ESP8266 Community Forum

I'm quite new to the ESP8266 and very excited about it's possibilities.
I've strated to use the NodeMCU LUA firmware, and I want to try the Arduino IDE also.
My first impression is that the arduino IDE is more convenient than the LUA environment.
Are there any differences in the capabilities of the two firmwares? Are there things one can do and the other can't? What are the main considerations to be taken choosing the right firmware for me?

GG

Thank you for that question, I am interested in answers to those questions as well !

I have quite a zoo of devices, and more on the Arduino side, so currently I do use Arduino IDE for my ESPs:


Hermann.

It took two days trying to get a few already made projects working with Lua and it was painful. The Arduino IDE is definately the way to go.
If you go with LUA:
-there are a bunch of .bin files that are all different. Some have oled display code, some do not.
-the latest NodeMCU bin file does not even work with the front page NodeMCU blink examples.
-50% of the time I see Panic error messages.
-Flashing the ESP can be tricky because there are different models with different flash sizes
It's pretty bad.

I've had no issues with the Arduino IDE.

Go with the Arduino IDE especially if you have used Arduino sketches in the past. Lua works but it is an interpreter and takes some acceptance that it is different from a compiler. LUA reads code and stores it in a psuedo compiled form. Chunks of code are given mcu time and other chunks are blocked while a specific chunk executes. This at times may be confusing since we often expect the lines of code to execute in sequence. There is a learning curve to Lua syntax. Many of us just want to get something working and are very happy to use a language we know some coders love syntax and like new languages. At the end of the day any code just moves electrons from place to place or in the case of the esp8266 photons also go from place to place.