scientific research projects, in this
way, this work becomes a contribution to the IEEE knowledge
base, being part of a more robust content that can be used by
different types of professionals and students.
 Considering the studies on the internet of things we used
the documents, articles and manuals presented by the authors:
[1] A. Å kraba; A. Koložvari; D. KofjaÄ ; R.
Stojanović; V. Stanovov; E. Semenkin, [2] A. Škraba; A.
Koložvari; D. KofjaÄ ; R. Stojanović; V. Stanovov; E.
Semenkin, [5] Bento A. C., [6] Bento, A. C., [7] Bento, A. C,
[19] L. Shkurti; X. Bajrami; E. Canhasi; B. Limani; S.
Krrabaj; A. Hulaj, [18] L. K. P. Saputra; Y. Lukito, [21] M.
Edward; K. Karyono; H. Meidia
Up the device NodeMCU12e and Nextion were used
materials made available by: [3] A. George; H.
Dhanasekaran; J. P. Chittiappa; L. A. Challagundla; S. S.
Nikkam; O. Abuzaghleh, [4] Arduino, [8] CERP, [9] D. Deif;
Y. Gadallah, [10] D. P. Shah; P. G. Shah, [11] F. Restuccia;
S. D’Oro; T. Melodia, [12] G. De Masi, [13] G. Li; J.
Wu; J. Li; K. Wang; T. Ye,, [16] ITU-T, [17] L. Chen; P.
Zhou; L. Gao; J. Xu, [20] M. Chernyshev; S. Zeadally; Z.
Baig; A. Woodward, [22] M. Zhang; W. Leng; Y. Ding; C.
Tang, [23] R. Ranjan; O. Rana; S. Nepal; M. Yousif; P.
James; Z. Wen; S. Barr; P. Watson; P. P. Jayaraman; D.
Georgakopoulos; M. Villari; M. Fazio; S. Garg; R. Buyya;
L. Wang; A. Y. Zomaya; S. Dustdar, [24] S. Barai; D.
Biswas; B. Sal, [25] S. M. Brundha; P. Lakshmi; S.
Santhanalakshmi, [26] Z. A. Solangi; Y. A. Solangi; S.
Chandio; M. bt. S. Abd. Aziz; M. S. bin Hamzah; A. Shah
Considering the subject Nextion: [5] Bento A. C., [6]
Bento, A. C., [7] Bento, A. C, [14] Itead. Studio, [15]
IteadLibNextion,
III. METHOD AND MATERIALS
The method used in this material is the experimental
research method, usually applied in technical research, which
considers the use of techniques and devices for the validation
of hypotheses about problems involving scientific research,
this method is also known as technique research applied,
considering the various elements that involve the research
model.
First, a bibliographic survey was carried out in the IEEE
databases, considering the key words of this document,
mainly: IoT, NodeMCU, Nextion. During the bibliographic
research it was noticed the absence of the keywords,
especially the word Nextion, not found in the IEEE database,
presenting an opportunity for the development of new research
on this subject.
As an analysis of the materials was developed an analysis
on the Internet of things, evaluating their devices and
applications, among the studies developed were considered
NodeMCU devices, this being a control usually used for the
development of projects for the Internet of Things, the
Nextion device was also considered due to simple tests and
configurations.
In addition to the NodeMCU12e devices and the Nextion
display, as accessories were used, connection cables,
connectors, Usb cables, Usb adapters, also considering a
notebook with Windows 10 64bit to develop the algorithm that
was used for communication between devices, the notebook
was also used for the creation and adaptation of the screen to
the display.
As a software, the Arduino IDE was used, being it
compatible with the NodeMCU, basically using the C ++
programming language, for the development of the
touchscreen screens for the Nextion device, the ITEAD
Nextion editor software was used, providing more facility for
the development of the interface, to transfer the projects
developed in the editor installed on the computer to Nextion
device.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The results of this analysis presented the different
characteristics and configurations for the devices, due to the
rapid evolution and development of new products. in the
market in general.
The controllers developed for devices used for the Internet
of Things usually have low prices, reduced storage capacity
and memory, and are small in size as they are usually used as
part of larger devices such as robots, boxes of control,
Internet, being one of its basic characteristics the
communication, or having some type of connection for
communication.
The NodeMCU12 is characterized as a type of controller
for other devices, with the advantage of having a WiFi
communication system already built into the equipment,
unlike Arduino [4], which despite having a low cost, has no
WiFi feature, the memory has lower capacity and processing
is low, these are important points to be considered in a project
as this can affect the performance of the devices.
