3 ms·
Purely from a materials perspective, 2x cheap WiFi-capable microcontrollers (e.g. esp8266) will cost the manufacturer something like $4-$5 total for both device
by PeterisP 3y ago
Purely from a materials perspective, 2x cheap WiFi-capable microcontrollers (e.g. esp8266) will cost the manufacturer something like $4-$5 total for both devices - which is comparable to 3m cable+connectors+cheap chips to handle the cable connection (even ignoring the cost of some person to install the cable which is far more expensive than that) so indeed I don't get why the author considers that doing the connection over WiFi is somehow wasteful.
- dijit 3y ago> so indeed I don't get why the author considers that doing the connection over WiFi is somehow wasteful. Power consumption. Up front vs ongoing cost; the creators chose to minimise the up-front cost in favour of a marginally higher ongoing cost.
- urbandw311er 3y agoI’d be interested in crunching the numbers if I had time because there can’t be too much in the cost delta.
- gabrielhidasy 3y agoIs it really a problem? An ESP8266 (which is not the most efficient thing, but is very cheap) uses about 0.5W while transmitting, much less most of the time. For reference, I have some smart outlets that I measured using a while ago, pulling about 0.05W on average from the wall, or 36Wh a month. That's about as much energy as making 500ml of coffee or charging a phone 2-3x.