A K8 lab with Adafruit ESP8266 Feather Huzzah

ESP8266 is a budget Wi-Fi enabled microncontroller manifactured by the Shangai-based company Espressif. The Adafruit ESP8266 Feather Huzzah board is based on the ESP8266 chip, running at 80 MHz with logic tension of 3.3V.

Wi-Fi connection

ESP8266 has three different connection modes,

• station mode;
• soft-Access Point mode;
• Web Server (soft-AP + station) mode;

In the repository you may find projects exploring the three connection modes, in particular:

• esp8266-station-mode is a basic code to connect the microcontroller to an existent Wi-Fi network;
• esp8266-softAP create a soft-Access Point;
• esp8266-web-server connects to a Wi-Fi network and run a basic web server on the micro;
• esp8266-web-server-led connects to a Wi-Fi network and run a simple web server able to toggle the #0 led on the micro using a GET request;
• esp8266-rgb-led-control-app creates a soft-Access Point and run a web server to control an RGB led; a browser can connect to the server using a web app based on the WebSocket API
• mini-R is a web-app used to control a mini rover

mini-R

mini-R is a Wi-Fi controlled robot based on the Adafruit Mini Robot Rover Chassis Kit, 2WD with DC Motors. At the core of the project lays an Adafruit ESP8266 Feather Huzzah running in soft-AP mode controlled by a web-app.

Controlling the rover

The rover hosts a web server that creates an interface to enable mini-R's movements. The HTML5/CSS web app is based on the WebSocket API. The app is written using vanilla-JavaScript and the entire code can be run without the need for any external library – an Internet connection is not required.