This is a quick run_through on how to set up an ESP8266 Wifi module using the Arduino IDE.

With Arduino IDE version 1.6.5 it is possible to use the Arduino environment to download programs not only to the Atmel family but also to 3rd party Mcu's and importantly the ESP WIFI series.

FIre up an Arduino IDE version 1.6.5 or later :-

On the preferences tab be sure to copy and paste the URL below into the Additional Boards Manager URL entry box:-

http://arduino.esp8266.com/package_esp8266com_index.json

 

 

Then under the Tools tab select the Board: tab and then the Select the Boards Manager...

The Boards manager will popup. Navigate to find the esp8266 by ESP8266 Community.

Be sure to click somewhere inside this box.... and an Install button will appear .(if you do not press the box then the install button does not appear (trap for young players ;-))

When its finished downloading and installing the ESP8266 program bits... select Tools tab again and select the Generic ESP8266 Module selection.

Note also below are my default settings for programming the ESP8266.

That is essentially it , now all you need to do is just program the ESP8266 as if it was and Arduino ....

I use this circuit as a programming rig (programming mode) for programming my ESP8266 series 12 , after programming the ESP8266 will automatically reboot and run your sketch. Other ESP series may have differing pinouts and GPIO's.

To run programs in normal mode (i.e. from powerup) the wires on pins GPIO-0 , GPIO-2 & GPIO-15 must be disconnected (Run mode).

 

kmcgerald

8 years 6 months ago

I got one of the Adafruit HUZZAH versions of the ESP-8266 to play with and I've been making it read temp and humidity values from a DHT-11 sensor and post it up to data.sparkfun.com over http.  I've been trying to get it to post over MQTT but I'm not having any luck publishing.  I can get it to receive messages via MQTT if I publish to the message queue.  Not sure if I'm botching up the json encoding they decided to require for the MQTT input or if the input service is broken on Sparkfun's end.  Once I find my BBB MQTT broker I'll test with that and forget about the sparkfun service.

Indeed I started out checking the Huzzah system.... I think they leaned on using Lua....

...I have found the Arduino Gui system a more reliable option...and has allowed for faster code development .. though my HTML5 skills still need a brush up...

..I have not have heard about MQTT yet...will have to dive a bit deeper to see what it entails.