ESP8266 Hack #1: Web Enabled LED - WiFi Internet-of-Things IoT
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- Опубліковано 15 січ 2015
- After 3 frustrating days of trying, I've finally found a reliable, repeatable way of turning the ESP8266 into a web enabled Internet-of-Things (IoT) LED switcher. In this video I show it working (well, sort of working). Then, I use a couple of software tools (ESP8266 flasher and CoolTerm) to put the original Espressif firmware back.
- Наука та технологія
I share your excitement about this module. $3 for a wifi microcontroller is insane! Remember the WiFly shield for the Arduino? It was $80 and you need an Arduino too!
Good to see you here. Thank you for your ESP8266 videos. ;)
Hari Wiguna Hi Hari, many thanks for creating the LuaUploader - it's an essential tool. I'm not sure I could have got this working without it.
Hi Özay Turay ! Glad you like my ESP8266 videos. I certainly enjoy making them.
Julian Ilett , I wrote LuaUploader to help me play with NodeMCU easier. Glad you found it useful too.
+Hari Wiguna, the LuaUploader was nothing short of a masterpiece
Julian.. followed all your instructions for the ESP8266 and worked like a charm.. Thank you so much - can't wait to show my students!
Oh that's handy, been looking at one of these for a little project when I found this series.
I bloody LOVE this type of simple interwebnet-network-delivered technology.
Hi Julian, Thanks so much for these four articles. I found them extremely instructive and well presented. It was just what I needed to get me up and running with this nifty gadget. You are obviously a gentleman with quite a bit of time on your hands. Thanks for sharing your time with the rest of us. :-)
Interesting how cheap tiny module can be a standalone web server.
Thank you for the detailed video.
Julian Ilett, I'm excited for part two of this video. I've got my ESP8266 shipping to me now (should be here this weekend). I'm hoping/planning on using it to control a LED lamp, and eventually a whole lot of LED lamps. Including a practical application, for example controlling lighting around my house.
If anything I think these little chips will be fantastic for controlling devices that we do want to control over the internet, lighting being the primary function I'm interested in.
Also, as a side note, thanks for the rest of your videos! It's been great watching the reviews on all of your electronic components (from eBay nonetheless) and watching you experiment. Quite inspiring for me (if not a little costly due to all of the components I've snagged off of eBay).
Great video. I'm looking forward to the next one since I've used the ESP with an arduino (or equivalent) but I haven't yet tried it native, you may well save me some frustration.
Thanks for this. My brand new ESP8266 would not respond to any AT commands until reflashing. Now it's working fine. Looking forward to playing with it
great work Julian Ilett - thank you!
Thank you for sharing this, it exactly the explanations I needed for my project!! ;)
perfect, now I can control things in my house very easy and very cheap :D Thank you pal!
Nice work Julian - By pure coincidence I too have been wokring on an IoT thing for the last couple of days - using an Electric Imp and online graphing site for temperature monitoring in my greenhouse. Maybe 2015 is going to beh the year of the IoT :) Cheers!!
Nice work,
I am curious how did you do the scripting? I mean how did you perform the interaction of the webpage to the source code of hardware.
working on something similar but not using wifi module.
Thanks :)
This is sweet. You should be proud. I saw the other videos too, awesome deed.
This is awesome, and that, sir, makes you awesome as well.
I will try this soon, I hope I did not burn mine ESP8266 when triying to plug it into my Arduino
That is cool. The web controlled LED is like a dream come true!
Hi Julian!! i've just started to work on a simple project with this wifi module and i've got a question: are the level of RX and TX of the ttl good for the ESP? you didn't use anything to reduce the voltage on them. Are they switched at 3.3V like the Vcc or you let the them to give 5V signal to the ESP? Thank you!!
Just curious, how long last the battery?
Just a thought Julian, I wonder if the loss of sensitivity could be due to the LED wires being close to the PC aerial and detuning it slightly?
Michael Beeny Good point - I'll experiment with that.
Julian Ilett You might get some mileage experimenting with the Wifi channel you're using as well Julian, some channels will have less interference...
I strongly agree with you! It looks such an easy project, but it's not. Great video, by the way.
I really like NodeMCU. So easy to use and write some lines of lua. And you have your own IoT app!
I have been waiting for this set of videos since you first mentioned the module and i went on ebay and ordered a few. Dont know what i will use them for just yet but they are interesting. I saw a website called mysensors.org i think you can use these modules+a sensor for home automation and reporting (e,g sense temp in front room, if lower than 18 degrees, turn on heating for 20 mins)
OOOh, this looks really interesting. Please more!
