Any ESP8266 programmers here

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Spacerat said:
Tx.. Last time they didnt have stock...


Can anyone say what the diff is between all the variants: ESP01; ESP-03; ESP12-E/F; ESP14?

EDIT: Googled it... just some features & GPIO etc diffs
Click to expand...

Exactly in the end they all make use of the ESP8266 Chip
 
dadecoza said:
I'm monitoring my alarm with an ESP8266 and Arduino.

I were lazy and just used the standard firmware the ESP8266 came with and have the Arduino monitor the alarm and send AT commands to the ESP8266 to update the status of the sensors on my OpenHAB server with HTTP GET requests (raw socket connection writing the HTTP request by hand).

View attachment 429966
Click to expand...

I'm doing similar, although with Arduino Mega + the RFlink firmware from here - http://www.nemcon.nl/blog2/download
Using Domoticz though.

Mine is less for alarm, and more for automating my electronic blinds though.
Your alarm on 433mhz or 315mhz?
 
Spacerat said:
Tx.. Last time they didnt have stock...


Can anyone say what the diff is between all the variants: ESP01; ESP-03; ESP12-E/F; ESP14?

EDIT: Googled it... just some features & GPIO etc diffs
Click to expand...

SBSP said:
Exactly in the end they all make use of the ESP8266 Chip
Click to expand...

The ESP14 is not the same you need to be careful of that one. IE don't buy it unless you know you want a ESP-14 specifically.

The others are just packaged differently and have different pins available.
 
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No-one else posting stuff? Feels like I'm talking to myself here!


Was looking at http://resin.io earlier, I see that platform.io has support for esp also.
Makes for an alternative to arduino ide for programming the esp's, and resin.io looks nice for deployment purposes also.

Easy walkthrough here -
https://www.losant.com/blog/getting-started-with-platformio-esp8266-nodemcu

Would be interested in what other people are using them for, and how they handle deployment.
Post people post!!!
 
lsheed_cn said:
No-one else posting stuff? Feels like I'm talking to myself here!


Was looking at http://resin.io earlier, I see that platform.io has support for esp also.
Makes for an alternative to arduino ide for programming the esp's, and resin.io looks nice for deployment purposes also.

Easy walkthrough here -
https://www.losant.com/blog/getting-started-with-platformio-esp8266-nodemcu

Would be interested in what other people are using them for, and how they handle deployment.
Post people post!!!
Click to expand...

HEHE I'm still here..

I tried PlatformIO and yes it worked, but the environment is too messy for me. Plugs into Atom. The Arduino IDE is leaner and cleaner. Next thing I want to try is to save configuration data to EEPROM. Want to create web pages to edit the config params
Resin does look interesting though but looks only applicable to linux?
 
Spacerat said:
HEHE I'm still here..

I tried PlatformIO and yes it worked, but the environment is too messy for me. Plugs into Atom. The Arduino IDE is leaner and cleaner. Next thing I want to try is to save configuration data to EEPROM. Want to create web pages to edit the config params
Resin does look interesting though but looks only applicable to linux?
Click to expand...

Yeah, you install resin onto a pi, then that can push updates to the ESP (in theory haven't tried yet).
Actually just bought a pi for arcade use (plan on building a mini 7" arcade this weekend), pi+lcd should arrive in a day or two.
Will be the 30th arcade machine i've built? Lost count haha.

Back to ESP -
I'm going to be doing MQTT on the ESP -> MQTT broker in a vm on my nas, then pull sensor data off that in other apps (for basic usage).
i.e. temp / humidity / movement

I have a bunch of xiaomi stuff that can do it already, that I've hooked into domoticz, but doesn't hurt to reinvent the wheel occasionally ;)

I'm being a bit A.D.D. with my hobby stuff at the moment, have a pile of arduino's, esp's on my desk, and I'm adding a raspberry pi to that. I also have cubieboards (A20 Allwinner chipset), have done a fair bit of dev with those. The rabbit hole started when I decided to reverse engineer an ipcam a few years back, and made some firmware for a rather low end model ipcam (uClinux / 4M ram*!/16M flash).

Being in China means fast shipping for my whim's, and rather cheap hardware access.

I also just spotted this which I'm tempted to do - https://johan.kanflo.com/category/dps5005/ (OpenDPS)
Can add an esp to it so you have a wifi serial accessible digital psu. Not sure why I want a wifi addressable digital psu, but having a decent little bench psu can't hurt. The last bench supplies ones I bought are in Nantong, probably not getting those back.

Told you I'm being a bit A.D.D :) I'm totally like ooh shiny. Squirrel.

Johan's blog also worth a look https://johan.kanflo.com/

---

*Yes I know 4M is a lot, although these days its regarded as small, I've also done stuff in 2kb or less eg atmega /avr...

Fun to think that my first computers had +- 1kb of ram. Jupiter Ace, ZX80 ...
Basic or Forth interpreter in < 4KB rom + 1kb ram. Crazy stuff.

On the 1kb theme, this is worth a read - https://hackaday.io/submissions/the-1kb-challenge/list
 
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lsheed_cn said:
I'm doing similar, although with Arduino Mega + the RFlink firmware from here - http://www.nemcon.nl/blog2/download
Using Domoticz though.

