If anybody wants to start develop new
ESP8266 projects directly in Arduino IDE and needs some guidance, please
find below a full comprehensive step-by-step Install Guide for a
Arduino 1.6.4 IDE Portable environment that might help you for having a
smooth install process. It's including also all needed ESP8266 packages
and tools, making it ready for programming your ESP Boards.
As
been done as a fully Portable installation you can avoid the way
Arduino is installing the files all over the place on your system. All
your Arduino IDE v 1.6.4 files, including ESP8266 extension, sketches,
installed libraies, etc will be located only under the new created
"arduino-1.6.4" folder. And yes, your install location can be in this
case a Stick/SD Card or external HDD/SSD Drive so you can take your
whole installed Arduino IDE and your projects everywhere, just ready for
plug&coding! Install Guide
http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software
In a Windows 7/64 environment I preffer to use the ZIP file
below, and install it manually, in a more compact and portable manner.
Create a New Folder where do you want your Arduino IDE installation to be (ex: E:\ESP8266_Arduino)
Copy and Extract arduino-1.6.4-windows.zip in the new folder created above. 7zip program is your good friend here.
Delete arduino-1.6.4-windows.zip to free your space
Inside the new "arduino-1.6.4" subfolder create a New Folder called "Portable"
Step 2: Start and configure the new installed Arduino IDE
- Go to File
- Preferences - in
Preferences window go to "additional boards manager URL's" where you
need to paste the following link: https://adafruit.github.io/arduino-board-index/package_adafruit_index.json
- Click OK button.
- Go to Tools
- Boards - > Boards manager, in the Boards manager window select "contributed" from the TYPE drop
- Select ESP8266 by ESP8266 community forum and version 1.6.2
- Press Install.
- Installation process can take a while, so please be patient! A cup of tea/coffee might work here :)
- Restart IDE
- Select your board as ADAFRUIT HUZZAH ESP8266 or
GenericESP8266 Module. For CBDBv2 EVO use provided config file or
GenericESP8266.
- Select CPU frequency: 80Mhz
- Select
your Serial port and upload speed. Looks like it's working upto 921600
but quite unstable. Keep the usual 115200 baud for more solid upload
results.
Step 3: First RUN - Blinky.ino !
If all the steps before endend successfully You are ready for your first ESP8266 Program written in Arduino IDE:
/*
Blink
Turns on an LED on for one second, then off for one second, repeatedly.
Most Arduinos have an on-board LED you can control. On the Uno and
Leonardo, it is attached to digital pin 13. If you're unsure what
pin the on-board LED is connected to on your Arduino model, check
the documentation at http://arduino.cc
This example code is in the public domain. modified 8 May 2014
by Scott Fitzgerald
*
/ the setup function runs once when you press reset or power the board
void setup() {
// initialize digital pin 13 as an output.
pinMode(15, OUTPUT);
}
// the loop function runs over and over again forever
void loop() {
digitalWrite(15, HIGH); // turn the LED on (HIGH is the voltage level)
delay(1000); // wait for a second
digitalWrite(15, LOW); // turn the LED off by making the voltage LOW
delay(1000); // wait for a second
}
Came to know about new module called ESP8266-201 for IoT
experiments , when Heramb MakerLab arranged one session with one of the
makers ( Hemant worked in Tieto) on IoT.
It sounds like good Rs. 500 investment for experimenting and learning
this new IoT module. I ordered immediately following two items online
from one of the vendors on Lamington Road, Mumbai :
ESP8266 ESP-201 WiFi board with full I/O and PCB antenna : This is
actual module which needs to be programmed as a controller along with
thing to communicate with internet or home network.
FT232RL Based High Quality USB to TTL Module : This is module for
loading the program into ESP module. It can also provide initial power
for ESP module during prototyping phase.
Ref : http://www.evelta.com
For running first program on ESP module, you would need following additional hardware :
LED
Resistor – 220 ohm
Jumper wires
By the time I got the modules, I started reading about ESP more. I
worked with Raspberry Pi extensively and also developed one IoT
prototype for sensing room temperature and sending the data to Dweet.io cloud system. Working with Arduino IDE and ESP specially was little new area to me.
Step 1 : Installing / Updating Arduino IDE to support ESP8266 boards.
– Install Arduino 1.6.5 from the Arduino website.
– Start Arduino and open Preferences window.
– Enter http://arduino.esp8266.com/package_esp8266com_index.json into Additional Board Manager URLs field. You can add multiple URLs, separating them with commas.
– Open Boards Manager from Tools > Board menu and install
esp8266 platform (and don’t forget to select your ESP8266 board from
Tools > Board menu after installation).
Ref : https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino ESP-8226 Board inside Arduino IDE
Step 2 : Connecting ESP module with USB to TTL Module
Use following diagram as reference and make connections. ESP8266-201 and USB-TTL Module
Step 4 : Connect USB to TTL module to Laptop / Computer
Once you make connection, Red LED on ESP shall get light up.
Step 5 : Upload program to ESP module via Arduino IDE
There is sample program already written in example folder. Open that
program to update SSID and Password of your WiFi network, so updated
program can be uploaded onto ESP module. Open Program (Sketch)SSID+Password
Once changes are done, click on upload button on top left hand side.
Don’t worry if you are getting errors, recheck the connections and try
again. Program Uploaded Successfully
Once program is uploaded disconnect the GPIO-0 wire and toggle the
power of ESP module (You can just remove USB from laptop and plug it
again)
Step 6 : Run program on ESP module and verify THING (ESP /module) is getting connected to home WiFi network
I use android app called Fing to check connected devices inside my
home network. This app helps to identify IP address on ESP module, which
we can use for operating GPIO-2 of ESP Module (To which we have
connected LED).
Step 8 : Operate LED via browser on mobile or Laptop (inside Home network)
You can turn ON/OFF LED from your mobile browser or from any device which is inside your home network.
I enjoyed learning about ESP module by making this project, hope you
shall enjoy too. There is lot more to learn abut this module and how to
utilize this to satisfy your home automation needs. Next thing, I am
learning is Souliss Framework for home automation. This framework can be
installed on any Arduino and ESP modules. Let us make something out of
Souliss next time.
Happy Making!!!
References :
Following blogs and online sources help me a lot in understanding the ESP and its different variants : http://smarpl.com/content/esp8266-esp-201-module-first-impressions
(Good to understand the latest ESP module and understand its basic PIN reference) http://makezine.com/2015/04/01/installing-building-arduino-sketch-5-microcontroller/
(This link does not provide instructions for latest module of ESP ,
but was handy for me to burn the program on ESP using Arduino IDE) https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino
(Helped me to update the Arduino IDE to support programming for ESP board)
Fritzing : https://github.com/ydonnelly/ESP8266_fritzing