Why you use that resistor between Vcc and Ch_PD if you can just use a wire?
Julian, Your videos helped the most with getting NodeMCU up & running on 1 of 4 8266-01's, and getting the webapp-LED working as well. Main stumbling block, will ALWAYS bee the supplied power! I picked-up a pair of FTDI-Basic dongles, and they just do not provide the mA punch, But... not impossible when you have a 2.1A 3.3V switching supply handy. (recovered from a WiFi extender someone destroyed, fitted the 1"X2" board, power cord, and wires into an old medicine bottle, and Instant power supply! Also have done this with a recovered ATX power supply from a dead PC. (Okay, 23A (2,300mA) is overkill, but the required power for this chip, can you blame me?) Thanks!!!
23A is 23,000 mA. You may want to feed a second ESP from that source. But you don't have to.
LOL! well, at least I don't have to worry about brown-out from the ESP overloading the supply. Thing I'm trying to assemble now, is a similar client page, with 4 buttons, and a slider. (slider ranging from 0025 to 9925 in steps of 25, but data not sent until one of the 4 buttons are pressed. Objective, a 5-letter code sent back to the ESP, which will then send the code out of the Serial-IO of the ESP, to an arduino. (obvious, Robot remote interface, a single letter followed by the number, for a direction, and number of mS delay to go in that direction, is steps of 1/4-seconds.) Already figured, where the data being sent comes back, and simply doing a print(_get.PIN) .
Really great videos Julian. Enjoyed the easy explanation yet quite thouroughly. Would love to get this working with a DHT22 temp sensor....
Thanks for sharing.
Interesting stuff, thanks.
Great work - thanks for sharing !!
Patrick
Bethesda, Maryland
USA
Its it possible to drag a binary image of that and just flash it over to new ones, or would one have to do all this every time?
very helpful tutorial, i loved it
Nice one, it took me weeks to create web enabled SSR using esp_iot_sdk... I can't wait ESP-201 module to arrive.
Hi Julian, do you use rechargeable battery (1.2V ?) or not ? (1.5V) ?
Great video as usual. Could you put the links in the description for the module & the website you mentioned for the firmware. Cheers :)
Oh you teeeeaaaase!
But seriously, this is amazing!
Thanks for the videos Julian, I used your tutorial to test out my first ESP8266 and although its a bit complex using the nodeMCU software I finally got it working.
Yesterday I thought I would have another go with another ESP8266 and noticed that they are now Arduino 'compatible', this opens it up to a whole load of Arduino developers so hopefully we will see more exciting things to come.
Now its just a matter of installing the esp8266 compatibility onto the arduino application and writing arduino code for it. github.com/esp8266/Arduino
Hello Julian! Is there any way to use ESP8266 for a Voip communication over the network? I mean connect a microphone to the ESP8266 (maybe compress first) and then send it to the other side of the globe?
Thank you so much!
Hey Julian Ilett
Would you be able to make a video and use this device with the SSD1306 OLED you used in your "Wearable Remote Display" videos? I'm sure people would be able to create some pretty nifty stuff with the combination!
could the Tablet problem be related to Wireless isolation option enabled on your Wireless router?
I wonder if removing the link while up/down-loading would allow it to exit cleanly at the end?
Going esp8266 nuts, now have 7 or 8 of these little devices, 5 are number 1's the rest are 12's. I am having a blast with the no1's on the ESP8266 test and setup board now that I have one that is working. I had that magical blue smoke coming out of the first, and a quick note to Alice, and a new one came magically to my mailbox about a week later, they are wonderful folk those people at Alice. I find board very useful as switching the dip switches accomplishes the same thing as putting jumper wires on the little pins, I still put a resistor to jump that one pin simply because a resistor is easier to use then a piece of wire, just easier to handle I guess. Learning a lot from you Julian, thanks a million for being such a wonderful teacher.
Thanks for posting!
Regarding the tablet-issue: Not sure about your version, but most ones only support 5(?) connections at once. Depending on the desktop browser you are using it may keep connections open even after the page is loaded (HTTP keep-alive), use multiple connections (external javascript? images?).
Also: Always use an external PSU for programming - those USB-RS232-converters usually can't provide enough current for these modules.
Hi, I'm having issues with connecting to an ESP8266 via web-browser (Android and PC web-browser) and would really like to know whether there's a fix to what seems to be a 'WiFi' issue (from what's been gathered - not that I know what I'm talking about).
