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Not $50, you can do all of that with a $5 ESP8266. The CHIP is IMO enormously overpowered for what you're describing. The ESPs can do HTTP/MQTT/etc directly the
by gh02t 11y ago
Not $50, you can do all of that with a $5 ESP8266. The CHIP is IMO enormously overpowered for what you're describing. The ESPs can do HTTP/MQTT/etc directly themselves, but I think an ideal use for the CHIP is as a hub with the ESP's reporting sensor data and the CHIP logging data.
Also, as a warning from experience the DHT22's aren't that great and they have been a headache. They are relatively expensive, not very precise and also I've seen a huge variation in their manufacturing quality. The relative humidity readings in particular are wildly inaccurate. There are better temperature sensors that cost less than a dollar (DS18) and to get reliable humidity readings you really need something nicer like the SHT-31.
- akhilcacharya 11y agoWell, on the ESP8266 you have to code directly in C with the library or in MicroPython, which isn't fantastic - on the CHIP you use whatever you (Go, Node, real Python, Java) that compiles to ARM for $4 more with easier I/O.
- kweks 11y agoYou can also use node.js, or lua on the ESP. It's not the perfect solution for everything; but it's tiny, and it costs $1.50 on aliexpress / banggood, and there's a ton of code for it. If you need a module that is mono-task, tiny, cheap and reliable, it's hard to go past the ESP. If you're looking for a full computer, then it's an obvious choice towards CHIP / Raspberry PI, etc
- sklogic 11y agoWhat's wrong with coding in C? You're unlikely to ever need anything too complex on such a device, so C is a totally adequate choice.
- mixedCase 11y agoTotally adequate if the goal is to produce content for the @InternetOfShit guy, unless "coffee at work" for you means sharing a drink and cracking jokes with Ken Thompson and John Carmack. I'd consider the ESP8266 if I could run Go or Rust on it.
- sklogic 11y agoMind explaining what did you mean by this? For the typical scale of a esp8266 project there is no difference between C and Go and Rust. Actually, C can be much safer of you follow MISRA and use all the appropriate tools.
- gh02t 11y agoMy point is though that these are complementary. Read sensor -> send data is a trivial task that takes a few lines of code, most of which is importing libraries and the CHIP is vastly overpowered. I'm saying, put your complex data logging/smart home/whatever logic in <language of choice> on the CHIP and have your sensors be simple (read: reliable) nodes that connect to the CHIP as a hub. It's not so much a matter of price as it is minimizing complexity. Also I don't know many people who use the native C SDK for the ESP8266. Most people use Arduino (simplified C++), but there's also Lua, Javascript and Python.
- StavrosK 11y agoThe problem with the CHIP/Pi Zero/etc is that I now have tens of devices sitting in my network, ready to be owned if I don't regularly update them all.
- gh02t 11y agoYeah, I have a separate encrypted Wifi that isn't routed to the Internet. Only a heavily firewalled RasPi is, so anything that needs data from the Internet has to ask that. I don't particularly trust any IoT devices security wise, either made by me or commercial, but it can be mitigated and I'm not really concerned.
- copperx 11y agoYou seem knowledgeable about sensors. Do you have any recommendations for a somewhat accurate soil humidity sensor?
- shiftpgdn 11y agoIt's my understanding (and correct me if I'm wrong here) that it's difficult to keep it accurate by the very mechanism of how they work. You're measuring the conductivity between two probes and as time goes on the probes will corrode resulting in miscalculated soil moisture levels.
- gh02t 11y agoYeah, I haven't done much with soil moisture but AFAIK they're all basically the same design to measure resistance between two probes. They can be reasonably accurate though, at least enough to do something like tracking when to water plants and stuff. If OP searches for "Arduino soil moisture sensor" he/she will find find plenty. There's not a whole lot of difference between them.
- djhworld 11y agoI'm always curious about these sorts of answers, because from an outsiders perspective, you may as well be talking in another language. From what I can tell the ESP8266 is some sort of wifi enabled...chip? That you need to solder onto something or plug onto a breadboard, then you need an arduino for some unstated reason. What is an arduino? how do you make these two things interact? How do you provide power to these things? why are there so many arduinos? I think the advantage of these single board computers are they are a much lower barrier to entry if you don't have that much knowledge of electronics, but have more experience of navigating Linux systems and writing software.
- kweks 11y agoThe ESP8266 is actually a system on a board, too. Essentially, it's a tiny microcontroller, with Wifi and a few GPIO connections, in a very small form factor, for a very small price. You don't need to solder it to anything (it already comes soldered on its own board). You don't an external microcontroller to use it. It is standalone. It is compatible with the 'Arduino'. The Arduino is a family of microcontrollers built from the ground up to be easy to use. Easy to use software, easy to program (Variant of C) - and more importantly, heaps of support and tutorials online. Honestly, the most difficult thing about using the ESP is powering and programming it. It takes 3.3V - and only 3.3V, so finding an appropriate power supply can be trickly. It programs over serial, so you need to use a USB > serial module - $1.30 [1] The modules themselves are super cheap: - $1.50 [0] There's a very strong community behind the module: http://www.esp8266.com/ http://www.esp8266.com/ Essentially: Don't be scared: there's an initial learning curve that is very gentle, and you'll suddenly find unlimited uses for these tiny little modules. I've got modules that show build statuses, affiliate account activity.. etc. They also work, as mentioned, exceptionally well in a flock reporting to a main system - which may be a CHIP system, Raspberry PI, OpenWRT router, etc. [0] http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-2pcs-lot-ESP8266-remote-serial-Port-WIFI-wireless-module-through-walls-Wang-ESP-12/32256161821.html http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Free-Shipping-2pcs-lot-ESP826... [1] http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20160328010733&SearchText=FT232RL http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB...
- 11y ago
- protomok 11y agoI bought an ESP8266 dev board (<$10 CAD shipped!) for side projects, and I think it's great for hobbyists. But I'm curious if Espressif actually have any design wins? I mean I don't mind using the community Arduino port (which is awesome), and buying from...unknown suppliers :) but is thing commercially viable or just a hobbyist gadget?
- dwild 11y agoI got 10 for 38$ CAD shipped from Aliexpress. You could probably get them for even cheaper right now (though the USD > CAD is worst than it was at the time).
- protomok 11y agoThat's awesome, and that is dev boards or just the chip itself ? I got the "NodeMcu Lua WIFI Internet Things development board based ESP8266 CP2102 Arduino" a while ago on eBay for $6.85 USD, price has now dropped to $4.76 USD, plus CAD is better-ish. I am a ESP8266 fan but not sure that I'd be confident enough to do a product with the ESP8266.
- StavrosK 11y agoDepends on what you want to do. I generally recommend the WeMos D1 mini, because there's only one of it, while there are like ten NodeMCU boards and only some are good. If you need something more bare, I recommend buying ESP8266 12E or 12F boards and using my small breakout: https://github.com/skorokithakis/tiny-ESP8266-breakout https://github.com/skorokithakis/tiny-ESP8266-breakout
- gh02t 11y agoIt's originally intended as a commercial product to make smart home type stuff and the hobby interest is a bit of a lucky accident. It's still pretty new by industry standards so it's just starting to appear in products, mostly very cheap wifi-enabled plugs and stuff. Itead makes a pretty sweet wifi-enabled switch for about $6.00 shipped that is hackable to put your own tailor made firmware on. Pete Scargill has a great writeup on them and I have one myself that I put in the wall to control my overhead lights. They're remarkably well made for how cheap they are. > http://tech.scargill.net/itead-slampher-and-sonoff/ http://tech.scargill.net/itead-slampher-and-sonoff/