The NodeMCU12e has a Shield Base, which is nothing
more than a module to expand its capabilities, allowing to
increase the number of pins, facilitating the coupling of more
devices than the normal module, and better features for power
control, Shield Base also facilitates the distribution and control
of new devices in an integrated and centralized way,
facilitating the development of solutions.
Fig. 1. Module NodeMCU12e CP2102.
 The NodeMCU12e works with features of the ESP8266,
which is an integrated WiFi controller, some advantages of
this module include: large data storage capacity, integrated
WiFi, large processing capacity, multiple connection pins for
extra devices, which can be coupled to the enabling you to
extend your capabilities by increasing your capacity. It is an
evolution of the ESP8266 module, which allows connection to
WiFi network, but in isolation, needed to have an external
controller.
Fig. 2. Pin schema for the module NodeMCU12e CP2102.
As shown in Fig. 2, the NodeMCU12e device has several
pins for extra device connections, for this project, the 5V pins,
which is the input pin for the energy, the Ground pin, used for
the power control together with the 5V pin, the D3 pin to be
used as the TX transmitter, the D4 pin to be used as the RX
receiver, the latter two must be connected to the Nextion
device.
Fig. 3. Shield base for NodeMCU12e CP2102.
Although the NodeMCu12 already has many connections
with extra pins, it is usually necessary to expand its resources
to larger projects, increasing its capacity to connect with other
devices, allowing a better control of energy and balance with a
heterogeneous system, this of course will depend on the
complexity of the project being developed, at the same time
one can even use more than one controller, communicating
between them.
Fig. 4. Shield base for NodeMCU12e CP2102 pins schema.
As shown in Fig. 4, the NodeMCU with Shield Base
provides an increase in its connection capacity, as well as
providing better control for the different types of devices that
can be incorporated into the project, centralizing the control
and allowing a sharing of data, for example, when using
environment sensors, temperature sensors, RTC clocks, radio
communication components, and other types of display,
motors and mechanical parts can be incorporated.
Fig. 5. Nextion display 2.4” with accessories..
The display Nextion as it presents Bento [5][6][7], is a
modern device with very interesting characteristics for the
development of projects for the Internet of Things, a highlight
of its resources, is the possibility to create the screens with its
own editor, this software made available with the product,
allows the development of simple to very complex solutions,
adding speed and quality to the solution.
 As shown in Fig. 5, the Nextion display has as accessories,
a connector cable for power and data transmission and
reception, also has an adapter for a Usb cable connection,
being used to transmit power between the computer, a 5V
socket, with connection to micro usb.
Fig. 6. Nextion display 2.4” pins schema.
As shown in Fig. 6, the Nextion display has only 4 cables,
thus saving connection pins in the controller, unlike other
models which require a larger number of pins, with 1 5V cable
(red) for power connection in set with the Ground cable
(black), the yellow cable is the TX cable, and the blue cable is
the RX cable.
The Nextion [14] device also has a coupling for a
MicroSD card, which is required to transfer the project that
has the screens, which must be built in the Compaq Pesario
notebook, then the project is compiled and transferred to the
MicroSD, Nextion display with the built-in MicroSD card, this
should upload the project with the screens, then the display is
restarted and the screen is updated.
Fig. 7. Shield base + NodeMCU12e with Nextion Tft schema..
As previously demonstrated, the NodeMCU12 coupled to
the Shield Base allows to expand your connection capabilities,
mainly to share the power resources between different
connected devices, with the extra pins you can connect more
than one device at the same input or output, another advantage
is the coupling of motors for automation, and extra outputs for
power control. Fig. 7 shows the connections with the Nextion
device, noting that the RX / TX pins must be connected in the
reverse order to the controller, ie RX-> TX Nextion controller,
TX-> RX Nextion controller.
Fig. 8. Nextion display 2.4” pins schema.
Figure 8 shows the development screen for the Nextion
display projects with the ITEAD Nextion editor [15], for this
project we used 9 objects, a page type object, which will
contain the main page of the project, two textbox objects,
which must be used only as a label for the values HH (Hour),
MM (minutes), two other objects of the numerical type for
presentation of the values, 4 objects of the button type, which
when pressed must update the numerical values. As a
complete project, a time input screen was developed to be
used to control the reception time of some data sent by a
temperature sensor, oximeter, and also used to generate
control reports.
It is very important to note in this part of the project how
connections are being made, the location of use and the power
cables, since any configuration other than those recommended
by the manufacturers may damage the devices and cause some
kind of accident, such as fire , destruction of devices among
other electrical problems.