Mine is less for alarm, and more for automating my electronic blinds though.
Your alarm on 433mhz or 315mhz?
Click to expand...

I will have to look into RFLink and Domoticz (do you use Domoticz?).

I have a very old 4 Zone alarm system probably early 80s with LEDs and toggle switches on the front. I have soldered wires to the indicator LEDs and read them with the the Arduino analog pins. I monitor the 4zones and if the alarm is armed. I will probably at some stage replace the whole alarm system with an Arduino.
 
dadecoza said:
I will have to look into RFLink and Domoticz (do you use Domoticz?).

I have a very old 4 Zone alarm system probably early 80s with LEDs and toggle switches on the front. I have soldered wires to the indicator LEDs and read them with the the Arduino analog pins. I monitor the 4zones and if the alarm is armed. I will probably at some stage replace the whole alarm system with an Arduino.
Click to expand...

I do use domoticz (i've mentioned it a couple of times already). Its not great, but it does work.
I also have HA too. I find no harm in having a couple of docker containers with various things running for stuff.
docker works well for that, I mostly use domoticz, but i've dabbled in openhab, home assistant and other stuff.

Overview of a couple here - https://opensource.com/life/16/3/5-open-source-home-automation-tools

I've ordered a DPS5005 digital PSU also now, will be hacking that with OpenDPS, and adding an ESP8266 for wifi serial access.

Code and writeup for that here (not mine) - https://github.com/kanflo/opendps
Its also nicely commented clean code.

More stuff for me to play with this weekend.
 
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SBSP said:
Unfortunately you cant set it up to boot and start the alexa service reliably because of the browser based java client.
Also normal microphones really suck and you have to be close when talking to her. Sometimes there is also a bit of a delay.
Click to expand...

I use this repo, which works perfectly: https://github.com/alexa-pi/AlexaPi

SBSP said:
My Amazon Echo arrived from the states last week and its awesome!
Click to expand...
Can you become a reseller, sell the one you have or perhaps order one for a mate?
Been trying to order the Echo dot but no delivery to SA
 
kripstoe said:
Built an electricity monitor (counts the light blinks on my prepaid meter) with using NodeMCU a while back. Sends data to a .NET Core RESTful service. Wrote a Python plugin for my OSMC media center to read the data from the RESTful service, and also predicts when I will run out based on previous 2 weeks consumption.
Click to expand...

Pretty slick, You mind sharing the code?
 
rundll32 said:
i[/url]
Can you become a reseller, sell the one you have or perhaps order one for a mate?
Click to expand...

A Family member from DC brought it through for me. I wont see them any time soon unfortunately. Amazon Ships to south africa, they even have a local Carrier, freight forwarder which means shipments from them does not land in the normal customs que when importing from say AliExpress. So their deliveries clears much quicker. Unless specifically the Echo is not eligible for international shipping. Currently its only supported in the US and UK.

I did see them on Takealot, but for around 4K, I only paid 2.4K for mine.
 
Hi fellow ESP users. I am having a problem with my NodeMCU. If I connect the TXD0 pin to low via resistor the device will not boot and run my app. Seems to go into flash mode. However if I tie it to 3V3 via resistor all is fine. The reason I am doing this is to convert the 3v3 UART lines to RS232 levels without using a MAX chip. Not ideal for TX, but works fine. Using the circuit below (top part):
LaFonera_Hardware_Serial-Cable-Port_11_simple_schematic.jpg

I also tried a 47uF and 1K resistor in series from transistor base to VCC, to tie it to VCC at power cycle but that also did not work.

Any suggestions?

EDIT:
I see the cap from Base to VCC will not work because the transistor B/E junction will not allow the Base to go to VCC.

EDIT:
The cap in series with resistor from TTL (NodeMCU) TXD to VCC works. But then I have to power cycle to reset so that cap can discharge.

My real question is why does the device not boot into program when TXD0 is LOW.
 
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Spacerat said:
Hi fellow ESP users. I am having a problem with my NodeMCU. If I connect the TXD0 pin to low via resistor the device will not boot and run my app. Seems to go into flash mode. However if I tie it to 3V3 via resistor all is fine. The reason I am doing this is to convert the 3v3 UART lines to RS232 levels without using a MAX chip. Not ideal for TX, but works fine. Using the circuit below (top part):
View attachment 437160

I also tried a 47uF and 1K resistor in series from transistor base to VCC, to tie it to VCC at power cycle but that also did not work.

Any suggestions?

EDIT:
I see the cap from Base to VCC will not work because the transistor B/E junction will not allow the Base to go to VCC.

EDIT:
The cap in series with resistor from TTL (NodeMCU) TXD to VCC works. But then I have to power cycle to reset so that cap can discharge.

My real question is why does the device not boot into program when TXD0 is LOW.
Click to expand...

see link: http://www.instructables.com/id/Getting-Started-with-the-ESP8266-ESP-12/#step3
 
Sorry for bumping this as well - but there may be some that are subscribed to this thread and miss the other.

I'd like to compile a few case studies and get a few short articles from guys that have custom / hacked their home automation systems - what firmware / servers etc has been done, as well as different use cases. I want to put these on our site and just how what is possible with affordable gear like, for example, Sonoff.

I've dropped a few PMs, but if I haven't contacted you and you're happy to help, please drop me a PM.

Thanks
 
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