Agree fully with what you've said on the bottom of your comment. I'd tried and failed dismally to get any of the ESP8266 devices that I've bought to work (would occasionally flash the firmware successfully but thereafter the devices would fall-over as would the USB to TTL Adapter) prior to using a Breadboard 3.3v PSU. Immediately upon adding a PSU this issue was gone. Not sure whether the ESP8266 prefers an FTDI USB to TTL Adapter as opposed to a CP2102 for example as have had mixed results with the latter.
Perfect wifi module for projects !
Have you got client isolation turned on on your router? That would explain why your tablet doesn't work and your wired pc does.
Hello, Interesting stuff. Like you I've put one of these together (albeit via following another worked example) but am finding connecting to an ESP8266 is very flaky (both via an Android device and a PC's web-browser). Think you were experiencing similar results. Whilst switching on/off the GPIO via a USB to TTL Adapter both of the two GPIOs switch on/off reliably but connecting via IP as I've said isn't producing reliable results.
Initially thought the ESP8266 web server was stopping but I'm convinced it's a WiFi connectivity issue. The reason why I'm saying this is because it's not possible to see the ESP8266 on my network whilst it's playing up so to speak (nor is is possible to 'ping' the device (understandably).
Noticed that the pings increase hugely whilst a write instruction is being sent via a web-browser.
Any idea how to get around this problem please?
Otherwise really impressed with these WiFi micro controllers.
Haven't re-flashed to the original firmware by the way.
Thank you for your comments.
very cool stuff !
Hello, can i use the green carpet that i see on the video to be able to weld without damaging my table?
Hi Julian, thanks for video. It was very helpfull to me. Have you figured out why the webserver isn't reachable on smartphone browser?
I figured it out: The http header in the response is completely missing ;)
The first two lines should look like this followed by the actual html code:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html
...
ideas for next project.... PC - arduino - baked bean can - string - baked bean can - arduino - PC. :D
My home router has an option called "wireless isolation" that stops one wireless device from seeing another. I had to turn it off to make my chromecast work. Could that be why your desktop works but not your laptop?
Hi, excellent tutorial!
I don’t have a dedicated USB to Serial converter, however I do have an Arduino Nano V3.0. Can I perform a flash firmware update to the ESP8266 via the Arduino Nano which includes a CH340 interface chip on board?
Is it "Git HQ" because you use/like the Git source control distribution system? Or because you're calling yourself a git? Or both? ;)
What's the schematic to connect the capacitor and resistor and led?
Nice project Julian!
I would like if you could give me a list of parts used in this project and also give me some links where can i get that usb to serial coverter. Thank you!
I like the price point of the ESP8266 and the fact that it includes a microcontroller. But I really wish it could run Arduino code since the Arduino software is so cross-platform friendly and it's so easy to write programs compared to other options.
Gadget Addict I found working with an interpreted language refreshingly different - I'm quite enjoying the Lua language.
Julian Ilett yep, I was definitely getting tired of C++. There are somethings am not used to about lua yet though, like how sometimes strings are integers and integers are strings and you can't compare them etc. lol
Gadget Addict Now you can program it with the arduino IDE!
Kenneth Shaw Yep I saw the story on HaD. Great news! :D
Gadget Addict plus the new version even has much more io ports!
hey, can I get some help with something I am making, the idea behind it is to try and capture LED light and concentrate it onto one part of a solar panel that powers it to stop the light from diffusing off of the walls of the frame, and I have a 6V solar panel, so what LEDs do you think would be the most efficient for this experiment, (like type, volts, amount maybe?) you can try to mimic this experiment yourself if you would like... thank you in advance
you promised to provide the link to the webpage and yet no URL in description.
VERY VERY NICE :)
Why was it necessary to convert back to the original firmware??. Can I just start with the steps described in Part #2
So in order to program the esp to turn the led on. I need to get a serial to usb converter?
