DEVLOG #7

What I did

So this whole time, I basically spent trying to get the web server of the ESP32 to work, which I had a hard time understanding. I also tried using the Python script to send data to the web server, but that doesn’t seem to work either. So I began setting up the AI model with Open Web UI and Docker. I decided that I will probably scrap the whole MCP plan since i’m pretty sure I can just send and receive data as HTTP requests directly between Open Web UI and the ESP32 as JSON.

Challenges

Getting the data to send

The main problem I have with all of this is that I don’t know what I’m doing a lot of the time. Even though I have worked with Arduino, I have never worked with an ESP32, and I don’t know how I can utilize the wifi to send and receive data. I tried understanding an example script for a basic web server that is built into the IDE, but I couldn’t wrap my head around the part where you create the server. I was able to get the ESP32 to connect to my WiFi, though, which I guess is progress. I also tried sending a POST request from the Python script, but I don’t think that is going to work since I have no idea how to get the ESP32 to receive the data. It’s even harder to find answers to these problems since I don’t even know what to look for. I decided that I should scrap the MCP plan, since I could just read JSON data that the ESP32 can receive through a GET request. In conclusion, I just ran in circles trying different things that all yielded the same results.

Getting the AI to work

For some reason, the model that I decided to use can only complete tasks, which are defined by a set of tools. I am able to use it in the CLI just fine, but this problem occurs when I use the model in Open Web UI. I’m using Qwen3-vl:8b because it can supposedly analyze images, though I will likely try another model if this persists.

What is next

The next thing is likely going to be to try other AI models to see if I can get one to work. I will also do more research on an alternative to creating a web server. This project has been very tedious, so wish me luck.