💬 ESP-LINK ESP8266 WeMos D1 Mini Adapter Board
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What is the idea to connect an Arduino to an ESP8266. What are the benefits of an Arduino in comparison to an ESP?
From my understanding, an ESP is more powerful than an Arduino nano. -
Also, if you're doing something that's very sensitive to timing, you may want to have a dedicated mcu handling that aspect. The ESP8266 is effectively timesharing it's wi-fi duties with its other tasks.
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I just now posted Version 7.
Changes from Version 4:
- Fixed a routing error that prevented OTA reset from working. Now connecting D6 of Wemos D1 Mini (i.e. GPIO 12 of ESP8266) to DTR.
- Fixed the overhang issue.
- Shrunk size of PCB
- Updated schematic.
- Changed pads to be square or round according to normal schematic convention.
For reference, here's a pinout of the Wemos D1 Mini:
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I just received my D1 Mini "Pro," and it is a completely different design from the non-pro version. It only has SMD parts on one side of the board, not two as with the non-pro version. Furthermore, it doesn't use a metal encased ESP8266 module at all. Instead, it more or less implements the contents of a metal-can module on the board itself. In other words, Wemos vertically integrated the Pro version.
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I just received my D1 Mini "Pro," and it is a completely different design from the non-pro version. It only has SMD parts on one side of the board, not two as with the non-pro version. Furthermore, it doesn't use a metal encased ESP8266 module at all. Instead, it more or less implements the contents of a metal-can module on the board itself. In other words, Wemos vertically integrated the Pro version.
It has also 16M bytes flash instead of 4M bytes and a CP2104 USB-TO-UART IC which is new, there is also a external antenna connector available.
Here are the product webpages if anyone is interested:
WemosD1 mini Pro: https://www.wemos.cc/product/d1-mini-pro.html
Wemos D1 mini: https://www.wemos.cc/product/d1-mini.htmlThe Wemos D1 mini Pro is slightly more expensive than the Wemos D1 mini
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Just received mine and it's great as it's really thin now. They have moved the USB plug on the same slide than the components and every other component is thinner than that.
Not sure about the reception quality with the ceramic antenna but it could be a good improvement too.The problem is when you want to use the 16Mb. It's not supported by Arsuinonso you have to cheat. And it's not even supported by the read/write flash functions so you have to cheat also. In both cases you don't have full functionality for the 16Mb using Arduino...
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Just received mine and it's great as it's really thin now. They have moved the USB plug on the same slide than the components and every other component is thinner than that.
Not sure about the reception quality with the ceramic antenna but it could be a good improvement too.The problem is when you want to use the 16Mb. It's not supported by Arsuinonso you have to cheat. And it's not even supported by the read/write flash functions so you have to cheat also. In both cases you don't have full functionality for the 16Mb using Arduino...
@Nca78
You're ahead of me. How much is supported? -
@NeverDie
Do you noticed also the PSF-A85 and PSF-A85 boards on the itead website?https://www.itead.cc/wiki/PSF-A85
https://www.itead.cc/wiki/PSF-B85These boards contain the new ESP8285. I have seen this ESP8285 (ESP8285 internal Flash is 1MByte = 8Mbit) in the Sonoff Wall-Touch-switch and it was easy to write a Arduino sketch to it with an FTDI programmer (FTDI prg. is only for the first time needed, after that you can update the sketch OTA).
The Board has only ~14mmx14mm - so it is possible to shrink "Wemos D1 mini" based projects.
