Hello,
I would like to know the difference between these two devices. I don´t know for what (exactly) is each one and when I have to use them.
Thanks.
Please post a link to the "Wifi shield R3". Use the chain link button on the toolbar to make the link clickable.
Is this one:
Well the first huge difference you'll notice is price. Due to the amazingly low price, the ESP8266 has become the most popular WiFi solution for Arduino products by far. This means you will find much more tutorials, libraries, example code, etc. for ESP8266. The official Arduino WiFi library is likely to be fairly reliable but is no longer very actively developed. The ESP8266 is a much newer chip so some of the Arduino code written for it is still a bit rough around the edges but it is getting better. The company that makes the ESP8266 has been really bad at providing documentation so this means development has been much slower than necessary. The hardware used on the Arduino WiFi Shield is better documented and likely higher quality but also older so I'm not sure how it compares performance wise.
In addition to using the ESP8266 as a WiFi module connected to a standard Arduino board, it's also fairly easy to directly program the ESP8266 using the Arduino IDE. Technically this may be possible with the Arduino WiFi Shield but I've never heard of anyone doing it.
Is the shield an adapter or not? I mean, I don´t know if the wifi shield is the same as the esp8266. This is my main doubt.
What do you mean by an adapter? They both can connected to your Arduino board to allow it to communicate via WiFi. The ESP8266 can also be used by itself as an Arduino that also has WiFi communication capabilities.
Now is clear I guess. I didn´t know why the shield is too expensive compared to the esp8266.
Thanks!
pert:
Well the first huge difference you'll notice is price. Due to the amazingly low price, the ESP8266 has become the most popular WiFi solution for Arduino products by far. This means you will find much more tutorials, libraries, example code, etc. for ESP8266. The official Arduino WiFi library is likely to be fairly reliable but is no longer very actively developed. The ESP8266 is a much newer chip so some of the Arduino code written for it is still a bit rough around the edges but it is getting better. The company that makes the ESP8266 has been really bad at providing documentation so this means development has been much slower than necessary. The hardware used on the Arduino WiFi Shield is better documented and likely higher quality but also older so I'm not sure how it compares performance wise.In addition to using the ESP8266 as a WiFi module connected to a standard Arduino board, it's also fairly easy to directly program the ESP8266 using the Arduino IDE. Technically this may be possible with the Arduino WiFi Shield but I've never heard of anyone doing it.
So, esp8266 is better than the shield for a beginner. Isn't it?
ESP8266 can be difficult for beginners to work with. If you do a search for "ESP8266" here on the forum you will see a lot of beginners having trouble but almost always it's not caused by a problem with the ESP8266 but just that they don't understand how to connect/communicate the module to their Arduino board. There are a few different ESP8266 shields that make the connection simple but most of them use the same serial lines the USB is connected to that you would normally use for debug output so that makes them less beginner friendly. A good option is the Sparkfun ESP8266 shield SparkFun WiFi Shield - ESP8266 - WRL-13287 - SparkFun Electronics which has a switch you can use to select whether to use the software or hardware serial pins. The price of that shield is pretty reasonable, though the other Chinese options are cheaper. The disadvantage of the Sparkfun shield over the Chinese ones is it doesn't come with headers installed to connect to an Arduino. This means you need to buy headers and solder them on. Not a big deal but it does make it less beginner friendly for anyone who doesn't have any soldering experience or own a soldering iron.
There are a lot of people here using ESP8266 and many more on the ESP8266 forum so there's a lot of information available. Most of the information you'll find on that WiFi shield is older because not as many use it now but most of it will still be valid.
pramojlahiru:
So, esp8266 is better than the shield for a beginner. Isn't it?
I write this because this question is still relevant for newbies I think (I would be grateful for one information like this before I bought my ESPs).
It is better in some meanings but not in all.
First the boards itself (not NodeMCU, a special board using the ESP) are incompatible to breadboards (2 mm pin distance and some of them with pins at three sides of the board). Adaptors can be bought but than the size grows ... special for IoT sometimes an argument since the device have to be inserted.
The chip needs 3.3V at supply and all input pins. 5V are forbidden. So TTL/RS232 convertors or some kinds of USB/serial convertors are not useable (in fact these devices can be used but one have to convert the levels ... an additional board has to be used). Pre-resistors for LEDs have to be changed and for example solid state relays or opto-couplers are difficult to be used since a LED allways needs a pre-resistor (due to their characteristics) and since these devices often needs at least 3V the difference is very low to use a resistor (SSR or opto-couplers are with LEDs at the input). That can be a problem for controling high-current or main-source devices.
Programming is easy since the whole arduino lib can be used and there are a lot of additional libraries out there in the internet.
The board itself is really small so existing devices can be upgraded with WiFi abbilities in a lot of ways without any change at the outline or case.
In sleeping mode (if useable) the power consumption is very small so batteries can be used. With WiFi this could be a problem since the transmitter needs some current.
Manni
Here are the difference between wifi shield R3 and wifi module ESP8266. you can just go through the device specifications given in the below link.