6 ms·

Thanks for the tips! I will order a esp8266 and check it out.

c22 7y ago
Unless you love soldering wires to tiny little smt pads I'd recommend looking for one of the "development boards" based on the 8266 (or as others have pointed out in this thread the bigger, faster, stronger, esp32). Not only will you get some through-hole connections to some subset of the pins, but you'll also get an onboard power supply and probably a usb port for programming so you can get right to cooking.
jonaswi 7y ago
Thanks! Will do some research and then try to order the right one.
- c22 7y ago
  You're welcome! You might also be interested in MicroPython (if you write python) which runs pretty solid on esp32 and has a lot of batteries included. You can almost forget you're running on a micro.
  - jonaswi 7y ago
    Do you by chance have a link to a good development kit for the esp32? I checked and I'm a bit overwhelmed by the amount of different components one can get.
    - mabcat 7y ago
      One that I like is commonly branded TTGO, a search for "esp32 ttgo" or "esp32 oled battery" will turn up some options. This is a link to the exact one I bought since you asked: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/283082902927 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/283082902927 (not actually branded TTGO, it's a clone) Why you might like it: - it has an OLED screen on the board for debugging and status output - it has a battery holder and charging circuitry for an 18650 on the back of the board for portable powering/"UPS" - it breaks out all the GPIO lines onto pins Why you might not like it: - like many esp32 dev boards it's slightly too fat to go straight into a standard breadboard. You have to join two breadboards to get access to both rows of pins.
    - c22 7y ago
      Lately I've been playing with the Olimex esp32-poe [0]. It supports being powered over ethernet or lipo battery (or micro usb) and includes an SD card slot. If your application uses the ethernet, though, be sure to develop using a non-poe switch (or else power from the ethernet interface can leak over the usb programming interface and damage your laptop.) [0] https://www.olimex.com/Products/IoT/ESP32/ESP32-POE/open-source-hardware https://www.olimex.com/Products/IoT/ESP32/ESP32-POE/open-sou...
- ralphhughes 7y ago
  I can highly recommend the "Wemos D1 Mini" for starting with ESP8266 as it's tiny, cheap but can be plugged in to a PC to be programmed over USB and has pin headers and readily available shields for getting started quickly. I have one in each room of the house reporting back temperature\humidity to the pi that controls the central heating :-)
- ghawkins 7y ago
  There are no end of ESP32 dev boards but if you're new to working with MCUs I'd always recommend starting with something from Adafruit or Sparkfun. They just have way more documentation and support. So I'd go with something like an Adafruit ESP32 Feather [0]. Sure it's super impressive that one can pick up a perfectly functional anonymous board on eBay for almost nothing but, for getting started, $20 for something from Adafruit will save you a lot of initial hassle. MicroPython on ESP32 [1]. MicroPython specifically on the Adafruit ESP32 Feather [2]. [0] https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-huzzah32-esp32-feather?view=all https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-huzzah32-esp32-feather?v... [1] https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp32/tutorial/intro.html https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp32/tutorial/intro.... [2] https://github.com/pvanallen/esp32-getstarted https://github.com/pvanallen/esp32-getstarted

c22 7y ago

Unless you love soldering wires to tiny little smt pads I'd recommend looking for one of the "development boards" based on the 8266 (or as others have pointed out in this thread the bigger, faster, stronger, esp32). Not only will you get some through-hole connections to some subset of the pins, but you'll also get an onboard power supply and probably a usb port for programming so you can get right to cooking.

jonaswi 7y ago

Thanks! Will do some research and then try to order the right one.

c22 7y ago
You're welcome! You might also be interested in MicroPython (if you write python) which runs pretty solid on esp32 and has a lot of batteries included. You can almost forget you're running on a micro.
- jonaswi 7y ago
  Do you by chance have a link to a good development kit for the esp32? I checked and I'm a bit overwhelmed by the amount of different components one can get.
  - mabcat 7y ago
    One that I like is commonly branded TTGO, a search for "esp32 ttgo" or "esp32 oled battery" will turn up some options. This is a link to the exact one I bought since you asked: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/283082902927 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/283082902927 (not actually branded TTGO, it's a clone) Why you might like it: - it has an OLED screen on the board for debugging and status output - it has a battery holder and charging circuitry for an 18650 on the back of the board for portable powering/"UPS" - it breaks out all the GPIO lines onto pins Why you might not like it: - like many esp32 dev boards it's slightly too fat to go straight into a standard breadboard. You have to join two breadboards to get access to both rows of pins.
  - c22 7y ago
    Lately I've been playing with the Olimex esp32-poe [0]. It supports being powered over ethernet or lipo battery (or micro usb) and includes an SD card slot. If your application uses the ethernet, though, be sure to develop using a non-poe switch (or else power from the ethernet interface can leak over the usb programming interface and damage your laptop.) [0] https://www.olimex.com/Products/IoT/ESP32/ESP32-POE/open-source-hardware https://www.olimex.com/Products/IoT/ESP32/ESP32-POE/open-sou...
ralphhughes 7y ago
I can highly recommend the "Wemos D1 Mini" for starting with ESP8266 as it's tiny, cheap but can be plugged in to a PC to be programmed over USB and has pin headers and readily available shields for getting started quickly. I have one in each room of the house reporting back temperature\humidity to the pi that controls the central heating :-)
ghawkins 7y ago
There are no end of ESP32 dev boards but if you're new to working with MCUs I'd always recommend starting with something from Adafruit or Sparkfun. They just have way more documentation and support. So I'd go with something like an Adafruit ESP32 Feather [0]. Sure it's super impressive that one can pick up a perfectly functional anonymous board on eBay for almost nothing but, for getting started, $20 for something from Adafruit will save you a lot of initial hassle. MicroPython on ESP32 [1]. MicroPython specifically on the Adafruit ESP32 Feather [2]. [0] https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-huzzah32-esp32-feather?view=all https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-huzzah32-esp32-feather?v... [1] https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp32/tutorial/intro.html https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp32/tutorial/intro.... [2] https://github.com/pvanallen/esp32-getstarted https://github.com/pvanallen/esp32-getstarted