Neil Kolban has a book that is well worth the download. It contains his notes about the ESP8266 wifi chip applications development. See Kolban’s book on the ESP8266 — “Here you can find the download of a free book on the ESP8266. This book will be updated regularly to include new content and findings.”
The book is not just a technical manual about the ESP8266 API. It is also a good rundown on microcontroller issues, WiFi and networking, software development environments, and microcontroller application concerns.
The ESP8266 is a product of the Chinese manufacturer Espressif (wikipedia) that surfaced in the maker community around August 2014. It’s popularity is due it being a cheap way to get WiFi capabilities that also supports common IO and processing capabilities. This makes it ideal for experimentation and development of IoT (Internet of Things) devices.
Cheap means in the $5 range. This cost category is getting rather crowded. The $5 Rasberry Pi recently introduced sold out its 20k initial run inside of 24 hours. The kickstarter $9 computer with tablet parts is getting going. The micromite at $5 is up to Mark II. Many options from the raw hardware to embedded full featured operating systems puts the burden on trying to decide best fit for your goals.
Kolban’s book has the focus on raw hardware programming supported by full featured integrated development environments (IDE) and an extensive software library. You can use Espressif’s IDE or the adaptation of the Arduino IDE. This is much like the PIC tools where software is written in C and assembler. The ESP8266 has an API (applications programming interface) for its built in firmware that handles most of the radio modem and TCIP networking needs.
<a href=”http://amzn.to/1lZEevy”>Amazon</a> has a number of development boards that provide access to the chip.
incredible what you can do for the money. The education might be a bit tough but that is why Kolban’s free ebook is there.