Wemos D1 board, a $9 ESP8266 board in Arduino UNO form factor, now has a little brother with Wemos D1 mini. The board looks somewhat similar to NodeMCU with breadboard friendly I/Os on the sides and a micro USB port for power and programming, but what could make it more interesting, beside the $4 price tag, is that the company also developed several shields (aka add-on boards).
Wemos D1 mini specifications:
- WiFi 802.11 b/g/n module based on ESP8266EX with 4MB flash
- Expansion – Through holes with
- 11x digital input/output pins (3.3V) supporting interrupt/PWM/I2C/one-wire (except D0)
- 1x analog input (3.3V max input)
- Reset and power signals (5V, 3.3V, GND)
- USB – micro USB port
- Misc – Reset button
- Power – 5V via micro USB or 5V pin
- Dimensions – 34.2 x 25.6 mm
- Weight – 10 grams
The board is said to be compatible with Arduino IDE and NodeMCU firmware. ESP8266 analog input only support 1 volts, but the board support 3.3V because a resistor voltage divider is included in the circuit. Schematics are always a good thing to have, as well as decent documentation.
The company also designed 5 shields adding temperature and humidity sensors with either DHT11 or DHT22 (wider range and more precise), a user button, a relay (3A or 5A @ 250V, 10A @ 125V), or a microSD. A third party shield has also been designed for prototyping.
You can order Wemos D1 for $4, and the shields for between $0.99 and $4.90 on Wemos Aliexpress store. All these prices include shipping, how amazing is that? You can also find it on eBay for about $6. By the way, the latest revision (R2) of Wemos D1 Arduino UNO compatible board now sells for $6.50 shipped. 🙂
Thanks to Zoobab for the tip.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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BTW this board is breadboard friendly, it leaves a free row when plugged on a breadboard, not like the 3USD module you wrote about here:
http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/12/14/3-compact-esp8266-board-includes-rgd-led-photo-resistor-buttons-and-a-usb-to-ttl-interface/
With the wicloud one, you need two mini-breadboards to be able to play with it. It is annoying when you see they could have saved some space on the side.
Just noticed they had MicroSD shields:
http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Micro-SD-Shield-for-WeMos-D1-mini-TF/1331105_32578362865.html
Just wondering if there is some ESP code to use microsd cards with for ex vfat, or other filesystems, like espfs.
A breadboard picture:
http://platenspeler.github.io/HardwareGuide/ESP8266/images/WemosD1Mini_a.JPG
FINALLY!
This would be a great reference platform for the “new” ESP micropython port. The kickstarter passed the 15K goal for support of a bunch of devices (my port already supports all the devices for this board but I will probably abandon or merge anything in theirs to mine so we have a common API). My interrupt time DHT22 driver has been running for 3 months non stop now. It is a fantastic combo.
@zoobab
Micropython allows IO from/to MicroSD:
Try this example:
# filesystem
import os
# list root directory
print(os.listdir(‘/’))
# print current directory
print(os.getcwd())
# open and read a file from the SD card
with open(‘/sd/readme.txt’) as f:
print(f.read())
Not sure if the ESP8266 port will do this with this shield though….