In realtime updating Servo ESP32 Webserver

Hi everyone,

I wanted to try out the ESP32 webserver feature, so i searched around the web and found a tutorial by randomnerdtutorials to control a servo with a website using the ESP32 webserver. It's working great, but i have one thing that i want to change. When I change the slider, the servo doesn't change in realtime, but only updates if I let go off the slider.
How should I adjust the code to make the servo update in realtime.

This is the code I run on the ESP32:

/*********
  Rui Santos & Sara Santos - Random Nerd Tutorials
  Complete project details at https://RandomNerdTutorials.com/esp32-servo-motor-web-server-arduino-ide/ 
*********/

#include <WiFi.h>
#include <ESP32Servo.h>

Servo myservo;  // create servo object to control a servo
// twelve servo objects can be created on most boards

// GPIO the servo is attached to
static const int servoPin = 13;

// Replace with your network credentials
const char* ssid     = "mySSID";
const char* password = "myPassword";

// Set web server port number to 80
WiFiServer server(80);

// Variable to store the HTTP request
String header;

// Decode HTTP GET value
String valueString = String(5);
int pos1 = 0;
int pos2 = 0;

// Current time
unsigned long currentTime = millis();
// Previous time
unsigned long previousTime = 0; 
// Define timeout time in milliseconds (example: 2000ms = 2s)
const long timeoutTime = 2000;

void setup() {
  Serial.begin(115200);

  myservo.attach(servoPin);  // attaches the servo on the servoPin to the servo object


  // Connect to Wi-Fi network with SSID and password
  Serial.print("Connecting to ");
  Serial.println(ssid);
  WiFi.begin(ssid, password);
  while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
    delay(500);
    Serial.print(".");
  }
  // Print local IP address and start web server
  Serial.println("");
  Serial.println("WiFi connected.");
  Serial.println("IP address: ");
  Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());
  server.begin();
}

void loop(){
  WiFiClient client = server.available();   // Listen for incoming clients

  if (client) {                             // If a new client connects,
    currentTime = millis();
    previousTime = currentTime;
    Serial.println("New Client.");          // print a message out in the serial port
    String currentLine = "";                // make a String to hold incoming data from the client
    while (client.connected() && currentTime - previousTime <= timeoutTime) { // loop while the client's connected
      currentTime = millis();
      if (client.available()) {             // if there's bytes to read from the client,
        char c = client.read();             // read a byte, then
        Serial.write(c);                    // print it out the serial monitor
        header += c;
        if (c == '\n') {                    // if the byte is a newline character
          // if the current line is blank, you got two newline characters in a row.
          // that's the end of the client HTTP request, so send a response:
          if (currentLine.length() == 0) {
            // HTTP headers always start with a response code (e.g. HTTP/1.1 200 OK)
            // and a content-type so the client knows what's coming, then a blank line:
            client.println("HTTP/1.1 200 OK");
            client.println("Content-type:text/html");
            client.println("Connection: close");
            client.println();

            // Display the HTML web page
            client.println("<!DOCTYPE html><html>");
            client.println("<head><meta name=\"viewport\" content=\"width=device-width, initial-scale=1\">");
            client.println("<link rel=\"icon\" href=\"data:,\">");
            // CSS to style the on/off buttons 
            // Feel free to change the background-color and font-size attributes to fit your preferences
            client.println("<style>body { text-align: center; font-family: \"Trebuchet MS\", Arial; margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;}");
            client.println(".slider { width: 300px; }</style>");
            client.println("<script src=\"https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.3.1/jquery.min.js\"></script>");
                     
            // Web Page
            client.println("</head><body><h1>ESP32 with Servo</h1>");
            client.println("<p>Position: <span id=\"servoPos\"></span></p>");          
            client.println("<input type=\"range\" min=\"0\" max=\"180\" class=\"slider\" id=\"servoSlider\" onchange=\"servo(this.value)\" value=\""+valueString+"\"/>");
            
            client.println("<script>var slider = document.getElementById(\"servoSlider\");");
            client.println("var servoP = document.getElementById(\"servoPos\"); servoP.innerHTML = slider.value;");
            client.println("slider.oninput = function() { slider.value = this.value; servoP.innerHTML = this.value; }");
            client.println("$.ajaxSetup({timeout:1000}); function servo(pos) { ");
            client.println("$.get(\"/?value=\" + pos + \"&\"); {Connection: close};}</script>");
           
            client.println("</body></html>");     
            
            //GET /?value=180& HTTP/1.1
            if(header.indexOf("GET /?value=")>=0) {
              pos1 = header.indexOf('=');
              pos2 = header.indexOf('&');
              valueString = header.substring(pos1+1, pos2);
              
              //Rotate the servo
              myservo.write(valueString.toInt());
              Serial.println(valueString); 
            }         
            // The HTTP response ends with another blank line
            client.println();
            // Break out of the while loop
            break;
          } else { // if you got a newline, then clear currentLine
            currentLine = "";
          }
        } else if (c != '\r') {  // if you got anything else but a carriage return character,
          currentLine += c;      // add it to the end of the currentLine
        }
      }
    }
    // Clear the header variable
    header = "";
    // Close the connection
    client.stop();
    Serial.println("Client disconnected.");
    Serial.println("");
  }
}

Thank you in advance.

In theory, the slider's "input" event should work as expected, at least in VanillaJS—that is, plain JavaScript without external libraries.

In this example, however, they are using jQuery (in my opinion, unnecessarily) as an external resource. As a result, the "input" event handler behaves the same way as it would for the "change" event.

Check this CodePen link, for an example of what I mean:
https://codepen.io/Tolentino-Cotesta/pen/qEBVmzY

My advice is to avoid using jQuery for such a simple task.

Additionally, instead of generating pages dynamically in SRAM using a large string, take advantage of the library included in the ESP32 Arduino core.

1 Like

I asked ChatGPT about this, and it suggested the same thing.

And i shall take a look into the library you suggested.

Thanks alot for the reply and trying to help me!

So it's really smart???
:rofl:

If you need any help with that library, don’t hesitate to ask!

Yeah in like javascript it's pretty decent. But in arduino it isn't very good.

Hi,
i had some questions about the library or in general. How can I, instead of generating pages using a large string, upload the html code to the esp32 using the library? I read that you can make like a <index.h> file or to load it in the progmem, but what is the best way to do it.

Yes, you can upload your files to the flash memory of ESP32 boards—this is actually the approach I always use in my projects.

A good starting point is the FSBrowser.ino example provided in the ESP32 Arduino framework. However, I prefer using LittleFS as the filesystem instead of SPIFFS or FFat, which are used in that example.

That said, if you want to save some time, you might want to try my library. It’s essentially a wrapper around the core web server and filesystem libraries incorporating the functionality of the FSBrowser.ino example along with additional features I’ve implemented on my own.

For instance, it includes built-in web pages for WiFi credentials management, additional user options and for uploading web server files directly with the browser without needs for external tools.

You can find the library at this link or in the Arduino library manager.
There is also a similar library which is based on ESPAsyncWebserver library instead the core's one.

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