Hi Julian - after watching, I just had to get one. Have had it for quite some time now, and managed to find some magic blue smoke emitting from near the little speaker thing. I contacted Alice, and they suggested replacing the burnt LED that was above the push button near there, which I manged to do, but it still malfunctioned. I asked for more advice, and Alice said they would send me a new board on my next order. Well nice sales technique, I immediately ordered a few more items I had on my watch list, and with quite unexpected speed, received an updated version of this board. The solder mask on the new one is white! Makes telling the old from the new quite easy, and there are some minor changes in the board, mostly just with the printing and a few extra resistors appeared here and there. After working with the new one that performed much better (perhaps I had learned how to use it better?) I managed to get the old one to begin to perform as well. Not all is working but enough that I can perhaps use it in a project as a base for an esp8266 project. I love these, they make updating the esp8266-01 units much easier as you can simply flip the dip switch on CPIO0 up and it is ready to flash, and writing programs is easier then hooking a uart adapter as it is simply a plug and play with the dips all set properly. Wish I could find a better manual, the one they sent me is in sort of pidgin English, perhaps I should hire on as a translater, however I don't speak Chinese but if they gave me one of their translators, I could translate their pidgin English to American English, then perhaps you could translate to UK English. BY the way love your channel I check every day for new content, and regularly watch some of the old to increase my understanding on many of the things I have ordered because I watch your channel. You are the best advertisement for Chinese electronics there is on the www. www.jericsson.info
Well, as usual, an excellent article, especially on the "2812B RGB LED "strips." I've played with them and now am looking for MORE to, simply, play with even MORE! Overall they're simple to use. That is off course easy to say since some pretty bright person had to drop down to assy language to do it, always a complex practice. However I find it MOST difficult to BUY the things, the ones you actually WANT. I've made the mistake of buying "what I thought would work" and that was, in a word, "dumb." I find the most confusing problem is how they LABEL those items. As you said, "Which is it?" referring to a product listed as a "WS2812B WS2812 WS2811 WS2801 RGB 5050 STRIP." I repeat, as you said, "Which is it?" Often though the TITLES are somewhat accurate stating it's a WS2812B and that's IT. But then if you make the mistakes I have read you might find them, again, throwing in "WS2801 WS2811" and not even MENTION "WS2812B." Clearly many of these sellers THEMSELVES don't really know what they've got so the mindset appears to be "Ahhhh, just throw 'em ALL in." Ouch. So once you've gotten past this mess, yep, these puppies are a blast to play around with both for fun along with actually making something that could be called "useful."
WS2812B is the name of the pwm controller chip, which is integrated into different kinds of led packages like the chip leds you have, 5mm/3mm/strips etc. that's why you find different products with the same search term.
Tried something... paused the video at 12:29, aimed my smartphone at the chinese text and... with a bit of Google Translate Magic it seems to say something like " ESP8266 fully functional Testboard". Well, i can´t say whether its right or not, it just seems to go in the right direction!
The WS2812 is basically an RGB LED module with a built-in WS2811 driver, produced by Worldsemi in Shenzhen. Parallax is the distributor for Worldsemi in the US.
I have the same test board and love it. But on my unit the esp8266 is mounted 180 of how yours is mounted. Ive checked my pinouts and they are correct and the unit does work. Interesting to see yours is made that way.
Julian Ilett If it was JUST a breakout board with LEDs and buttons for all the modules IO pins then it wouldn't be so bad. But that random processor in the middle complicates things a bit. Unless it's to expand its functionality or emulate the module?
bigclivedotcom The "user guide" shows an Android app (all in Chinese) which can light an RGB LED and switch on a relay. I'm guessing the processor sits between the ESP and this rather basic hardware. I'm much more interested in making the ESP's own processor do the clever stuff. I've got another test board coming which I think IS just a breakout board: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301475108343
I guess they would be using the MCU on the tester board to automatically test a batch of ESP8266's. You can program it to send AT commands and then check the output of the ESP8266 on USB or by LED's etc.
The test board looks quite interesting Julian, any chance that you can post more videos about it... And the link to the manual? Great video as always :)
I wonder if the test board description is trying to say you can use the MCU to load the AI-Thinker firmware without the PC? Maybe it's programmed to flash the ESP module with stock firmware with a certain button sequence?
