ESP8266 – The Little Beast!

General
Page content

esp8266ex

The esp8266 chip is made by Espressif Systems.

ESP8266 is a highly integrated chip designed for the needs of a new connected world. It offers a complete and self-contained Wi-Fi networking solution, allowing it to either host the application or to offload all Wi-Fi networking functions from another application processor.

The chip have both certifications FCC and CE. You can sell your products to the mass market.

  • The FCC identifier : 2AC7Z-ESP8266EX
  • The CE opinion number : TCF-1933CC14

Internet of things survey from an year ago at Wi-Fi.org shows very big numbers for smart enabled devices.

Why WiFi for the Internet of Things A.K.A Smart Devices?

Two words – security and availability.

While WiFi is know to be at the edge of the secure protocols it offers much more protection than regular 315/433Mhz devices. 2.4GHz keyboards were hacked recently too.

There are two main types of data that the IoT  devices process:

  1. Sensor Data – It may be sensitive or not but can only be used for analysis. Can cause trouble but only indirectly.
  2. Actuators Control –  If hijacked can make a real mess – what if you use a wireless door lock?

WiFi and the esp8266 chip provide enough security with the TKIP and AES engines built in /is there ever completely secure system? / to control your appliances.

So let’s get started and build some devices:

Appliance Control Goals

  1. Control devices – turn on/off your oven/dishwasher/washing machine/coffee maker/whatever at predefined schedule or at your will.
  2. Collect usage data from your  appliances
  3. … ?

Environment Control Goals

  1. Monitor environment parameters
  2. Monitor presence
  3. Control environmental devices – lights,  blinds
  4. …. ?

It’s an open ended post which will get updated for sure.

But let’s put that little beast to work!