ESP8266 Community Forum

Hello! I want to start with the temp sensor using the DS18b20 and go from there. I have a ESP8266-01 board and a DS18b20 temp sensor. I use a USB to serial 3.3 Volt converter to interface with the board. I tried to get it to work a while back and never got it to work. I have tried to find help with the project and had no luck. I am thinking for getting a tablet to use with this project. The questions are, what tablets can I use? Windows should work. What about Android Tablets? Then the others... I am looking for an inexpensive one too... Next question, will the tablet USB power the board? Mini USB or standard? I have a power bank that I might be able to power the project with using a "Y" USB cable.

The next thing is what is a good LUA editor to use. I would like to be able to send command line to it as I work with it and see the response. That will also depend on the operating system of the tablet.

I have a tiny bit of programming experience with basic and Pascal.

Any and all help appreciated!
Thank you
Joe

Hi Joe,

I never understand why people try to make things so difficult for themselves: it's almost certain they will fail and then they will lose interest, because they don't know why it failed with so much variables that can go wrong.
(You've already failed getting your ESP-01 working, while it should really be easy to work with.)

No offence, but if you want to try something new, make sure you always start with a tried and proven setup.
Get a normal stable PC, a real development board (they're only $3 to $5) and a good stable power supply (if needed by the board) and go from there to get things working.

Once you get the hang of it, you can start experimenting with different setups. platforms and what not.
And when something stopped working, you can retrace the steps back and find the culprit.

Believe me: it really isn't that difficult (I should know because I'm actually a Delphi programmer in real life), but you've got to start with good tools to get successful .
Here in the Netherlands we've got a saying: "Goed gereedschap is het halve werk" (which loosely translates to: "Good tool make half the work")

Hello and thank you Quickfix!

I have done a little programming years ago and learned then to take one step at a time and make sure it worked and then take the next step. I even would save the libraries that worked. I have several big steps to take with the project and am trying to take baby steps in the first step. I have a stable PC but would prefer something portable that I can dedicate to the project. That is why I wondered if a Tablet might support it.

I am likely thinking wrong again. I wanted the board to stand alone when operating and Audrino, however you spell it did not seem to be the way to go.

It has been a while since I worked with it. I am familiar with the modem AT commands and got them to work ok. I got it to connect to the WiFi and was able to send commands to the board and got it to respond.
I found a few editors and at least one I could send commands to the board and see the response. I was wandering if there was one that was better then the others. I have decided to give it another try. I will try to do a lot of research and learning too. I found the documentation for the DS18b20 sensor and tried to understand it. I like the idea of keeping it small and efficient.

One think that confused me was there are libraries that are needed for the temperature sensor to work. Do they have to be loaded onto the board, or are they used when the code is compiled? I do not see where the code is compiled. It seems it runs a lot like basic. I tried to read the libraries to see what was needed when called.

Can I post a link to a short video from YouTube showing what I am trying to do?

I have learned that when you want to do something look to the experienced to make it a lot better and easier. I was hopping to find someone working with them, maybe taking classed that wanted to help with it. If not I will make it work...

Thank you a lot! I do appreciate the help!
Best Wishes
Joe