Arduino and ESP8266 Working as One

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TekMason
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Dec 25, 2016 12:45 am
Location: Goderich Ontario

Arduino and ESP8266 Working as One

Post by TekMason »

I'v bought a few ESP8266 dev boards recently hoping that they can be a replacement for the http://shieldlist.org/arduino/ethernet-v5Arduino v5.0 Ethernet Shields I am currently using in my Solar PV Controller project. Ideally when I interface the Mega and ESP8266 the webserver portion would use the standard Arduino WiFi library (which is very similar to the Ethernet library) so I wouldn't have to rewrite most of the large INO program that I have now.

I'm really struggling with these incredible devices and I am not sure what approach to take yet.
Using the ESP8266 for WiFi connectivity and IO would be an easy solution but the ESP8266-12Es just don't have enough IO available on them. My Mega is currently using 11 analog and 12 digital pins and I still need to add a display!

These are the options I am considering: Thoughts?

TekMason
Eric
Posts: 316
Joined: Fri Feb 21, 2014 4:52 pm

Re: Arduino and ESP8266 Working as One

Post by Eric »

I haven't done this yet myself but I have done similar with Arduinos and I2C. I would probably go route 2 and I would be tempted to set the Mega up as master and the ESP as more or less just a "radio" for relaying the data to and the network.

Either way you set it up, if using I2C it lets you easily add more nodes or "modules" if you need to expand further for any reason.

Cheers
I make videos and content on all things electronics, 3D printing and DIY
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TekMason
Posts: 16
Joined: Sun Dec 25, 2016 12:45 am
Location: Goderich Ontario

Re: Arduino and ESP8266 Working as One

Post by TekMason »

Could this be the holy grail I'm looking for. An inexpensive WiFi sheild that uses the Arduino standard WiFi library?

ESP8266 ESP-13 WiFi Web Sever Shield for Arduino
http://www.smartarduino.com/view.php?id=94660


More research required before I hit the Buy button.

TM
admin
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Joined: Thu Feb 20, 2014 3:01 am

Re: Arduino and ESP8266 Working as One

Post by admin »

Could be but I can't help but think thats just an ESP8266 hooked to the serial lines etc :)
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