Here are a picture to see the Wemos size vs. PSF-A85 (red square):
Kalle
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@NeverDie said:
@Nca78
You're ahead of me. How much is supported?Sorry I didn't go much further than seeing there's some code to modify to cheat in the flash read/write methods to access it from the ic when running, and some other modifications in arduino IDE to be able to write to more than 4Mb. As I don't have a need for the extra storage at the moment I decided to pass :)
@kalle thank you for the link I didn't notice those before. Very interesting indeed as it's an ESP8266 with extra memory. With a small ceramic antenna similar to the one on the D1 mini pro it can make a really tiny
I just discover the wall switches too, they are nice but you need neutral wire (not surprising to be able to power esp8266) and it's not available for the switch type I have here US(AU) which is a bit smaller than standard US type :( -
@NeverDie said:
@Nca78
You're ahead of me. How much is supported?Sorry I didn't go much further than seeing there's some code to modify to cheat in the flash read/write methods to access it from the ic when running, and some other modifications in arduino IDE to be able to write to more than 4Mb. As I don't have a need for the extra storage at the moment I decided to pass :)
@kalle thank you for the link I didn't notice those before. Very interesting indeed as it's an ESP8266 with extra memory. With a small ceramic antenna similar to the one on the D1 mini pro it can make a really tiny
I just discover the wall switches too, they are nice but you need neutral wire (not surprising to be able to power esp8266) and it's not available for the switch type I have here US(AU) which is a bit smaller than standard US type :(@Nca78 I have tested both types of switches (EU/US) and they have both the same components inside - so maybe the EU wall switch will fit because it is even smaller. The price for such a switch is amazing (15$), but it is not glass on the top it is acrylic plastic.
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@NeverDie
Do you noticed also the PSF-A85 and PSF-A85 boards on the itead website?https://www.itead.cc/wiki/PSF-A85
https://www.itead.cc/wiki/PSF-B85These boards contain the new ESP8285. I have seen this ESP8285 (ESP8285 internal Flash is 1MByte = 8Mbit) in the Sonoff Wall-Touch-switch and it was easy to write a Arduino sketch to it with an FTDI programmer (FTDI prg. is only for the first time needed, after that you can update the sketch OTA).
The Board has only ~14mmx14mm - so it is possible to shrink "Wemos D1 mini" based projects.
Here are a picture to see the Wemos size vs. PSF-A85 (red square):Kalle
@kalle
Thanks for the links. Itead describes them as "ultra alow power," but I'm wondering: what's ultra low power about them? Aside from turning it off (500na), everything else doesn't seem ultra low power, at least compared to the usual atemega328p + nrf/rfm radio module that we're all used to on this forum.That said, I think the esp8266/85 actually could be made much lower power if it were possible (and it probably is, but I don't know how) to use its radio to simply broadcast a message without first linking to a router. Then, even if the power drain is high while active, it's active period could be kept so short that the energy drain would be quite manageable. Do you happen to know if there's a way to do that?
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@kalle
Thanks for the links. Itead describes them as "ultra alow power," but I'm wondering: what's ultra low power about them? Aside from turning it off (500na), everything else doesn't seem ultra low power, at least compared to the usual atemega328p + nrf/rfm radio module that we're all used to on this forum.That said, I think the esp8266/85 actually could be made much lower power if it were possible (and it probably is, but I don't know how) to use its radio to simply broadcast a message without first linking to a router. Then, even if the power drain is high while active, it's active period could be kept so short that the energy drain would be quite manageable. Do you happen to know if there's a way to do that?
@NeverDie Itead said this chip is also for creating wearaible devices - so I think it is possible to use it with batteries. The ESP has a deepsleep function but I have no experience with it and don't know how it works - sorry. I have only "hacked" the Sonoff touch wall switch to use it without the terrible cloud app - I don't use it with the mysensors stuff, but maybe it is possible to use such a switch as ESPgateway node (the chip is powered with 3.3V) and we can try to upload the ESPgateway sketch on the switch.
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@NeverDie Itead said this chip is also for creating wearaible devices - so I think it is possible to use it with batteries. The ESP has a deepsleep function but I have no experience with it and don't know how it works - sorry. I have only "hacked" the Sonoff touch wall switch to use it without the terrible cloud app - I don't use it with the mysensors stuff, but maybe it is possible to use such a switch as ESPgateway node (the chip is powered with 3.3V) and we can try to upload the ESPgateway sketch on the switch.
The deep sleep is good enough. What ruins the whole thing, though, is the fairly long re-acquaintance with the wi-fi router once it wakes up. That's where most of the power drain happens. If we could just drive the radio directly, then that problem goes away.