Really interesting.. Have been working with the ESP01 since your last post. Would love to know more, I see there is a manual, Will one be posting a link Please? Loving this subject
that ESP8266 test board is very interesting. Some days ago i bought a similiar but smaller board with a pretty strange white esp8266 version i can not identify. Still waiting for it to arrive and test it.
Julian Ilett Yes this is exactly what i have bought from a different seller. But unfortunately i can not find any data or information about that dev board anywhere but it was cheap so i had to buy it and see for myself ;). If you know more about that please let me know. That board looks like it might be actually useful with the nodemcu firmware.
hey, this is pretty cool. At the moment i am not doing anything with the board but i still have two working ESP8266-201 here and a strand of 50 ws2811. The lua firmware is pretty unstable and slow for anything that requires timing. The arduino framework does not work that well and most of the time i can not program the module as one of the dip switches is broken. Maybe i will try it again later. This Blynk stuff looks really interesting.
Thanks Julian, the ESP Test board looks awesome, I think I'll just get one too. It looks like the STC µC just sends the specified code to the ESP when a button is pressed. We need to find out what the STC does. Maybe it's time for some good ol' bruteforce? :D
seems like an educational test board, i saw a photoresistor on there, just waiting for someone to write the software and manual? somewhat like the old 500 in 1 kits from Tandy?
Hello! Love your Postbag Video's - Great Job !!!! Sorry for keep asking: In some videos you use a pen like blue screwdriver to adjust a variable resistor. Please tell me how it's called cause i desparately want one of these but cannot buy what i dont find and i cannot find who's name i don't know. Thanks in advance - Mirko
at 12:28 you ask what does this mean... my wife just translated it as 'Full Function Test Board' Sorry its not more informative. Great videos by the way, always interesting, has got me into programming/arduino stuff now, and I'm lucky as i am in China, i can get all these bits cheaply and quickly too! :) keep up the good work, looking forward to more videos!
Let's turn back the years to 2015, back when you were playing around with the ESP8266, wasn't that great fun! Just dug mine out the other day after playing with the ATTINY85 for awhile, I needed to get back to something that was easy to program! So anyway, I found a different operating system to burn to her that would do something completely different. It was the ESPBasic, really, a full feature basic that runs on the ESP8266! While it will work on the 01 version, it really works best on the units with more RAM such as the 12E, well any 12 or better. I haven't tried it on the ESP32. The neat thing, it even has drivers for OLED and other displays, the possibilities are tremendous for a BASIC lover like myself.
Jack Rhiel Interesting - the APA102 uses an SPI type interface with separate CLK and DATA lines, but the APA104 looks like it's identical to the WS2812
3 guesses where the magic blue smoke escapes when you grab the 12v instead of the 5v and plug into the power port? Why the CH340 of course! Burned mine up in a microsecond. The rest of the board seems to work, and the ESP8266 works just fine yet so I think all I need to do is replace that chip and I will be back in business. Gotta learn to be more careful with that. To many plugs. To many cords....
Amir Hakimi-Rezaei Thanks Amir. I think I was trying to translate Japanese to English - I'm getting the same result as you now that I've selected Chinese!
Idea for you: Could you use one of those wifi boards, to read the voltage from a car battery, and somehow make it readable say on a Android phone? Obviously from a web browser. It would be interesting to then track the voltage and maybe warn you when the battery is dying. Maybe use IFTTT to read the web and send you a text if the voltage gets low? Can that boasrd read an analog or A to d voltage?
Julian Ilett FYI, just noticed that Banggood has a nice deal on the WS2812B LEDs modules: www.banggood.com/50Pcs-DC-5V-3MM-x-10MM-WS2812B-SMD-LED-Board-Built-in-IC-WS2812-p-963382.html - I usually get mine from Aliexpress but that usually involves a little bit more hassle.
10 років тому
I bought 5m of ws2801 based led strip a while ago, it's way easier to use it, just standard spi. I'm using it as an ambilight clone.
I wonder if alice sent you stuff, because I told them to send you some goodies some time, because I watch your videos and I bought quite alot because of that. :) That was approx. three weeks ago I think. Just wish they would have sent something a little better documented.
superdau Yes, she got in touch shortly after my Alice Special postbag. I know ua-cam.com/users/ozayturay also contacted her, so maybe a combination of yours and Ozay's messages to her - thanks to you both. The ESP test board was my choice!
