breWhy don't you directly program the ESP8266

[rogerclarkmelbourne]

It looks like you are using the AT command set in the ESP8266 and send commands from the PIC??

I'm not sure why you are not just directly programming the ESP8266 and then could do away with the PC

The Arduino API for the ESP is pretty advanced (probably better supported than directly programming using the internal API)

PS. I'm also in Melbourne ;-)

[bleckers]

You definitely can just use the ESP module. This Node design was created to enable USB->UART for programming and connection, power supply and the ability to control the power individually on the ESP module (to reset for programming easily or in case it locks up).

Using a NodeMCU or the like would also give you a similar thing (for about the same price). I must admit that the Node was really created to meet some of the design requirements for the Hackaday Prize best product category, and at the time of development the Arduino libraries also didn't exist as they do now (it was basically NodeLUA or the AT firmware).

I am working on a new bit of hardware which provides a cheap development environment for distance measurements if you are interested in taking a look - https://hackaday.io/project/9242-subpos-ranger . This competes with boards that use the more expensive Decawave modules for similar results.

[rogerclarkmelbourne]

Thanks

I have some NodeMCU boards ($3 USB from AliExpress) and a bucket load of ESP-12's, so if I have time I may investigate directly programming them to do what the AT commands do
(But at the moment I've probably got too many other projects on the go)

I watched your recent presentation on YouTube about using the Atmel chip which does time of travel. I can see this is going to give you much more accurate results, but I presume requires the same chip at both the TX and RX end.

[bleckers]

That would be awesome if you do! A few people have asked for such a thing and I haven't had the time to get something sorted (been pouring time into the Ranger project, which I'm hoping to kickstart soon, I'm just ironing out a couple of accuracy issues that have popped up with the new board design).

That's correct, it will be a specialised piece of hardware each end, but I am targeting hobbyists who would want a low cost setup for testing/developing on robotics platforms (although it will allow for integration with the Wi-Fi standard). Hopefully it goes well, but it's been a fun project if it doesn't.

[rogerclarkmelbourne]

No worries

I'll stick it on my To Do list ;-)

[drnickyoung]

Firstly excellent project. Am looking at using it for a local project I am doing. Anyway I didn't see any development on this for direct use on the ESP, assuming none has been made so started to do it myself over at GitHub. It is rather messy at present. What I was/am attempting to do first off is just to get basic SSID coded and transmitting, not worried about any of the extras, wizards, etc...

Currently it does the SSID encoding and then transmits via the beacon frames, but crashes regularly so not been able to test further. I have not had time to look into it too much, but it is a starting point and I plan to work on it some more ASAP. The plan is I would like to have a beacon transmittion called in a timer/ISR.