Hey guys!
Welcome back to MrDIY's channel. It's MrsDIY here and today, we're going to talk all about ESP8266!
You can divide the ecosystem into 3 layers: at the bottom, you have the
MICROCHIP. Then above it, you have the MODULES, like
the ESP-01 or ESP-12. Then at the top, you have the
BOARDS like the Wemos D1 mini and NodeMCU among others. We will look at each of these layers in detail. At the center of it all is the microchip.
it's a tiny low-cost wi-fi chip produced by ESPRESSIF. This microchip
uses the L-106 32-bit processor and runs on 3.3 volts.
It offers 17 GPIO pins, UART, communication
SPI bus, software I2C, PWM, I2S with DMA, and one ADC pin.
It's worth noting that the wi-fi only operates on the 2.4 gigahertz frequency
and not on the newer 5 gigahertz. So make sure that you have it enabled on your
access point the ESP8266 chip uses external flash and
doesn't have built-in storage. It connects to the
flash over SPI using 6 IO pins. Some come with as
little as 1/2 meg to 4 megs or more. The GPIO pins of
the chip operate at 3.3 volts and they are 5 volt
tolerant. The maximum current that can be drawn
from a single pin is 12mA so pay attention when you are powering
external active components. LEDs or communication buses are fine but
anything that needs more current such as a relay would require a transistor to
power it. If you recall the ESP8266 chip has a
single 10 bit ADC with an input range of 0 to 1
volt. Yes, 1 volt! You can always use a voltage
divider to increase this range. Some ESP8266 boards ,which we will
discuss later, come with a voltage divider that
increase this range to 3.3 volts. As you can see, dealing with these
microchips is tricky and it's not really meant for beginners.
Luckily, AI-Thinker created ESP8266 modules. It basically took the ESP8266 chip and added flash, some include an
antenna and some are FCC certified. They go from ESP-01
all the way up to ESP-14 with ESP-01 and ESP-12 being the most popular. You
can load your code to these modules using a serial port.
So you will need a USB to serial programmer that looks like this.
You can hook it up by connecting rx to tx
tx to rx power to power and ground to ground.
Just make sure not to use 5 volts because it could get damaged.
You will also need to put the module in flashing mode by pulling the
GPIO0 pin low (connect it to ground) before the device is connected.
Some modules have custom-made programmers you can simply plug them in
and load your code. Take the ESP-01 for example, rather than
doing all the wiring yourself or accidentally frying it with 5 volts,
you can instead use the ESP-01 programmer.
This avoids any set of hiccups especially for beginners out there who
are learning how to do this for the first time.
The link to the product is in the description below. Before we move on, Please make sure to hit the SUBSCRIBE button and give us a thumbs up! Now that we covered the microchip and the modules,
it's time to talk about the third layer: the development boards.
the ESP8266 development boards include everything you need to build
prototypes. They have an onboard USB to serial programmer,
a 3.3 voltage regulator , LEDs, buttons, and a voltage divider for the
ADC. They are also breadboard friendly. This
makes them ready to program out of the box. You can use them to build custom smart home devices. For example,
you can monitor the temperature in your house, check the battery level in your
car, and play mp3 notifications. Check the
description below for project ideas. Some boards like the Wemos D1 mini have
easily pluggable components such as sensors, LEDs, and monitors. So now
that we have an understanding of the hardware; that is the difference between an ESP8266 board, module, and chip. Let's learn how to load the code. The most popular way is to use the Arduino IDE. To configure your IDE, go to "Preferences", paste this URL and save. The URL is in
the description below. Then go to :Tools" > "Board Manager"
and search for "ESP8266", then click INSTALL. And this is how you make your Arduino IDE ready for ESP8266. The next step is to
select the board from the list, as shown here, then connect the board to
your computer and click upload. This brings us to the end of the
tutorial. If you're a beginner and you're just getting started with these kinds of
projects, my advice is to use development boards
since they are easier to work with. In addition to the ESP8266
there are two other boards that are worth mentioning. The first
is the ESP8285 which is an ESP8266 chip with 1Mb built-in flash.
The second is the ESP32 which is the more powerful sibling of the ESP8266
with built-in bluetooth and even more functions. So that's it for me. If you'd like to support our projects you can check out our Patreon page in the description below. I hope this video gave you the information you need to start your awesome projects.
Feel free to add your questions or feedback in the comments section. Thanks and byeeeeeee!
Getting started with ESP8266?
Watch this video it explains the difference between the ESP8266 boards, shows how to setup Arduino IDE and gives some tips and recommendations.
Thanks for the video! I'm building a ESP32 setup with Home Assistant on a Pi and was trying to get my feet wet while I'm waiting for my parts to arrive.
Esp32 is generally superior. Check before starting your projects