Julian Ilett I recently watched an adafruit update to the "NeoPixels" which are driven very similarly, but don't need the constant timing to send the commands: www.adafruit.com/products/2343 Be interested to see these used.
***** Agreed, my video production quality could be improved, but until I 'go pro' I'm putting all my resources into the video content. I think that's what most people would prefer.
Yes but screen capture software is available for free. Search for ActivePresenter. It's like Camtasia Studio, but free (and a lot less perfomant but that's okay.). Might be worth to at least give it a try. Or simply raise the bitrate of your video conversion.
KX36 probably until they get found out and sued, a dodgy local firm used the simpsons characters on its advertising once, then they got sued and it all got taken down fast
Hi Julian - after watching, I just had to get one. Have had it for quite some time now, and managed to find some magic blue smoke emitting from near the little speaker thing. I contacted Alice, and they suggested replacing the burnt LED that was above the push button near there, which I manged to do, but it still malfunctioned. I asked for more advice, and Alice said they would send me a new board on my next order. Well nice sales technique, I immediately ordered a few more items I had on my watch list, and with quite unexpected speed, received an updated version of this board. The solder mask on the new one is white! Makes telling the old from the new quite easy, and there are some minor changes in the board, mostly just with the printing and a few extra resistors appeared here and there. After working with the new one that performed much better (perhaps I had learned how to use it better?) I managed to get the old one to begin to perform as well. Not all is working but enough that I can perhaps use it in a project as a base for an esp8266 project. I love these, they make updating the esp8266-01 units much easier as you can simply flip the dip switch on CPIO0 up and it is ready to flash, and writing programs is easier then hooking a uart adapter as it is simply a plug and play with the dips all set properly. Wish I could find a better manual, the one they sent me is in sort of pidgin English, perhaps I should hire on as a translater, however I don't speak Chinese but if they gave me one of their translators, I could translate their pidgin English to American English, then perhaps you could translate to UK English.
BY the way love your channel I check every day for new content, and regularly watch some of the old to increase my understanding on many of the things I have ordered because I watch your channel. You are the best advertisement for Chinese electronics there is on the www.
www.jericsson.info
You definitely gotta show us more about that board once you've got it all figured out! As always, love the postbag!
Well, as usual, an excellent article, especially on the "2812B RGB LED "strips." I've played with them and now am looking for MORE to, simply, play with even MORE! Overall they're simple to use. That is off course easy to say since some pretty bright person had to drop down to assy language to do it, always a complex practice.
However I find it MOST difficult to BUY the things, the ones you actually WANT. I've made the mistake of buying "what I thought would work" and that was, in a word, "dumb." I find the most confusing problem is how they LABEL those items. As you said, "Which is it?" referring to a product listed as a "WS2812B WS2812 WS2811 WS2801 RGB 5050 STRIP." I repeat, as you said, "Which is it?" Often though the TITLES are somewhat accurate stating it's a WS2812B and that's IT. But then if you make the mistakes I have read you might find them, again, throwing in "WS2801 WS2811" and not even MENTION "WS2812B." Clearly many of these sellers THEMSELVES don't really know what they've got so the mindset appears to be "Ahhhh, just throw 'em ALL in." Ouch.
So once you've gotten past this mess, yep, these puppies are a blast to play around with both for fun along with actually making something that could be called "useful."
WS2812B is the name of the pwm controller chip, which is integrated into different kinds of led packages like the chip leds you have, 5mm/3mm/strips etc. that's why you find different products with the same search term.
Tried something... paused the video at 12:29, aimed my smartphone at the chinese text and... with a bit of Google Translate Magic it seems to say something like " ESP8266 fully functional Testboard". Well, i can´t say whether its right or not, it just seems to go in the right direction!
The WS2812 is basically an RGB LED module with a built-in WS2811 driver, produced by Worldsemi in Shenzhen. Parallax is the distributor for Worldsemi in the US.
I have the same test board and love it. But on my unit the esp8266 is mounted 180 of how yours is mounted. Ive checked my pinouts and they are correct and the unit does work. Interesting to see yours is made that way.
as always you have a great way of presenting information. have just order the test module as it seems a good way of playing with the ESP8266-01.
Uh-oh... I think they want you to write the manual for them.
bigclivedotcom Ha ha. I hope they have lots of patience!
