ESP8266

ESP8266

The ESP8266 is a small, low-cost wifi-talking board. It's the new center of the Internet of Things. Originally intended as a "wifi modem", it exposes the WiFi interface over AT-style commands.

Some hackers immediately noticed there is a general-purpose microcontroller on the box, and made a firmware for it that takes Lua programs. Now you don't need another microcontroller. Sweet!

Hardware

For full specs, see [1]. Important facts:

• 3.3v *only* - 5v will let out the majikul smoke
• Some reports say 1A current draw, others say 250 mA
• Talks 802.1n, supports most major auth types.

There are a number of ESP8266 hardware versions. The ones of interest are:

• ESP1: 8 pins (basically one I/O plus power, etc.). Breadboard friendly (2.54mm), but not useful standalone
• ESP12: 16 pins (I/O, power, 9 GPIO). Non-breadboard friendly: 2mm pin spacing

Software

There are a wide variety of firmware builds available for the chip. Of interest is the software NodeMCU, which turns the serial port in to a Lua REPL. Yesac is working on an environment within NodeMCU for doing TFTP and some other junk.

Uploading firmware is easy with esptool

Group order 01/2015

Prices are from the same store, and are competitive within a few cents.

• ESP-12, Without breakout (Option A): $2.60 aliex
• ESP-12, with breakout board, battery socket, resistors, and power regulator (2.54mm pitch): $4.50 aliex

Order Participants

Put your name, email, and quantity of With and Without breakout desired.

Name	Email	No Breakout	Breakout
Casey	c1@caseyc.net	0	3
Adrian	adrian@freebsd	0	5
Naomi	naomi at nthmost	0	4
Dana	dsniezko at sonic net	0	10
Patrick	p@trickod.com	0	4
Les Jones		0	2
Brad	brad.schwagler at gmail	0	2
Torrie	tdfischer at hackerbots	10	0
Jake	jake at spaz odt org	0	2
Henner	h.zeller at acm.org	10	0
John E.	neurofog@gmail.com	2	0
devin	<- that at doormouse org	0	2
Scotty	<- that at scottyallen com	4	1
Tom	<- that at tomdee.co.uk	0	2
mct	mct at toren dot net	2	4
adi	adi@hexapodia.org	4	4
ondine	okilker at gmail	0	2