Bare ESP8266 NodeMCU IoT Generic Switch 2.0.0

This is the fork of ESP8266 NodeMCU IoT Generic Switch 2.0.0, that contains a "virtualized" Arduino GenericPin. In other words, no Arduino board is required for this project, and it can be used with pure ESP modules like Sonoff.

The software allows both to set-up and to control ESP8266 device through Web Interface.

Features

• Operate ESP8266 ports through Web Interface;
• HTTP Server with optional authentication for 2 users: admin and user (configurable through Web interface);
• Wi-Fi configurable through Web interface (both connecting to existing Wi-Fi network and creating a new Wi-Fi Access Point (AP) with the option of disabling AP on successfull connectin to Wi-Fi network);
• In AP mode all the DNS queries are resolved to ESP8266 IP address;
• Configurable through the Web interface Ports View;
• Allows to send raw commands through Web interface to virtual GenericPin;
• Built-in IDE for editing the software through Web interface;
• Responsive Web UI (usable from smartphones);
• NodeMCU version agnostic (polyfills allow to work on on NodeMCU 1.5.4.1 - 3.0.0).

Web UI Animations:

UI overview:

UI overview with port configuration:

Setup Wi-Fi access point:

Setup admin authentication:

Usage

1. Flash the ESP8266 module with the NodeMCU firmware as described in Flashing the firmware with any tool you like (e.g. esptool.py, NodeMCU Flasher etc.). The custom NodeMCU firmware can be built online with the service: NodeMCU custom builds. If your ESP8266 EEPROM is only 512Kb, you have to take extra steps to be sure that firmware is as small as possible, and there is enough space for project files in EEPROM file system. So, build your custom firmware based on 1.5.4.1-final NodeMCU with the only 9 modules selected: cjson, file, gpio, net, node, pwm, tmr, uart, wifi, no TLS, no debug, and take the integer version of it. The firmware I built with the above options is 400004 bytes, which gave me about 78 Kb of space available in my ESP-01 EEPROM file system. In the case if your ESP module goes with larger EEPROM installed (which is the case if you are flashing a Sonoff device), you can build even the most recent NodeMCU version (select the release option on online build tool) with more modules selected, just make sure that at least 70Kb of file system space is available when you run NodeMCU. Make sure the following 9 modules are selected when you are building the firmware:

• file;
• GPIO;
• net;
• node;
• SJSON (for new NodeMCU; if you build older NodeMCU (1.5.4.1) select cJSON instead);
• PWM;
• timer;
• UART (not needed for this project, but may be useful for debug, and takes 0kb of additional space in firmware);
• WiFi.

2. Upload the project files (all the files from src/ directory) to the ESP module (read the Uploading code how to do it). If you prefer, you can use the tool for uploading NodeMCU files from https://github.com/dev-lab/esp-nodemcu-lua-uploader. Upload the software with either install.sh, or install.bat depending on your OS:

3. Restart the ESP8266 module (turn it off and turn back on). After restarting you will see a new Wi-Fi access point with the name: esp-devlab-setup. You will be able to connect to the module with the default password: We1c0me!. The default Wi-Fi AP name and password are specified in file: connect.lua.
4. On successfull connection to the esp-devlab-setup Access Point you will be able to reach the Web UI through the browser by typing anything looking like domain name as an URL, e.g.: any.site.my. You can do that because the software starts a DNS liar server (it responds with the ESP8266 IP to any DNS request) in AP mode. The DNS server evolved based on the work published on the following resources:

• Re: Tiny DNS server written in Ncat-Lua - anyone interested?
• https://svn.nmap.org/!svn/bc/31535/nmap-exp/d33tah/lua-exec-examples/ncat/scripts/dns.lua
• ESP8266 WiFi Throwies
• Wifi throwie : improved version - faster, smaller, cheaper

5. Web UI shall be quite self-explaining to use. You only have to remember that the best way to brick the software is to use Web IDE without checking twice what you are uploading to the file system. The changes are taken into account immediately. A bricked NodeMCU can be cured only with connecting of ESP module to computer through UART, formatting of NodeMCU file system, and rewriting the Lua software. In some cases you even have to re-flash the NodeMCU (e.g. if you did the mistake and removed the delay in init.lua.

The Use Case:

The software can be used as is with the simple Sonoff devices (checked on Basic Switch and S26 Plug). For other devices, the default ports.json may not work, so you will need to modify this file either directly or through ESP Web UI at runtime, using the Ports menu. Note, that GPIO pins are usually specified for Sonoff devices, while NodeMCU (and this software) operate with IO indexes. Use the NodeMCU GPIO documentation to map GPIO numbers to port indices. For example, if you find that the relay is connected to GPIO12, the corresponding NodeMCU IO index will be 6 (as you can see in ports.json).

Applications:

The generic functionality of this software can be adapted to the specific workflow requirements with the help of apps. Check out how to do it here.

License

Copyright (c) 2015-2022 Taras Greben

Licensed under the Apache License.