Julian Ilett If it was JUST a breakout board with LEDs and buttons for all the modules IO pins then it wouldn't be so bad. But that random processor in the middle complicates things a bit. Unless it's to expand its functionality or emulate the module?
bigclivedotcom The "user guide" shows an Android app (all in Chinese) which can light an RGB LED and switch on a relay. I'm guessing the processor sits between the ESP and this rather basic hardware. I'm much more interested in making the ESP's own processor do the clever stuff. I've got another test board coming which I think IS just a breakout board: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301475108343
How do you keep the mini switches in those breadboards? Regardless how I bend the contacts, the little buggers keep popping back out of the holes!
Does a postbag #34 exist?
Since there is a #32a & #32b, postbag #33 is the 34th postbag. Did one get skipped to get it back in sync?
I guess they would be using the MCU on the tester board to automatically test a batch of ESP8266's.
You can program it to send AT commands and then check the output of the ESP8266 on USB or by LED's etc.
The test board looks quite interesting Julian, any chance that you can post more videos about it... And the link to the manual? Great video as always :)
I wonder if the test board description is trying to say you can use the MCU to load the AI-Thinker firmware without the PC? Maybe it's programmed to flash the ESP module with stock firmware with a certain button sequence?
I love watching your videos although I barely know what your on about most of the time but I am learning
Really interesting.. Have been working with the ESP01 since your last post. Would love to know more, I see there is a manual, Will one be posting a link Please? Loving this subject
What an old memory of Hayes AT command sets kicks alive. haha.
That's an 8051 sitting in there underneath the "coexistence module"
I do have a manual of the test board (of sorts) if you are interested.
Lorcan Adrain Yes, please. Is it in English?
Julian Ilett Yes, but with some dodgy translation as you would expect.
+[Lorcan Adrain] I'd also like to take a look at this documentation
+[Lorcan Adrain] I'd also like to take a look at this documentation.
Lorcan Adrain ii
Hi i have a esp8266 Test Board. How do i switch it to firmware download ?
that ESP8266 test board is very interesting.
Some days ago i bought a similiar but smaller board with a pretty strange white esp8266 version i can not identify. Still waiting for it to arrive and test it.
Gigawipf I think I might have bought the same one. Is is this?: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/301475108343 - it seems to be called an ESP201
Julian Ilett Yes this is exactly what i have bought from a different seller.
But unfortunately i can not find any data or information about that dev board anywhere but it was cheap so i had to buy it and see for myself ;).
If you know more about that please let me know.
That board looks like it might be actually useful with the nodemcu firmware.
Hello +Gigawipf, I have the same board, and I made a video using it last night with the Blynk app. Have you been using yours?
hey, this is pretty cool. At the moment i am not doing anything with the board but i still have two working ESP8266-201 here and a strand of 50 ws2811. The lua firmware is pretty unstable and slow for anything that requires timing. The arduino framework does not work that well and most of the time i can not program the module as one of the dip switches is broken. Maybe i will try it again later. This Blynk stuff looks really interesting.
Thanks Julian, the ESP Test board looks awesome, I think I'll just get one too. It looks like the STC µC just sends the specified code to the ESP when a button is pressed. We need to find out what the STC does. Maybe it's time for some good ol' bruteforce? :D
seems like an educational test board, i saw a photoresistor on there, just waiting for someone to write the software and manual? somewhat like the old 500 in 1 kits from Tandy?
jusb1066 Yeah, it is a bit like those old electronics sets. That's probably why it appealed to me.
I found a good explanation for how these RGB LED work on the signal path channel on youtube
Hello! Love your Postbag Video's - Great Job !!!!
Sorry for keep asking: In some videos you use a pen like blue screwdriver to adjust a variable resistor. Please tell me how it's called cause i desparately want one of these but cannot buy what i dont find and i cannot find who's name i don't know.
Thanks in advance - Mirko
at 12:28 you ask what does this mean... my wife just translated it as 'Full Function Test Board' Sorry its not more informative. Great videos by the way, always interesting, has got me into programming/arduino stuff now, and I'm lucky as i am in China, i can get all these bits cheaply and quickly too! :) keep up the good work, looking forward to more videos!
Let's turn back the years to 2015, back when you were playing around with the ESP8266, wasn't that great fun! Just dug mine out the other day after playing with the ATTINY85 for awhile, I needed to get back to something that was easy to program! So anyway, I found a different operating system to burn to her that would do something completely different. It was the ESPBasic, really, a full feature basic that runs on the ESP8266! While it will work on the 01 version, it really works best on the units with more RAM such as the 12E, well any 12 or better. I haven't tried it on the ESP32. The neat thing, it even has drivers for OLED and other displays, the possibilities are tremendous for a BASIC lover like myself.
