Best posts made by Lendog

@nikil511 & @hek want to say thankyou for your code. Its been really useful. my eps8266 is now running as a controller and posting readings to thingkspeak. Without the need for a computer turned on, so its been really useful. thanks

Are you still having range issues? I would recommend trying a to make a dipole first. They are simple and work well. They do need to be keep in the same polarisation or will attenuate the signal.
If still having range issue you could try a direction antenna after that.

Also if the floors have steel reo, that maybe blocking the signal, going for a longer wavelength frequency might not be the best option.

Also FYI helix/coil antennas reduce signal strength. Unless the antenna needs to be compact, i would avoid that.

If you still need help let me know

Thanks to Hek/Yveaux/nikil511 I’ve got an ESP8266 wifi gateway that posts sensors readings directly to thingspeak without need for a computer

At the moment my code is setup for sending temperature and wind speed readings to two separate thing speak channels. It could be easily modified for single or even more channels or diffrent data

I have only changed the original Esp8266Gateway.ino code but have included the GatewayUtil.h in it for completeness. Also note it requires all the same mysensor library’s etc.

The code can be found here
https://github.com/Lendog/Mysensors-ESP8266-Wifi-gateway-post-to-thingspeak

One thing to note: is thingspeak requires 15 second wait before readings. This is handled on the sensor side and not on the esp8266. I think readings just don't get posted if it’s less than 15 seconds, this is not critical in my application so i haven’t worried about investigated alternative solutions.

Would be awesome if part of the code gets integrated into the original, as posting to thingspeak maybe beneficial to other users.

also my wificheck is handled slightly differently. I've heard the esp locks up if no valid connection and http post occurs. Haven’t tried it, I just figured it’s good to check first before posting.

Anyway hope someone else may find this useful.