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The 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, f
by kweks 11y ago
The 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...
- djhworld 11y agoGreat reply, thanks. Are there any projects/tutorials/kits out there that go a bit beyond the standard "turn the led on/off"?
- extra88 11y agoSearch for "esp8266" in the Learn sections of Adafruit's and Sparkfun's sites. There's also esp8266.com. I think the most amazing thing I've seen is a VNC client running on an ESP8266 with a LCD touchscreen. The "raw" parts are super-cheap but when getting started I think it's much easier to get started on a still pretty cheap breakout board. I have a Sparkfun ESP8266 Thing I haven't started playing with yet but if getting one today I'd get the Adafruit Feather HUZZAH ("Feather" is their new line of micro controller boards that share a form factor, "HUZZAH" is what they call all their ESP8266 products).
- danielvf 11y agoLet me second the Adafruit Feather for getting stated with the ESP8266. Here's a link: https://www.adafruit.com/products/2821 https://www.adafruit.com/products/2821
- gh02t 11y agoThere's also the WeMos boards, which can be had for $3-4. Those are my workhorses. http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/02/19/4-wemos-d1-mini-esp8266-board-supports-shields-with-a-temperature-sensor-a-button-a-relay-or-a-micro-sd-slot/ http://www.cnx-software.com/2016/02/19/4-wemos-d1-mini-esp82...
- StavrosK 11y agoI can also recommend the WeMos D1 mini, it's the best I've seen so far.
- gh02t 11y agoThere's the Adafruit and Hackaday tutorials as already mentioned, plus Reddit has /r/esp8266 which has some good resources. I also have a project where I built a smart thermostat that aggregates sensor data fed from multiple ESP8266 sensors that is pretty involved. I've been meaning to write it up in detail to share on HN and I'll probably have time to sometime in the next couple months.
- swsieber 11y agoI am wanting to do something similar and would definitely read your write up.
- StavrosK 11y agoYou can see my projects here: https://www.stavros.io/series/esp8266/ https://www.stavros.io/series/esp8266/ Also, this tag has more generic hardware stuff: https://www.stavros.io/series/hardware/ https://www.stavros.io/series/hardware/
- Kadin 11y agoI would also be very interested in reading the details on your project. Look forward to seeing it on HN.
- OWaz 11y agoCheck out Neil Kolban's book on the ESP8266 [1]. I’m reading through this out-of-order just to get an idea about how the esp8266 works. [1]:https://leanpub.com/ESP8266_ESP32 https://leanpub.com/ESP8266_ESP32
- RealityVoid 11y ago> 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. The Arduino is _not_ a familiy of microcontrollers, it's a family of dev boards (well, more like an ecosystem) and most Arduinos are based on AVR microcontrollers (but not all of them as far as I remember).
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- 13of40 11y agoI'd argue that Arduino isn't even fundamentally a hardware thing. I can code an Arduino application (sketch) and upload it directly to an Atmel chip on a breadboard, with no other components present at run-time. Atmel didn't make the chip as an Arduino (they made it to control toaster ovens or whatever), so in that scenario there's no Arduino except for their boot loader and runtime library.
- david-given 11y agoTechnically the ESP8266 is a modular wifi controller, isn't it? That is, it's one of those gadgets that's supposed to sit on a daughterboard and provide wifi services with embedded TCP/IP stack to another microprocessor. (I hear.) It just so happens that it's own processor is powerful enough and flexible enough to be useful as a microprocessor in its own right. I wonder what other common bits of electronics might have useful amounts of processing power...
- polpo 11y agoI'm reminded of Sifteo Cubes, which managed to get SNES-level graphics out of a microcontroller normally used in wireless keyboards. https://blog.adafruit.com/2012/12/05/how-we-built-a-super-nintendo-out-of-a-wireless-keyboard-sifteo-sifteo/ https://blog.adafruit.com/2012/12/05/how-we-built-a-super-ni...
- gvb 11y ago$50 (or less) WiFi enabled SD cards (intended for use in cameras to automatically upload pictures) have an ARM processor running linux. http://haxit.blogspot.ch/2013/08/hacking-transcend-wifi-sd-cards.html http://haxit.blogspot.ch/2013/08/hacking-transcend-wifi-sd-c... http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Wi-Fi-Class-Memory-TS32GWSDHC10/dp/B00A659ILQ http://www.amazon.com/Transcend-Wi-Fi-Class-Memory-TS32GWSDH...
- kweks 11y agoTechnically, ESP8266 refers to a chipset, but typically now refers to the PCB with integrated antenna, etc. There are multiple versions - seemingly incremented at random by chinese manufacturers - we're up to the ESP-14 now - http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20160328084805&SearchText=esp-14 http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB...