Questions on whether a ESP8266 is right for my project
Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 8:40 pmI'm looking to build a custom heater and air conditioner controller for our condo, ideally using parts that I already on hand. I originally wanted to use a Raspberry Pi Zero W for this project, but those are unreasonably expensive at the moment. When looking through my parts bin, I came across an Adafruit Feather Huzzah ESP8266 board that I picked up a few years ago and then never got around to using, and wondered if that might do the job instead.
I'm not sure if the hardware has the capabilities for everything I need, and am hoping some of you here with more experience can give me some advice.
I need it to be able to talk to a DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor, which is done though a single-wire serial connection. This should be easy, there are Arduino libraries for it.
I would like to be able to talk to a graphical touchscreen display. It won't be showing complicated graphics, just a temperature display and some buttons for control and programming. Failing that, I could always fall back on a conventional 4x20 LCD screen and physical buttons, but I'd really like to be able to do the graphical touchscreen.
It needs to be able to save temperature settings and schedules internally. Does the ESP8266 have any capability to do that, or am I going to have to add a serial EEPROM for that function?
It also needs to be able to connect to the home WIFI to get the time and date and possibly for remote programming, but that should be easy, it's what the ESP8266 is for.
I'm not sure if the hardware has the capabilities for everything I need, and am hoping some of you here with more experience can give me some advice.
I need it to be able to talk to a DHT11 temperature and humidity sensor, which is done though a single-wire serial connection. This should be easy, there are Arduino libraries for it.
I would like to be able to talk to a graphical touchscreen display. It won't be showing complicated graphics, just a temperature display and some buttons for control and programming. Failing that, I could always fall back on a conventional 4x20 LCD screen and physical buttons, but I'd really like to be able to do the graphical touchscreen.
It needs to be able to save temperature settings and schedules internally. Does the ESP8266 have any capability to do that, or am I going to have to add a serial EEPROM for that function?
It also needs to be able to connect to the home WIFI to get the time and date and possibly for remote programming, but that should be easy, it's what the ESP8266 is for.