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The deep sleep is good enough. What ruins the whole thing, though, is the fairly long re-acquaintance with the wi-fi router once it wakes up. That's where most of the power drain happens. If we could just drive the radio directly, then that problem goes away.
OK, I just noticed that it supports wi-fi direct (https://www.itead.cc/psf-a85.html), so perhaps that could accomplish it, since that doesn't require the lengthy wi-fi router dance.
The other strange thing is that Itead says its module supports 2x1 MIMO, and yet I see only one antenna port on it.
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The deep sleep is good enough. What ruins the whole thing, though, is the fairly long re-acquaintance with the wi-fi router once it wakes up. That's where most of the power drain happens. If we could just drive the radio directly, then that problem goes away.
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@NeverDie To connect to the router take only 1-2 seconds for my wemos devices (static IP), but ok - maybe this is to long.
I think for a switch, it can be run all the time - or do I misunderstand something@kalle
Yeah, 1-2 seconds is correct, but there's a consensus that for battery operation, because of the high current drain, that's actually 2 to 3 orders of magnitude too long. Think of a typical temp-rh sensor that updates every 5 minutes, for example. It adds up quickly. -
OK, I just noticed that it supports wi-fi direct (https://www.itead.cc/psf-a85.html), so perhaps that could accomplish it, since that doesn't require the lengthy wi-fi router dance.
The other strange thing is that Itead says its module supports 2x1 MIMO, and yet I see only one antenna port on it.
@NeverDie said:
OK, I just noticed that it supports wi-fi direct (https://www.itead.cc/psf-a85.html), so perhaps that could accomplish it, since that doesn't require the lengthy wi-fi router dance.
No it doesn't. That's a claim that has been made by Espressif in the ESP8266 specs. But it has never been implemented...
Wearable ESP8266 (or 8285) is also a bold claim by iTead. The lowest power mode for radio transmit draws around 120mA, it's already over 50mA in receive mode. And if you use PWM, i2C (and I fail to see the use of wearable without them) or anything like that even when disabling the radio it will consume 15mA.
I have better hopes for the ESP32 as it's supposed to have some kind of very low power (for real) coprocessor to handle small tasks while the main cores will sleep. But it's still in development on the SDK side, and as seen with the "wifi direct" claim on the ESP8266 we should not take every promised feature from Espressif at face value ;)
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@NeverDie said:
OK, I just noticed that it supports wi-fi direct (https://www.itead.cc/psf-a85.html), so perhaps that could accomplish it, since that doesn't require the lengthy wi-fi router dance.
No it doesn't. That's a claim that has been made by Espressif in the ESP8266 specs. But it has never been implemented...
Wearable ESP8266 (or 8285) is also a bold claim by iTead. The lowest power mode for radio transmit draws around 120mA, it's already over 50mA in receive mode. And if you use PWM, i2C (and I fail to see the use of wearable without them) or anything like that even when disabling the radio it will consume 15mA.
I have better hopes for the ESP32 as it's supposed to have some kind of very low power (for real) coprocessor to handle small tasks while the main cores will sleep. But it's still in development on the SDK side, and as seen with the "wifi direct" claim on the ESP8266 we should not take every promised feature from Espressif at face value ;)
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Hmm.. at Mysensors Team we already have our ESP32 LORA board :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
This is a LIPO charger, LORA board i did for ESP32 evaluation. With a nice LDO, I added a neopixel, and prefer bigger tactile switch :) same width as Nano32 but 1cm longer, so one row available on each side for breadboarding. ESP32 is a nice little beast :)I have other stuff coming for esp32. i'll release ;)
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Hmm.. at Mysensors Team we already have our ESP32 LORA board :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
This is a LIPO charger, LORA board i did for ESP32 evaluation. With a nice LDO, I added a neopixel, and prefer bigger tactile switch :) same width as Nano32 but 1cm longer, so one row available on each side for breadboarding. ESP32 is a nice little beast :)I have other stuff coming for esp32. i'll release ;)
