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SparkFun Thing Firmware

PostPosted: Sun Oct 04, 2015 1:48 pm
by Stampede
Hi Guys,
I'm looking to start a project using the SparkFun Thing. I'm looking to create an "IOT" Ad Hoc mesh network between a few "Things" and I've seen an Espressif firmware for the ESP8266 which has mesh network capabilities built into it.
I'm not sure if anyone has experience using the SparkFun Thing before, are there mesh networking capabilities built into their stock firmware or can I just push the Espressif one to the thing and live happily ever after?

Re: SparkFun Thing Firmware

PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 10:35 am
by Stampede
Lot of views, no replies.

I found the Arduino IDE has a Mesh Network library which I believe is part of the ESP8266 Library that I downloaded in order to program "the thing".
So IOT mesh capable firmware may have been integrated into a library, not sure. I will let everyone know how it works and if I find any other good alternatives. For example an MQTT library I can use.

Re: SparkFun Thing Firmware

PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 1:45 pm
by bbx10node
Never used mesh networking but I have used pubsubclient for MQTT.

https://github.com/Imroy/pubsubclient

Lots of useful information for programming the ESP8266 using the Arduino IDE on the following page.

https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/blob ... ference.md

Re: SparkFun Thing Firmware

PostPosted: Fri Oct 09, 2015 2:09 pm
by Stampede
bbx10node, thanks!
How did you're project work with MQTT? They say it's supposed to be very efficient with battery powered devices. I'm curious if you had any big benefits in using it.

While I've seen this hyped on a few MQTT devices, the mesh aspect I'm hoping to realize is passing data through clients to a broker. That way if I have a client that is outside of the broker's WiFi range I can still push data to it.

I just ordered another 2 Sparkfun Thing's so I will be testing out the MQTT functionality once they come in. The Arduino IDE page is especially helpful. Thanks again!