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Comment by lewi | Hacker News Reader

This project is a great little proof of concept. However, if the electronics still seem a little inaccessible or you don't want the hassle; the NodeMCU[1] dev board compresses all those components (ESP8266, USB, buttons & GPIO) onto a easy to use board for ~$12 USD. I'd highly recommend it.

However, you'll need a breadboard and a button to complete the project.

[1]: http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html

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You can get them for $4.70 with free shipping directly from the factories in China on Aliexpress: http://www.aliexpress.com/item/New-Wireless-module-NodeMcu-L... (The only downside is shipping takes a few weeks).

Just received 2 of them a few days ago, and they work great! I had been waiting for practical IoT hardware for a long time, and now it's finally happening.

I recommend ESplorer for programming them (http://esp8266.ru/esplorer/), and esptool for flashing firmware (https://github.com/themadinventor/esptool).

Thank you for the recommendation, I ordered three. The tools are going to be very handy, as I don't like the Arduino environment very much.

Is this it?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201414882109

Does it really have WiFi and run Lua for less than $7?

This looks basically like ESP8266 connected to a serial-to-USB chip and put on a breakout board. I guess all processing is done on ESP, which is like $2 (and less if you buy bulk), so I can see the kit being $7. Don't know about Python though.

Apparently someone ported it, so I took the question out:

https://github.com/micropython/micropython/tree/master/esp82...

This board looks fantastic. I don't know why anyone would buy an Arduino, I am just amazed by this.

Well, you'd buy an Arduino for the ecosystem, but this board is much better in many respects. I have a Particle Photon and I was excited because it had WiFi, but the NodeMCU has WiFi and is cheap enough to be disposable. I am pretty stoked right now.

I think I saw something like this yesterday in Shenzhen, but until this thread I couldn't identify what this is (and locals here don't speak English). I'm probably buying a bunch the next time I'm around.

Arduino nowadays yes, mostly for ecosystem and as a good entry point to electronics for people who know neither it, nor software. Otherwise it's overkill both in terms of price and size (btw. I still find it hard to accept that such big boards cost so little; Arduino Uno clones go for something like $3-4 right now).

> as a good entry point to electronics for people who know neither it, nor software

As someone who knows software but not hardware, I like how modular its shields are. It allowed me to make this[1] with very little effort.

You're right about the price, I bought five Minis the other day because I found them at $1.5 each, and now three of this board, which I am just amazed by. The Uno is huge, though, I agree.

[1]: http://www.stavros.io/posts/irotary-saga/

I also know software but not hardware, but being a part of a local Hackerspace, I often find myself teaching people who know neither. Arduino is godsent for this, especially Uno-sized ones. They're not so big to be intimidating, not small enough to make you worry you break something, and the software ecosystem around it lets you teach someone loops and conditionals while going from blinking LED to driving a robot around.

Shields are also cool as a concept, but I used to avoid them because they could often be as expensive as the board itself. I'm reconsidering now, given how the prices have fallen in the last year or two. Hell, my friend who is super-skilled in electronics started to buy lots of Arduino Ethernets to wire up some sensors in a small factory, because nowadays getting even a few dozens of them is cheaper than bothering with designing and making your own custom board for the task (if you add up the time you spend on designing and debugging).

> It allowed me to make this[1]

I remember that from Show HN some time ago, I'm happy you finished it :).

That looks like the older revision that uses the ESP-12 module rather than an ESP-12E. But yes, it does 802.11b/g (don't think it does n), with a pretty full IP stack. It'll run both LUA as part of the NodeMCU project, and it'll also do C/C++ natively with the arduino project also supporting it as a board directly.

EDIT:

Here's a board with the ESP-12E

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NodeMcu-Lua-WIFI-Internet-Things-dev...

It has some more flash and more pins broken out compared to the ESP-12

Also once you've got something build you can buy the bare modules for usually <$3 and they don't need much support hardware to use, just a 3.3 volt regulator. The ESP-12/E modules however use a 1mm pitch rather than 2.54mm pitch that you usually find on breadboards, so they are a bit more difficult to setup initially if you're doing it bare.

Hmm, I'm sorry, I changed my product after I wrote my comment. On the NodeMCU site (http://nodemcu.com/index_en.html), the photo looks like this product:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201414882109

Is this not the latest version? I just bought two but canceled the order after your comment.

Is the one you posted the very latest version?

The picture in that link is the original dev board which is not breadboard compatible. The new version leaves 1 row available - http://www.amazon.com/Diymall%C2%AElua-Nodemcu-Network-Devel... . Ebay / Aliexpress have them for $7-8 from Asia if you're willing to wait on shipping.

The hardware is essentially an ESP8266 + support.

The MicroPython port to the ESP8266 isn't terribly complete, but it does exist: https://github.com/micropython/micropython/tree/master/esp82...

My fork of micropython is rocking. I have 100% reliable wifi, ESP timers, ESP tasks and mutexes. https://github.com/mianos/micropython I agree, get a nodeMCU board load micropython on connect to the REPL to start experimenting.

That's awesome, thanks for your contribution! I can't wait for these boards to arrive so I can play with MicroPython!

If you're in the US, Adafruit sells them for $10 and they can ship fast.

I used it myself to have the ESP8266 report temperature and humidity to my home automation: https://home-assistant.io/blog/2015/10/11/measure-temperatur...

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