Espressif Category - Page 92 of 94 - CNX Software

March 25, 2016September 8, 2021 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments

ESP8266 and ESP32 Differences in One Single Table

Espressif Systems ESP8266 is a very popular platform for IoT applications relying on WiFi, at least for hobbyists, while Espressif ESP32 is the new solution from the company that adds a CPU core, faster WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2, and various I/Os which should launch very soon. Amica.io released a table showing the main differences between the two processors which are expected to coexist in the market with ESP8266 used in the lower-cost segment, and ESP32 in applications requiring WiFi and Bluetooth, or some of the new interfaces. Some of the features were clearly listed when ESP32 was first announced, but for example, I was not aware that an Ethernet MAC, and a temperature sensor were built into the new SoC. Other interesting features for the new ESP32 processor include a touch sensor, and hardware PWM both of which are missing in ESP8266. The new dual-core processor also builds on existing features, […]

March 22, 2016August 7, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Getting Started with Wemos D1 mini ESP8266 Board, DHT & Relay Shields

Wemos D1 mini is an ESP8266 board that’s interesting thanks to its size, its low price ($4), micro USB power, its shields, and a documentation that looks fairly good. The board can be programmed with Arduino or Lua, and supports both serial and OTA programming. I’ve decided to give it a try and bought the board together with two temperature shields, a relay shield, and micro SD shield. I got all for $ 14.00 from Wemos Aliexpress shop, and it took about one month for delivery. I can also see they’ve recently released a new OLED shield selling for about $5. All shields were shipped inside their own anti-static bags. The pins are clearly marked on both side of the board and the shields. One side of the board features ESP8266 module. and the other side has CH340 serial to USB chip, and the reset button. The provided headers make […]

March 7, 2016March 8, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 48 Comments

MXQ 4K Rockchip RK3229 Android TV Box Unboxing and Teardown

MXQ 4K TV box list of features is rather impressive, as the 4K media player packs support for high bitrate (200 Mbps+) 10-bit H.265 and H.264, as well as VP9 at 4K resolution, 4 USB ports, Ethernet, and HDMI 2.0 for just $30. That price includes shipping. We just don’t know how it performs, but we’ll soon find out as GeekBuying sent me a sample for review. I’ll start by checking out the hardware, before testing it over a few days, and write a complete review. MXQ 4K Unboxing The retail package shows MXQ-4K “OTT TV Box” and some of the key selling points like Kodi support, 4K, HEVC/H.265, and son on. You’ll also find the Android 4.4 Kitkat logo since strangely Rockchip did not provide an Android 5.x SDK for their low cost processor. The device ships with an IR remote control, a 5V/2A power supply, an HDMI cable, […]

February 19, 2016February 19, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

$4 Wemos D1 mini ESP8266 Board Supports Shields with a Temperature Sensor, a Button, a Relay, or a micro SD slot

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 […]

February 8, 2016February 8, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

You Can Now Connect ESP8266 Module to Your Color Television (Sort of)

You can do lots of things with ESP8266 WiFi modules, but CNLohr did something rather unexpected as he managed to use GPIO3/RX pin to broadcast NTSC signals first in black & white, and now in color, to his television’s channel 3. On the hardware side, he did have to disconnect the WiFi antenna, and connected a wire antenna to GPIO3/RX pin. He then set I2S to run at 80 Mbps, and pushed data out using DMA buffers, so he could achieved the 61.25 MHz frequency required for NTSC luminance data, and the color data, 3.579MHz higher up. Once the demo is running, you can alter it on the fly using a web neat interface. This is all explained on channel3’s github repository, as well as one a 15-minute video showing the capabilities and limitations, and explaining how you can play around with the parameters. Via ESP8266COM’s Tweet. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc […]

January 28, 2016January 28, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Bringing a Better Port of MicroPython to ESP8266 (Crowdfunding)

MicroPython is an lightweight implementation of Python 3 that runs on ARM Cortex-M micro-controllers such as STM32 or Texas Instruments CC3200, and since ESP8266 is so popular, work has started to port MicroPython on the Tensilica Xtensa LX106 based WiFi SoC. The current ESP8266 port comes with some API callss specific to ESP8266, but is quite basic, uses the execution model provided by Espressif, requiring callbacks to process WiFi requests, and doesn’t include support for many of the chip’s interface such as SPI, nor support WiFi fully. That’s why Damien George, the project lead, has launched a Kickstarter campaign to help fund development of the port, aiming to raise at least 6000 GBP (~$8,500 US). The goal is to develop “proper” Berkeley sockets for MicroPython on the ESP8266, in order to provide a true Python socket API to make development easier, optimize RAM usage, and implement the missing parts on […]

December 10, 2015December 10, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

RemoteBoot is an ESP8266 based Board to Power on or Reboot Your Computer over WiFi (Crowdfunding)

Wake-on-LAN is a features that allows you to remotely start your computer by sending magic network packets to the LAN interface, but it requires support from your motherboard. So Ben Wang, an Australian high-school student, decided to make his own little board called RemoteBoot to power off and reboot computers that do not support the feature, or even access the serial console on embedded boards. The board is pretty basic and includes an ESP8266 module: ESP12-E WiFi module 2x digital switching outputs for power and reset buttons 2x digital protected inputs for power and activity LEDs 3x extra general purpose inputs/outputs broken out Tx/Rx for serial console There’s also a feature disabled by default, where a watchdog monitor the activity LED, and automatically reboots the computer after a user-defined timeout. Everything will be control via a simple web interface, and if you have multiple RemoteBoot devices, access to Remoteboot Cloud […]