as mentioned below, either needing the NodeMCU board (ESP-12), or yes, a CMOS Serial (Note, I said CMOS, NOT TTL! 3.3V CMOS, Not 5V TTL) I recommend the the FT232RL if going with a USB to Serial dongle. (Only has 1 jumper set, switching BOTH VCC & Serial-Out to either 0-3.3/5V) Avoid the dongles which have the ISP pins and a slide switch! VCC remains at 5V, and I've already killed one ESP-01
Julian Ilett Julian, thank you so much for your series of videos. I've watched all of your videos on the ESP2866, as well as all from Hari Wiguna . As I dive into this unique module, I find myself with a very interesting issue that neither of you seemed to experience. Every time I plug in my module with the USB-Serial adapter, it kicks every device connected to my WiFi network, offline. The laptop I'm connecting to, my auxiliary laptop, even my cellphone. VERY INTERESTING. I did however manage to put the module into flash-mode (i encounter no issues in flash-mode) and successfully install both of the flashers (of course not at the same time) you suggest, and even after that, I run into the same issue. Any ideas? Thank you both so much for any input. -Joe
joebro391 I figured it out (= Turns out that the module did not like to be powered by the USB-Serial adapter that I was using. Still no clue as to why it had the effect that it did, but I set up a LM1117T 3.3V Regulator and it works beautifully now. Cheers! -Joe
If you look at the URL it says pin=OFF and pin=ON I'm wondering if you could just use the url to turn this on and off and not need to go to the webpage.
No, you could not reach the server, it's LAN
That Guy
Did you even read what I said.
Jake Abel Oops.
Well yes, that would work but you'pd still download the webpage
That Guy
I don't know if I remember this correctly but his tablet was having problems using the web page. Also building a server that would just send web requests to each device instead of opening each ones IP.
Yes you can! I'm using this android app. play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.idlegandalf.httprequestwidget. Place the widget down, set it up with the address and corresponding action and you're ready to go.
Oh man Internet-of-Things, we are men to mess around of every new things. haha...
Just in case you need a place to find nearly every type of esp8266 in one convenient location, this is the fellow I get mine from, he has a USA shipping location so I get the things in about 2 days, very nice, and he does offer the same prices as the Chinese shippers, as I believe his home location is in China, not sure on that one though. At any rate, here is my last purchase, take a look at his "other items" and you will see a nice catalog of different configurations of ESP8266 as well as some nice setup for those looking for an all-in-one kit type project.
Question: Why did you put the capacitor across VDD and GND?
+typon
Not mutch sense on batteryes, but if you heve a power supply, then when it using wifi, spinning it's cpu, the consumption can jump up a bit, so it can pull down the power for a short time, and become unstable henve the voltage drop.
So the capacitor buffers enegry, and "helps out" the power supply on a hard power pull. Same as buffer condensators in ampifiers. Not shure if you even need it in such small energy consumption, but a second layer of stability shurely wont hurt.
When I try to connect my ESP to batteries the blue LED start to flash, kind of like the ESP is trying to boot, but fails along the way.
If I switch it over and power it through my arduino the blue led stays off and the chip is working great.
I have tried with 2x batteries, 3x batteries and 6x batteries (with a LD1117V33 voltage regulator) and the result is the same in each of them and it is bugging me to hell.
Any suggestions?
hi Julian thank you for uploading the video
i have a question can we use more than one gpio pins on the board am using ESP 8266 ch340 board i want code to control more gpio pins i m not understanding the codeing of lua plz help thank u
+sam sid Hi Sam, ch340 has 4 GPIO pins (2 of them are shared). If you need more, you have 2 options: Use directly from chipset (it too much work), or buy something like ESP-12e, ESP-7, or ESP-8. which are couple dollars more
Thanks for the vedio.
I wanted some help as we are working on imu sensors and we wanted to connect a gy86 sensor with the esp 8266. So that it sends data to the website .
please help!
Just a guess, but the LED's cathode may be too close to the antenna and attenuating the wifi signal.
Can it drive a motor ? Can it be programmed to open a chicken nest door to be opened every morning and closed 1 hour after sunset ?
+M. Yıldırım By opened every morning and 1 hour before sunset you have to program the timings.Yes this thing can do it.
+M. Yıldırım yup.. it can also fetch weather data from internet to decide when your sunrise/sunset timing is and act accordingly real time
Does it connects directly to wireless modem or does it connects to another arduino with capability to connect internet + having another module on it ?
+M. Yıldırım it connects directly to WiFi network like your smartphone.Just enter the password.
+M. Yıldırım it connects directly to WiFi network like your smartphone.Just enter the password.
Are these standard AA batteries? How does the battery life look like?
Marcin Marczyk These are AAA batteries and they last about 36 hours
Thanks for sharing
You may need to type the URL with the command as part of the URL.
Lovley. TNX!
