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cosmic frog
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Joined: 09/02/2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 278

Posted: 02:50am 04 Jan 2017

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Hi everyone. I've been looking at these ESP8266 wifi modules but know nothing about them, so I have a few questions.

1. Whats the difference between ESP8266-12E and Esp8266-01, is it just the number of pinouts on the board?

2. Can you get data from the net say from an rss feed and display it on an LCD?

3. Can I just use AT commands or will I need to learn another language?

Sorry if these are stupid questions but I've never played with anything like these before and would like to order some just to have a tinker.
I would really like to use these to get info from the net, say a weather forcast or news report and display it on an LCD or whatever but don't know if this is the right way to do this. I've seen people using the Raspberry pi to do similar things, but I think it's a bit overkill.

Thanks. Dave.

WhiteWizzard
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Joined: 05/04/2013
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2794

Posted: 02:57am 04 Jan 2017

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@cosmic frog;

1: The 12E (and more so, the 12-F) has better performance; and is also 'shielded' better. Also adds a couple of I/O pins from memory.

2: Yes - search for this as I remember reading several posts here at TBS

3: Yes, just use AT commands (Geoff's article on the $5 web server is a good starting point. IF you re-flash the ESP with 'custom' firmware, then you may need to learn a new language; but start with the default Firmware and simply play with some AT commands.

Also, have a chat with Lewis - he has done some excellent work on using ESPs to 'extract' weather data to a MM. Check his (long) thread regarding 'Newbie got a few questions'!!

For everything Micromite visit micromite.org

Direct Email: whitewizzard@micromite.o

cosmic frog
Senior Member

Joined: 09/02/2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 278

Posted: 03:14am 04 Jan 2017

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Thanks WW for the fast response.
I will look into it, although just had a quick look for Geoffs $5 web sever but cannot seem to find anything. Was it in a Silicon Chip article?

Thanks again. Dave.

WhiteWizzard
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Joined: 05/04/2013
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 2794

Posted: 03:19am 04 Jan 2017

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Dave,

Drop me a quick email - I will send some stuff for you . . . .

phil.boyce@micromite.org
For everything Micromite visit micromite.org

Direct Email: whitewizzard@micromite.o

Tinine
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Joined: 30/03/2016
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1646

Posted: 03:29am 04 Jan 2017

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This book is highly recommended.

cosmic frog
Senior Member

Joined: 09/02/2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 278

Posted: 03:37am 04 Jan 2017

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Email sent.

Thanks.

cosmic frog
Senior Member

Joined: 09/02/2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 278

Posted: 11:25am 04 Jan 2017

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Thanks everyone.
Have ordered a few to play with.
Should be here in a few weeks.

Dave.

MikeO
Senior Member

Joined: 11/09/2011
Location: Australia
Posts: 275

Posted: 12:10pm 04 Jan 2017

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Hi Dave,

Actually to add to WW comments there is a much simpler language to use than the rather "clunky" AT commands, in ESPBasic see here .

This is the language Lew has been using for the ESP8266 in his mammoth effort weather station and is based on my original code for the ESP8266. See my post here also I have developed a PC utility to talk to a ESP8266/Umite combination . If you are interested, I try to keep my web site (below) up to date with code changes for the ESP8266.

Mike

Codenquilts

CaptainBoing

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Joined: 07/09/2016
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1985

Posted: 10:20am 06 Jan 2017

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Hello Dave. Hope you are well.

I can't add much to the questions you asked that others have not already answered.

I have been playing with ESP-01 modules for a while and I have a complete MMBasic code module that you are welcome to chase thru for ideas etc. or copy and adapt for your own use.

You can find it here http://www.fruitoftheshed.com/MMBasic.ESP8266-Module-with-HTTP-API.ashx

It is multi-session, supporting upto five simultaneous connections and is written in pure MMBasic using nothing more exotic than a COM port

This code (somewhat modified) has proven very stable and has put in stirling work (zero issues) for the past two months as part of my SMS Gateway that exposes an API to my LAN and takes inbound HTTP packets and sends out text messages & vice versa. The ESP-01 acts as a transparent data conduit for IP traffic - you have to interpret the data that arrives just as if it had been squirted down a serial cable, but once correctly set up and working it takes away all that tedious Ethernet/WiFi malarky - you can see this in the above code if you do a search for +IPD, and jump straight to the point where I interpret an HTTP GET command.

The complete project for the Text Gateway (with modified code) is here http://www.fruitoftheshed.com/MMBasic.Micromite-SMS-Text-Gateway.ashx

hope it might help

regards

hEdited by CaptainBoing 2017-01-07

cosmic frog
Senior Member

Joined: 09/02/2012
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 278

Posted: 11:18am 06 Jan 2017

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Thanks again to everyone for the much appreciated help.
When these arrive I'll have plenty of things to try, just hope I can get my head round it all.
Can't wait

Dave.

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