Oh www.esp8266basic.com/ forgot to leave a link!
You can put on the uC by switching mcu_on, I think.
Can you put the links to the products in the discription?
Edwin Noorlander I forgot about the product links - that's done now.
Thanks, nice video. Only 24 a day 😞
Have you checked out the APA 102/103/104 led.
Jack Rhiel Interesting - the APA102 uses an SPI type interface with separate CLK and DATA lines, but the APA104 looks like it's identical to the WS2812
3 guesses where the magic blue smoke escapes when you grab the 12v instead of the 5v and plug into the power port? Why the CH340 of course! Burned mine up in a microsecond. The rest of the board seems to work, and the ESP8266 works just fine yet so I think all I need to do is replace that chip and I will be back in business. Gotta learn to be more careful with that. To many plugs. To many cords....
at 17:28 it reads "fully functional test board"
Many thanks - Google Translate didn't do a very good job of translating this
That's strange, I used the Google translate on my phone
Love your videos by the way. Always inspiring.
Amir Hakimi-Rezaei Thanks Amir. I think I was trying to translate Japanese to English - I'm getting the same result as you now that I've selected Chinese!
Idea for you: Could you use one of those wifi boards, to read the voltage from a car battery, and somehow make it readable say on a Android phone? Obviously from a web browser. It would be interesting to then track the voltage and maybe warn you when the battery is dying. Maybe use IFTTT to read the web and send you a text if the voltage gets low?
Can that boasrd read an analog or A to d voltage?
biggest issue is, logging onto wifi networks, would work when your parked at home, but not easy to add other networks when your out
Also have a look at APA104 RGB led's with controllers, they are cheaper :)
I demand more opto-isolator videos!
bought a bunch of those WS2812B some time ago, used them to light my staircase :D love them
EDIT.. sorry that was the WS2812D version ;)
i guess you turn on MCU tx and rx DIP switches if you wanna talk to the stc mcu
Julian Ilett FYI, just noticed that Banggood has a nice deal on the WS2812B LEDs modules: www.banggood.com/50Pcs-DC-5V-3MM-x-10MM-WS2812B-SMD-LED-Board-Built-in-IC-WS2812-p-963382.html - I usually get mine from Aliexpress but that usually involves a little bit more hassle.
I bought 5m of ws2801 based led strip a while ago, it's way easier to use it, just standard spi. I'm using it as an ambilight clone.
Yay postbag!
fully functional stoneware is what I got on google translate.
I wonder if alice sent you stuff, because I told them to send you some goodies some time, because I watch your videos and I bought quite alot because of that. :) That was approx. three weeks ago I think. Just wish they would have sent something a little better documented.
superdau Yes, she got in touch shortly after my Alice Special postbag. I know ua-cam.com/users/ozayturay also contacted her, so maybe a combination of yours and Ozay's messages to her - thanks to you both. The ESP test board was my choice!
dont forget the fastled lib it makes my mega rock 3 strings of 144 1m ....
Julian Ilett I recently watched an adafruit update to the "NeoPixels" which are driven very similarly, but don't need the constant timing to send the commands: www.adafruit.com/products/2343 Be interested to see these used.
This is where filming the low-end screen gets really ridiculus. PLEASE use screen capture software. :(
***** Agreed, my video production quality could be improved, but until I 'go pro' I'm putting all my resources into the video content. I think that's what most people would prefer.
Yes but screen capture software is available for free. Search for ActivePresenter. It's like Camtasia Studio, but free (and a lot less perfomant but that's okay.). Might be worth to at least give it a try.
Or simply raise the bitrate of your video conversion.
Wow, these things run the Lua scripting language? Holy...
That AI logo is just ripped off from that shit spielberg film everyone's forgotten.
KX36 That's true. But ai-thinker do seem to be using it on their products. shop.ulrichradig.de/out/pictures/master/product/1/dsc_0167(1).jpg
Yes, I didn't mean you were wrong, it just seems unprofessional to me that businesses use movie trademarks as their logo.
KX36
probably until they get found out and sued, a dodgy local firm used the simpsons characters on its advertising once, then they got sued and it all got taken down fast
RET = REset Time