Another important factor for observation is the Nextion
device layout type that should be used for the creation of the
project, because if the project is developed with a screen
layout and then there is a need to change layout, such as in a
horizontal layout, that at the end of the project there was a new
decision to change to a vertical layout, this will lead to drastic
changes, which may cause a rework to the construction of the
screen, since the objects should occupy spaces different from
those initially defined.
The algorithm presented below was developed with the
Arduino IDE software, which needs some initial
configurations as it presents in Bento [5], with the devices
properly configured according to the manufacturer's manuals,
it is necessary to make the configuration of the devices, it was
installed the Nextion device drivers, and used some algorithm
examples to build this solution.
The algorithm should be divided into 3 phases, the main
phase is where the device libraries should be loaded, in the
second step called Setup, libraries, devices and their
connection ports must be loaded, as well as other objects used
in the project, in step 3 the Loop is executed, in which the
code is executed when the controller is started, in this step the
controller is monitoring some action performed on the Nextion
device.
Fig. 9. The complete project in operation.
The following algorithm performs the sum of one digit
when the Plus button is pressed, and subtracts a digit when the
Minus button is pressed, for both numeric values, the
operations are all controlled by the NodeMCU12e device,
which checks if any button on the Nextion display screen has
been pressed, the algorithm can be incremented with other
functions, or checks, for example. To check if the Hour field
has values up to 24, for the minutes field, it can be checked
whether the value is between 0 and 60.
01- #include <Nextion.h>
02- #include <NextionPage.h>
03- #include <NextionButton.h>
04- #include <NextionNumber.h>
05- #include <SoftwareSerial.h>
06- SoftwareSerial nextionSerial(D3, D4); // RX, TX
07- Nextion nex(nextionSerial);
08- NextionPage pgButton(nex, 0, 0, "sensor");
09- NextionButton button1(nex, 0, 1, "b00");
10- NextionButton button2(nex, 0, 2, "b01");
11- NextionNumber number1(nex, 0, 3, "n0");
12- NextionButton button3(nex, 0, 4, "b0");
13- NextionButton button4(nex, 0, 6, "b1");
14- NextionNumber number2(nex, 0, 5, "n1");
15- void setup(){
16- Serial.begin(9600);
17- nextionSerial.begin(9600);
18- nex.init();
19- button1.attachCallback(btn1_callback);
20- button2.attachCallback(btn2_callback);
21- button3.attachCallback(btn3_callback);
22- button4.attachCallback(btn4_callback);}
23- void loop(){
24- nex.poll();}
25- void btn1_callback(NextionEventType type,
INextionTouchable *widget){
26- int v1;
27- v1=number1.getValue();
28- v1=v1+1;
29- number1.setValue(v1);}
30- void btn2_callback(NextionEventType type,
INextionTouchable *widget){
31- int v2;
32- v2=number1.getValue();
33- v2=v2-1;
34- number1.setValue(v2);}
35- void btn3_callback(NextionEventType type,
INextionTouchable *widget){
36- int v3;
37- v3=number2.getValue();
38- v3=v3+1;
39- number2.setValue(v3);}
40- void btn4_callback(NextionEventType type,
INextionTouchable *widget){
41- int v4;
42- v4=number2.getValue();
43- v4=v4-1;
44- number2.setValue(v4);}
Lines 1 to 5 load the libraries of the Nextion device, line 6
sets the use of pins D3 and D4 for TX transmission and RX
reception of the data, which must be transmitted during
communication between NodeMCU12e and Nextion, line 7
loads the Nextion object drivers, lines 8 through 14, load the
Nextion objects into variables to be controlled in the
algorithm, lines 16 and 17 configure the communication speed
of the devices, by default 9600 is used.
In lines 19 to 22, the functions are related to check if any
buttons have been pressed, if any button is pressed the
function must be called for execution, in lines 23 and 24 the
controller is in standby, waiting for some action on the
teouchscreen, in lines 25 through 44, the functions that must
be executed according to the pressed button, adding a value to
the numeric field, or subtracting a value from the numeric
field are displayed, in the same way the other buttons and their
actions are configured.
This solution can be applied in different types of projects, such
as for temperature sensors, humidity, blood pressure,
oximeter, assisting in monitoring patients, objects, controlling
machines, facilitating the configuration process for the
operator, can be added in designing different types of devices,
the Nextion display allows you to create solutions quickly,
with excellent graphic results, such as those presented in this
study.
The results of this study may contribute to research
projects, or even be used in classes of automation or robotics,
as it may facilitate the control and configuration of the devices
used, it is possible to use this project to send data to the
internet, to create reports and remote control, reinforcing the
concept of Internet of Things.
 Acknowledgment
Special thanks for all coleagues, relatives and students,
which has contributed for the development of this statement.
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