Craig A. Lindley's
ESP8266 Micro Controller Projects
October 2017
Announcing the release of my ESP8266 Micro Controller Projects PDF booklet for the amazing ESP8266 micro controller. This book contains over 170 pages of projects and project ideas that you can build and/or incorporate into your own projects. Projects from clocks to robots to Internet radios to MIDI are all covered. All of the code written in support for these projects is also included so you can get started building your project right away.

The table of contents of this booklet is shown below to give you an idea of the breadth of projects it contains. If you are a ESP8266 enthusiast you will certainly find a project here that you will want to build.

Table of Contents

Important Notes..............................................................................................2
Who Am I.....................................................................................................3
What's in this Document?.....................................................................................4
Introduction.................................................................................................4
Parts Suppliers..............................................................................................5
NodeMCU Amica Pinout Diagram.................................................................................6

Chapter One – ESP8266 A Tiny, WiFi Enabled, Arduino Compatible Micro Controller.............................11
  Introduction..............................................................................................11
  Hardware..................................................................................................11
  Prototyping Hardware......................................................................................12
  Arduino IDE Version 1.6.4.................................................................................13
  Software..................................................................................................14
  Teleduino.................................................................................................15
  Conclusions...............................................................................................16
  Resources.................................................................................................16

Chapter Two - ESP8266 NTP Clock.............................................................................23
  Introduction..............................................................................................23
  Hardware..................................................................................................24
  Software..................................................................................................26
  User Configuration of the NTP Clock Software..............................................................28
  NTP Clock Operation.......................................................................................29
  Resources.................................................................................................30

Chapter Three - ESP8266 Weather Station.....................................................................35
  Introduction..............................................................................................35
  Hardware..................................................................................................36
  Software..................................................................................................37
  User Configuration of the Weather Station Software........................................................38
  Weather Station Operation.................................................................................39
  Conclusions...............................................................................................42
  Resources.................................................................................................42

Chapter Four - ESP8266 World Clock..........................................................................53
  Introduction..............................................................................................53
  Hardware..................................................................................................54
  Software..................................................................................................55
  User Configuration of the World Clock Software............................................................57
  World Clock Operation.....................................................................................57
  Timezones, Timezones, Timezones...........................................................................58
  Conclusions...............................................................................................59
  Resources.................................................................................................59

Chapter Five - ESP8266 Nixie Tube Clock.....................................................................67
  Introduction..............................................................................................67
  Clock Operation...........................................................................................67
  Hardware..................................................................................................68
  Software..................................................................................................70
  Packaging.................................................................................................72
  Conclusions...............................................................................................73

Chapter Six - ESP8266 RSS News Reader.......................................................................85
  Introduction..............................................................................................85
  Hardware..................................................................................................86
  Software..................................................................................................87
  RSS News Reader Software Operation........................................................................89
  Conclusions...............................................................................................92
  Resources.................................................................................................92

Chapter Seven - ESP8266 NeoPixel LED Tree ..................................................................97
  Introduction..............................................................................................97
  Laser Cutting Tree Pieces.................................................................................97
  The Electronics...........................................................................................99
  Building The Tree........................................................................................100
  Tree Software............................................................................................101
  Remotely Controlling The Tree............................................................................102
  Final Thoughts...........................................................................................102
  Resources................................................................................................103

Chapter Eight - ESP8266 Thinking Of You....................................................................117
  Introduction.............................................................................................117
  Hardware.................................................................................................118
  Configuration............................................................................................119
  Software.................................................................................................120
  How Things Work..........................................................................................121
  Packaging the ToY Device.................................................................................122
  Conclusions..............................................................................................123
  Resources................................................................................................123

Chapter Nine - ESP8266 WiFi Robot and Robot Controller.....................................................133
  Introduction.............................................................................................133
  The Robot Controller.....................................................................................134
    Hardware...............................................................................................135
    Software...............................................................................................136
  The Robot................................................................................................138
    Hardware...............................................................................................138
    Software...............................................................................................139
  Conclusions..............................................................................................140

Chapter Ten – ESP8266 NeoPixel LED NTP Clock...............................................................151
  Introduction.............................................................................................151
  Clock Operation..........................................................................................151
  Hardware.................................................................................................152
  Software.................................................................................................153
  Conclusions..............................................................................................154

Snippet #1 ESP8266 & VS1053B Internet Radio................................................................163
  Introduction.............................................................................................163
  Hardware.................................................................................................163
  Software.................................................................................................164
  Conclusions..............................................................................................167

Snippet #2 ESP8266 & VS1053B MIDI .........................................................................171
  Introduction.............................................................................................171
  Hardware.................................................................................................171
  Software.................................................................................................172
  Conclusions..............................................................................................175

The book and code are available here, but a donation for all of the work I've done would be appreciated.
Please donate anything you can here.

Here are some reviews:

From ArduinoGuy on Nov 3rd 2017 talking about the NeoPixel Tree article:

Fantastic article by Mr. Lindley! The various software and hardware tools he discusses (WiFiManager, ArduinoOTA, the WS2812FX library, and the Zing laser cutter) will be welcome additions to my future projects. Articles like this are why I subscribe to Nuts and Volts. Well done!

Mr. Lindley,

I just received my Nov. 2017 Nuts and Volts magazine and wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed your NeoPixel article.  This is exactly the kind of article I look for in the magazine and a big reason why I subscribed to it.  I may not build the exact project you described, but I’m SURE I’ll use the info you included about WiFiManager, ArduinoOTA, and the spectacular WS2812FX library!

Thank you for a fantastic article.  You made a fellow DIY’er/hacker’s Friday!

Kind regards,

Cincinnati, OH