ESP8266 Community Forum

- Sun Jul 01, 2018 9:34 pm #76773 Hello ESP8266 Forum,

I am a scrub when it comes to this ESP8266 stuff, I have had a lot of experience with Arduino and Microcontrollers but I simply am a little confused on this system.

I have a ESP8266 Module on its own, no USB to UART connection. Just pins for Vcc, GND, TX,RX, and GPIOs.

I understand that the ESP8266 Module has it's own microcontroller similar to an Arduino Uno, Nano, Mega, etc. And that there is a library for the ESP8266 that allows it to compile from Arduino code.

I wanted to know if there is a way to directly communicate stuff from an Arduino board to the ESP8266 Module as if it were a Arduino Wifi Shield? Is that possible to make the ESP8266 behave similar to that of a HC-05 Module for Arduino?

I really like the affordability of this device but I want to use it as the secondary system rather than the primary system.

Thank you to all who read

- Thu Jul 05, 2018 2:19 pm #76880

I want to use it as the secondary system rather than the primary system.

Why ? ESP8266 is more powerful than ATMega328.
Having both together just complexify any project because you have to establish communication between both.

- Thu Jul 05, 2018 2:31 pm #76881

I understand that the ESP8266 Module has it's own microcontroller similar to an Arduino Uno, Nano, Mega, etc.

ESP8266 - max clock frequency 160MHz, 80K of ram, 500KB of code space with capability to upload new code OTA (Over The Air - wireless).

Not so similar.

- Fri Jul 06, 2018 1:58 am #76899 Some might start off thinking they should use the default AT firmware on the ESP8266 module to act as a bridge between an Arduino and wifi, but that ends up being an over-complex under-powered method.

Developing on the ESP in the Arduino IDE is no more complicated than standard Arduino development and will be easier than trying to deal with two modules. Most of the Arduino libraries can be used or have been ported to the ESP.

Lots of applications can be handled using the ESP on its own. Where more I/O, ADC or some specialised timer functionality is needed then one can consider using a Nano as a slave I/O to the ESP. https://tech.scargill.net/nano-peripheral/

If you are worried about connecting the ESP to the development system (serial) for upload / debugging then get one of the very cheap ESP development boards like NodeMCU which have built in USB interface. Once you have developed an application then you can either use the same type of board or use one of the raw ESP modules like a ESP-12F if that suits the purpose better.