ESP8266 Community Forum

Just a beginner here, but the AT command mode seems like a pain-in-the-*** to work with. The commands work just fine in terminal mode, but once you try to hook up a microcontroller, things get awkward.

Not being able to find much on this, I was wondering if anyone here would know about an API frame-based firmware, much like the xBees from Digi have.

Thanks in advance for any ideas on this matter.

Have a look at the LUA section in this forum. This is an alternative to dealing with AT firmware. If you don't know what LUA is, it is an interpreted language meaning that you run code like scripts in real time. No need to re-flash the core firmware.

Note: I knew nothing about LUA prior to playing around with the ESP. It's fairly easy to grasp. Within a couple of days using the examples provided I was able to build fairly functional programs. You only need to be more mindful of how you utilise the available memory.

Thanks. But it's not quite what I'm looking for; I came across LUA in a different context, and if I got it right, you can use this firmware to run LUA code on the ESP8266.
What I'm looking for is a firmware that acts like the AT firmware, but commands and responses are not text, but binary frames.
What I don't particularly like about the AT firmware is :
* the lack of consistency in response format
* the lack of sync between commands and responses

I'll try to setup a build environment on my Windows workstation (not too much info about it; most are on linux), and try to build one to illustrate the concept; maybe it will evolve into an alternative firmware.

As I said, AT-like commands are great if you, a person, is talking to the ESP8266 via a terminal.
If you need a MCU to talk to it, the overhead of processing text commands and responses is too heavy.

Maybe in the long run, I'll try to use an ESP module with more IO, so I won't need the additional MCU; but right now, I'm stuck with the ESP-01 model

Please take a look at the Wiki. I have a complete writeup on setting up a build environment under Windows. My setup uses Visual Studio (although you can use any editor), and there is also a thread here that documents how to use Eclipse as an IDE.
You can also check out the 'Frankenstein' firmware.
Getting a module with more IO is certainly a valid alternative. The ESP8266 actually has more ram and flash than an Arduino, so you can do a lot with it.

Pete