WiFi Modules

[jcdammeyer]

I was going through my projects I might do one day box (has all sorts of crap in it). Most of the Arduino, or Teensy modules I recognize. Serial LCD displays. Etc. But I have 3 of these and I have no idea what they are for or why I bought them. I'm thinking WiFi to Serial for remote control?

 

[Perry]

It looks like is might be an ESP8266 board mounted on a board that has a FTDI so you can program the ESP8266.
Google ESP8266 and FTDI


Can you see a chip number on the larger chips?

 

[whydontu]

HC05 Bluetooth module

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32965758329.html

 

[jcdammeyer]

HC05 Bluetooth module

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32965758329.html

Thanks. Also found this link.

Arduino and HC-05 Bluetooth Module Complete Tutorial

In this Arduino Bluetooth Tutorial we will learn how use the HC-05 module for controlling Arduino via Bluetooth communication. The HC-05 can be set as...

howtomechatronics.com

 

[jcdammeyer]

Downloaded a terminal app for my android phone. Then connected to the HC-06 it discovered. Flashing light on module went solid. The Tx/Rx were connected together for loopback mode. And it works. Now just need to put a scope on it to see what baud rate it’s running.

 

[Susquatch]

Then connected to the HC-06 it discovered. Flashing light on module went solid. The Tx/Rx were connected together for loopback mode. And it works.

This sounds like something I need but I confess I have no idea what you are doing here....

Need to go back to basics....... Is this connection Bluetooth?

And what is the name & author of the terminal app?

 

[jcdammeyer]

This sounds like something I need but I confess I have no idea what you are doing here....

Need to go back to basics....... Is this connection Bluetooth?

And what is the name & author of the terminal app?

Yes. It's a BlueTooth Module that costs about $3 from AliExpress.
Where it's useful is if you have some sort of computer module that has a serial port and you want to grab some info from the module with your phone.
For example. You have a bird feeder with a switch or sensor that detects each time a bird visits. It's up in a tree in the back yard too far to string wires to the house. The little computer module records the switch closures and saves them.
Now you walk up to the base of the tree with your phone and run the "Serial Bluetooth Terminal 1.45" on your Samsung phone downloaded from the play store.
Connect and send it a 'c' and it returns 123. Send it an 'r' and it returns 0 having reset the counter.

Contact is: www.kai-morich.de/android

As an example of what you can do with a bluetooth module. I think there are also ESP32 based modules that use Arduino code that have both WiFi and BlueTooth so the module isn't needed.

Like this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005626482837.html

 

[Susquatch]

Yes. It's a BlueTooth Module that costs about $3 from AliExpress.

Very Cool John. Didn't realize this sort of thing existed. Was hoping to fire up one of the new Arduinos with BT & WiFi to do similar things.

I'll check out your links on the weekend!

Thank you!

 

[jcdammeyer]

Very Cool John. Didn't realize this sort of thing existed. Was hoping to fire up one of the new Arduinos with BT & WiFi to do similar things.

I'll check out your links on the weekend!

Thank you!

Yes. They kind of came before the newer ESP32 with WiFi and BT. But they still have a place. For example, I didn't design the hardware but I did do a lot of the software in this module.

Inside the box was a PIC32 on the main board that powered up instantly. Plugged into it was a Raspberry PiZeroW that took 18 seconds to boot Linux so the first 18 seconds of power up logging would be lost. The PIC32 did the logging from the vehicle CAN bus. To know where the vehicle was there was a GPS module, a battery backed up real time clock (RTC) for the Time of Day (TOD) and also what was called a 3G SARA module which interfaced to the Cell Network.

My software captured the CAN messages, Time stamped them from power up and saved them until the PiZeroW was awake. By then we'd also have GPS time and could verify the correct time and adjust the TOD stamps on acquired data as it was transmitted up into the PiZeroW for logging to SD card. That was the extent of my software on the PIC32 and Pi. Others wrote software which read the files and sent them to the cloud via either WiFi hot spots or Cell Net.

It was for this little Hydrogen Powered Car being developed in the UK.

With that Bluetooth module we can still talk to a more powerful or customized processor and access something like a Cell Phone for GPS and Network information without having to also write software for an ESP32 WiFi+BT.

So many possible projects (42 at least) and so little time.

 

[slow-poke]

I built some remote multichannel relays using similar but different dirt cheap 433MHz modules ( not Bluetooth or WiFi) from AliExpress. They work very well and I tested them successfully at over 1km. I'm presently using one to control my water fountain, as well as aspects of my irrigation system and things in my shed, a lot cheaper and easier than running a cable. Initially I tried a X10 PLC module however they are quite limited distance wise perhaps 100' tops, they were incapable of making it from my shed to the house.

Some of the LoRa modules can go quite a distance straight line, Video link shows a guy in Switzerland where he got them working at 200km line of sight. Fun stuff. LoRa demodulation process is really interesting.

The little gizzmo I'm using......

 

[jcdammeyer]

Way back I developed a product called a CAN_RF. Used On Off Keying to send CAN messages over 915Mhz. This was before ZigBee and the variants started to dominate the market. What made it unique was that like the wired CAN bus if two modules started to transmit at the same time the one with the higher ID # would give up and change to listen mode and then retry again. I wrote software for message forwarding etc. But ultimately teh writing was on the wall for ZigBee so I discontinued it.
Here's an example of the arbitration. Three nodes, two triggered to send at the same time. One node sees all three messages, one gives up and retries after the loss of arbitration and then resends after the first is done.

The areal shot below shows 6 of the lamp modules around the property. Each was to have a motion sensor and all ran on battery with possible solar recharging. If anyone motion sensor tripped it then switched on all the others. The host program running on the PC would show which lamp tripped and if they were ON or OFF. Had an article about that published in Circuit Cellar Magazine.

Alas, never went further after ZigBee showed up. Still have about 30 of the CANRF modules. Maybe for project #42 I'll restart this.