Did you ever have an 8266 go insane? I bought that 5 for 15 dollar deal, got them in yesterdays mail. Today I was soldering on those 1k Resistors (I tried a jumper but the resistors work better and are so much easier to mount). After each job, I hooked up the device to my PC and checked for execution of the AT commands. One of them just went plumb nuts on me. It took over my mouse and began opening and closing windows, open windows went shooting across the screen, and a serial mouse appeared in my device manager (I had open by chance). All the craziness stopped when I unplugged the module. I checked my soldering, then tried it again, this time it did the same, and when I connected through Easy Term crap was flowing many screens deep and wide.
I put it aside and did the rest of them with no problems. I don't have any batteries hooked to them, perhaps that is the answer....
I saw someone saying the problems were due to a 200ma power consumption causing issues. Maybe these need a better power supply. Not sure what your battery voltage is like.
maybe the bad connection is because of yr router. I have about 20meters and 2 walls between my router and the esp8266-01 (it is in the garden) and it works great
The bad connection may also be because of the LED placed over the antenna. A minor detuning of the antenna can lead to major losses in transmitted power, which exponentially decreases range. ((max distance to router)^3 = power transmitted from antenna / minimum power required at router)
wifi enabled switch for £2 very cool
great guys
Thanks for sharing Julian Ilett. Can you give us an overview of how to code these wee beasties too ?
hey I have been working to connect esp8266 with mpu6050 (gy86 sensor) if u could help and guide please.
Hi, thanks for your videos.
Please, could you make a video of how to transmit data (round trip) for I2C between an Arduino UNO and ESP8266-01 module (using your normal firmware AT)?
Logically their respective outline and sketch.
Thank you.
well done :)
Pretty cool! But's it technically not a "Hack" when you use the device exactly for what it's intended for
is any way too power esp 01 with ams 1117 ic?
how many capacity do you use for the tantalum capacitor?
David Wu I used 3.3uF, but the capacitor doesn't do much when operating on batteries.
Julian Ilett , thanks for your response, do you have suggestion for that?
sir plz help my esp8266 is not connect in webserver
The IoT will take off once the Bluetooth 4.2 is released by the end of the year.
I read that it should be possible for BT 4.2 devices to send info trough the net via an BT-able router.
Álvaro M. Valdebenito B.
Those routers will be able to connect to internet any BT 4.x device but 4.2 will have IPv6 and security incorporated so it that regard will be exactly like WiFi just slower.
But it will probably take some time before 4.2 enabled devices will be available. So I will need to use 4.1 for my next SBMS version. The new version of Solar BMS was the reason I researched about Bluetooth.
***** I was wondering about what you wanted to do with BT. I look forward to see the BT version of your SMBS. Specially the BT SoC you choose to use.
BTW, the last elektor issue has an article featuring the BL600 module, and they made a break out board for next issue.
Álvaro M. Valdebenito B. As of now (things can change if I find something better) I will be using the RN4020 is 4.1 and has the right size to fit in my SBMS the BL600 is just to thick 3mm and I can accommodate max 2.5mm is also 1mm wider and I really need that 1mm the RN4020 is already at the limit. I was going to use a much smaller one from Murata but that needs an external low speed oscillator and it negates a bit the small size.
I will only be using UART to bluetooth and not care about the internal controller is to limited for may application. I already have a cortex ARM in the SBMS and that will take care of all the other things (quite a few especially in this new version).
I'm just working right now on the 3D render it will be quite a nice looking device.
that is so awesome
how to make home switch with this using relay
It's the webserver bit I'm unterested in....I need to do much the same with an xmega part, as psrt of my work project.
I'm going to buy....... and I just bought one.
Could I get your diagram info of the circuit?
I use SQI at 20MHz for PtoP communication which is faster than an Arduino can handle. ;)
What is the purpose to putting in the old firmware?
M Kerna Just to show the procedure and the other firmware flasher
Julian Ilett Thank you Julian, for your interesting and informative videos on ESP8266. I have learned quite a bit about this module from your videos. Can you give the URL for the "ESP8266 Flash Downloader" that you have used in the video? Thanks.
it doesn't work on TAB because your router has client isolation enabled
Wow, super ..1!!!
Hi, could this be a very dangerous piece of equipment in the wrong hands?
yes imagine someone turning on an LED, all heck would break loose, its no more dangerous than any other existing device, cept it costs $2 and not $100, this could be done with an adrduino and wireless module, just not for the price
, anyone wanting to be dangerous would be just as happy spending 100 as 2
that IP is on your local LAN, not internet so only you can control it unless you do port forwarding
hi what is the range of the ESP8266 ??
if you listen to #4