ESP8266 Community Forum

Hello everyone,

As a pigeon fancier I am very interested in following the flight routes of my pigeons. I have done some research with gps devices but these devices are actually too big and clumbsy to be worn by the pigeons.
So, I thought why not try to use a very tiny wifi webserver which can connect to routers in a network like the FON-network. I found the ESP-09 which is actually perfect when it comes to dimensions and weight.

I ordered the ESP-09 and it seems to be clear that I need some help. The ESP-09 has no pins and/or usb connections. I would like to know if someone has experience adding a usb socket onto the ESP-09.
The ESP-09 doesn't have a ceramic or pcb antenne. Did anyone add a ceramic antenna onto the 09.....

If someone can help me out it would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I also bought an ESP-09 because I was enticed by its small size. This is not my blog, but it was useful to me in getting mine working: http://blog.digidigital.de/?p=17

Really you don't need/want to add a USB socket to it. You'll want to use a serial adapter to connect to the Tx/Rx pads on the ESP and program it that way.

Good luck with your project. I think the hardest part for you is going to be power -- the ESP-09 is tiny, but its appetite for power is the same as all the other ESP8266 boards! Not sure how much battery your pigeons can carry.

I think you should be looking at a different technology. As you have found the ESP-8266 has significant power requirements. WiFi was never meant to be power efficient. If you want to trace the route then I think GPS that gets logged would be your best choice.