What is it?

ESP8266 is the name of an WiFi module that is a system on a chip (SoC) developed by Espressif Systems, a company based in Shanghai. Originally used with Arduino boards to WiFi-enable hardware projects, it soon became a cheap standalone Arduino-compatible development board. It can function in complete autonomy, without an additional microcontroller like Arduino board for example.

Home automation and IOT – connecting devices to a network is one ever-growing, big trend nowadays. Given its cheap price, the user friendly setup, and its huge community that contributes with open source libraries and projects, you will immediately see why this chip is receiving so much interest.

This mcu (microcontroller unit) can be used to control and monitor engineered systems and products, sensor data logging and more. All of this makes it the perfect piece of hardware for connected home automation projects. It comes in many shapes and forms, with the NodeMcu (with the newest ESP8266-E12 chip) being the most popualar development board among them.

Why did you make it?

ESP8266: Specifications All ESP8266 variants have a ESP8266EX core processor and a Tensilica L106 32-bit micro controller unit. This is a low cost, high performance, low power consumption, easy to program, wireless SoC(System-On-Chip). It provides capabilities for 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n, supporting WPA/WPA2), general-purpose input/output (13 GPIO), Inter-Integrated Circuit (I²C), analog-to-digital conversion (10-bit ADC), Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI), I²S interfaces with DMA (sharing pins with GPIO), UART (on dedicated pins, plus a transmit-only UART can be enabled on GPIO2), and pulse-width modulation (PWM).

It has a build-in programmer and a voltage regulator, that allow flashing and powering the device via micro-USB. The system operates at 3.3V.

Here is an overview of the ESP8266 NodeMcu’s specifications:

Tensilica L106 32-bit micro controller unit at 80 MHz (or overclocked to 160 MHz) 32 kB instruction RAM 80 kB user data RAM 16 kB ETS system data RAM Flash Memory 4Mb USB – micro USB port for power, programming and debugging 13 GPIO pins 802.11 b/g/n, supporting WPA/WPA2 STA / AP modes support TCP / IP protocol stack, One socket TCP / UDP Server and Client Serial port baud rate configuration: 1200/2400/4800/9600/19200/38400/57600/74800/115200 bps Pin-compatible with Arduino UNO, Mega KEY button: modes configuration 32-bit hardware timer WiFi operation current: continuous transmission operation: ≈70mA (200mA MAX), deep sleep mode: <3mA Serial WiFi transmission rate: 110-460800bps Temperature: -40℃ ~ + 125 ℃ Humidity: 10%-90% non-condensing Weight: about 20g (0.7oz) Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) Interrupt capability 3.3V operating voltage, internal voltage regulator allows 5V on power input maximum current through GPIO pins: 12mA (source), 20mA (drain) available firmware for Arduino IDE Websocket libraries available

What makes it special?