ESP8266 to ESP8266 comms
Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 6:59 amI've got an ESP8266 that takes instructions from a web page and sets a series of NeoPixels to flash in different sequences.
I noticed that when the WiFi got data and parsed it, my LEDs would "stutter" as the processor ignored them for a moment while processing the incoming instructions.
So I added a 2nd ESP8266. This one just handles the LEDs. So the 1st ESP gets the wifi data and parses it. It then sends an interrupt to the 2nd ESP which breaks out of the LED display loop, checks the interrupt pin for HIGH or LOW and sets the LEDS based on HIGH/LOW.
However, I would like to send more data from the WiFi ESP to the LED driving ESP. e.g. Colour data, transition speed, rotation direction etc. All of these settings I can send to the ESP from a web page.
I thought i2c (the wire library) would help but all comments seem to say that the ESP8266 cannot act as a slave so I can't send to it.
So it appears I'm left with Serial comms (the interrupt is over by the time comm start because I realize Serial does not work in an interrupt)
So my questions are:
Am I right that ic2 will not work?
If I am wrong does anyone have a working end to end example?
If I am right is there an approved way to do ESP to ESP serial comms.
I am only using the 2nd ESP for LED control and not the WiFi part. Is there an equivalent to the ESP8266 without WiFi at roughly the same size and cost?
Thanks for any suggestions
Richard
I noticed that when the WiFi got data and parsed it, my LEDs would "stutter" as the processor ignored them for a moment while processing the incoming instructions.
So I added a 2nd ESP8266. This one just handles the LEDs. So the 1st ESP gets the wifi data and parses it. It then sends an interrupt to the 2nd ESP which breaks out of the LED display loop, checks the interrupt pin for HIGH or LOW and sets the LEDS based on HIGH/LOW.
However, I would like to send more data from the WiFi ESP to the LED driving ESP. e.g. Colour data, transition speed, rotation direction etc. All of these settings I can send to the ESP from a web page.
I thought i2c (the wire library) would help but all comments seem to say that the ESP8266 cannot act as a slave so I can't send to it.
So it appears I'm left with Serial comms (the interrupt is over by the time comm start because I realize Serial does not work in an interrupt)
So my questions are:
Am I right that ic2 will not work?
If I am wrong does anyone have a working end to end example?
If I am right is there an approved way to do ESP to ESP serial comms.
I am only using the 2nd ESP for LED control and not the WiFi part. Is there an equivalent to the ESP8266 without WiFi at roughly the same size and cost?
Thanks for any suggestions
Richard