Just curious not really familiar with electronics but what can i build using this
We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers
31–40 of 145 posts
Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers
#32Just curious not really familiar with electronics but what can i build using this
Here is a few ideas:
Alexa enabled switch to turn on / off a TV using the IR blaster
my boss used 3 of these this to build a smart sprinkler system for his house.
Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers
#33Just curious not really familiar with electronics but what can i build using this
Here is a few ideas: Alexa enabled switch to turn on / off a TV using the IR blaster my boss used 3 of these this to build a smart sprinkler system for his house.
Oh that’s so cool
Thank for the suggestion. I’m really trying to learn more about hardware.
Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers
#34I have an interest in electronics and would call myself a "maker" (well, I have a growing box filled with various arduinos and microcontrollers)... but after scouring the repo and the website, I can't figure out what this is, or what I could do with it! What is an "ESP8266 board"? Is that something that is so common it doesn't need explaining? Of course I will google it [and probably buy one], but just pointing out t…
My info is 5+ years old at this point, but when I last looked into the ESP8266 they were the de-facto easiest/best way to add Wifi to your microcontroller. I have an older ESP8266 board that i used to create a tiny server and tweet stuff for me.
The older board didn't have integrated USB, which made the dev process annoying.
Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers
#35Just curious not really familiar with electronics but what can i build using this
Lots of things. The original design for this chip was to have a serial to WiFi bridge. I use one of these as exactly that: a WiFi connected serial console for one of my home servers so I can get into it even if for some reason it isn’t on the network.
But you can also do so much more: these chips have lots of GPIO pins so you could control anything that an Arduino or another microcontroller can control such as relays, displays, temperature/humidity/proximity/etc. sensors, LED strips, motors, heaters, and so on. But the kicker is that with built in WiFi so you can natively get it online. A lot of smart lights now have these chips in them for example and you could make your own. Or your own internet connected green house with vents you can open/close and sensor readings for temperature and humidity in the air and the soil. Or an RC car you control from your phone. Or shades that open and close based on time of day. Or a garage door opener. Basically if you need a gadget you control over a network, these probably should be your first potential solution. They are low power and physically small compared to something like Raspberry Pi’s or other single board computers and more powerful than Arduinos.
Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers
#36Cool - it looks like a well-designed board, although the timing is a bit unfortunate with the ESP32-S2 emerging as an ESP8266 replacement with USB. A few questions: * Should the relay have some sort of isolation, like an optocoupler? * Is it FCC-certified? * Like other people asked, any information on how the antenna was designed? I like the old-school dome LEDs. And it's cool to see another project with a CH340 USB/…
> * Is it FCC-certified? It would certainly appear to lack the FCC ID label/marking it is required to have if it is FCC certified. So probably not. Thus, it also appears doubtful whether it can legally be marketed or sold in the U.S.
This is the exact reason why I didn't see through my plan to build and sell the EspUSB (a very small ESP board that fits inside a USB-A port).
I got 3 units built for myself by PCBWay at a cost of $77. I got quotes of ~$500 for 100 units from Elecrow and Makerfabs, but didn't know what to do with the other 90.
Although I really want this great little gadget to be easily available, I can't afford $10,000 for FCC certification, and therefore I have no solution.
If anybody wants more details, email espusb@gmail.com and we can chat about it on there.
Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers
#37Looks interesting. How would I program it, do I need a FTDI board?
Also I wish it was available in Canada.
Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here is a few ideas: Alexa enabled switch to turn on / off a TV using the IR blaster my boss used 3 of these this to build a smart sprinkler system for his house.
Oh that’s so cool Thank for the suggestion. I’m really trying to learn more about hardware.
Mouse and keyboard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPBzOaLbWhM
Ethernet: https://github.com/cnlohr/espthernet
PAL TV: https://hackaday.com/2016/03/01/color-tv-broadcasts-are-esp8...
I haven't yet seen an FM transmitter though, but it's been done on the Raspberry Pi GPIO so I guess it could be done on the ESP also.
Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here is a few ideas: Alexa enabled switch to turn on / off a TV using the IR blaster my boss used 3 of these this to build a smart sprinkler system for his house.
Oh that’s so cool Thank for the suggestion. I’m really trying to learn more about hardware.
Get an Arduino starter kit and start hacking on some little project around the house. With a bit of persistence, C/C++ is not so difficult to become productive coming from almost any other language. And with the help of platformio's [1] CLI tooling it makes uploading and debugging your code on chips like the ESP8266 (or ESP32 or Arduino) pretty straight forward. Then of course there are the actual physical pieces of hardware, wires, circuits, components, etc. It's a whole new world in which to learn and break stuff. Good luck!
[1] https://docs.platformio.org/en/latest/what-is-platformio.htm...
Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers
#40Looks interesting. How would I program it, do I need a FTDI board? Also I wish it was available in Canada.
It says it can be programmed over the microUSB (just like an Arduino).