Arduino with WiFi or Nodemcu Lua Esp8266 Esp12e or something else?

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello and thank you in advance for any and all help, suggestions and advice.

I am still a noob but have done a couple of projects in the past with Arduino. I mostly followed instructions I found on the internet and often I had no idea what I was doing but I would just follow the instructions.

This time around I am doing my project 100% from scratch, so trying to figure out what to use.

I am making a murphy bed that will turn into a desk when bed is up (will open and close manually). I want to set up cool lighting to go with it that can be controlled by a 4 button remote control and via Amazon's Echo Dot.

I plan to have 4 lighting sections. 3 of these sections would use Cree 10W white LEDs (section 1 with two cree Leds, section 2 with 4 cree leds, and section 3 with 3 cree leds), and the last section will use 30 5mm leds (maybe even RGBs).

On the sections with cree lights, I want to be able to turn the section on and off, and also DIMM the intensity but not control each light individually. For the 30 led set/section I would like to be able to control each light individually and control the intensity (specially if I do go with RGBs).

When I first came up with the idea for the project I was thinking of using an Arduino Uno (have about 3 of them laying around without use), then use two TLC5940s, and get a wifi adapter for the Arduino. I did this project before so I have a bit of experience using the TLCs and RGBs.

As I was researching on how to add wifi to arduino I found Nodemcu Lua Esp8266. I understand that to add wifi to Arduino I would need an ESP8266 but here in Mexico for $2 more I can get the Nodemcu Lua instead. I did a bit of reading and seems I could use that instead of the Arduino. Would I be able to add TLC5940's to the Nodemcu? What about the remote control (radio frequency) would I be able to add that as well?

Also found the D1 Mini, which seems it would work great for simple on/off applications but not sure if I would be able to control all the Leds I want with the D1 Mini

So my question is, which would be the best/easiest way for me to complete the project? Arduino plus wifi, NodeMcu Lua or D1 mini?

2

Well after my post I was able to create better google searches and it seems I am able to answer some of my own questions.

I found some instructions and pictures on how to add wifi to Arduino, but couple of posts mentioned I would need an extra power source for the wifi since arduino wouldn't be able to handle it.

Didn't keep reading more on the Nodemcu Lua Esp8266 but it seems it would be similar to an arduino with wifi already included.

What I did read more about is the Wemo D1 Mini. Seems that would be my best bet for size, price, etc. The draw back is that the TLC5940s don't seem to work well with the D1 Mini mainly cause they require an external clock but instead I could use the PCA9685

I am correct to assume that I could use the remote control board I have with D1 Mini as well?

3

You should make a simple list of what you want to connect. Makes it much easier to figure out. Just as "10W LED" and "LED strip with 30 individual RGB ones", where they go in the room is quite irrelevant.

Probably a NodeMCU or WeMOS D1 mini makes most sense for your project. It's got WiFi built in, total 11 I/O pins (of which a number have extra functions), and if you run out of pins adding a port expander is easier and cheaper than adding an Uno.

For your RGB LEDs, look at the individually addressable WS2812 ones. They come in strips for cheap. You can create pretty cool light shows with them.

The remote control, isn't that IR? Normally you'd use a TSOP sensor in combination with those. It'll take care of the demodulation for you, making receiving commands very easy.

4

the ESP8266 device is an assembly of a microprocessor, L106 32-bit RISC microprocessor core by Tensilica.
and an SPI memory chip.

the microprocessor has 2 SPI busses, one is dedicated to the memory the other is for your use.
the WEMOS offers the 11 pins, the NodeMCU offers the 11, plus the SPI buss pins that the memory is controlled with and warnings to not use these pins.

the ESP8266 has only 1 analog pin. regardless of board design.

the nodeMCU comes ready to use with the LUA programming software and the WEMOS comes with the Arduino bootloader installed. check before ordering. there is usually no cost difference and the nodeMCU can be purchased with the arduino bootloader installed.

You can upload the Arudino bootlooder to the nodeMCU.

WARNING : there is no standard. there are more than a few different pin arrangements for a nodeMCU, so buy one with a name brand with the hopes that later on, you can get like for like replacements.

the board size has changed over time. some are wider than others so cannot be used on a single breadboard. If you get 2 breadboards that have the removable power rails, you can use two of them to layout your circuits.

This has become much worse for the ESP32. There are even more pin location changes on the various offerings you find.
I do wish that the folks at expressif would set a board standard with some naming convention. That would offer the user a better chance at getting useable boards that are interchangeable. You can re-direct most of the pins on the new ESP32, but when you do, you loose the speed of the default pins.

the ESP32 offers a bunch of analog pins (18?), that are 0-3.3 volts and are 12 bit. It also has low energy blutooth on the board.
but the price is much higher than the EXP8266.

5

Thanks both for the input. I am getting a crash course. I am understanding things a bit better, especially the ESP8266

For the RGBs i recently learned about the WS2812 but I am not a big fan of strip LEDs. They sure are much much easier to play with as with one wire/pin one can control the whole strip, but for my project I will be using 5mm RGBs with its 4 pins. That is why I was looking at the TLC5940s and now the PCA9685

As for the remote, what I plan to use is a rf11a04 which I am pretty sure uses radio frequency. I know it would work with Arduino Uno, so I am leaning towards it would work with a D1 Mini as well.

6

WS2812 also come in 5 mm 4-pin package.

7

wvmarle thanks for the update. I will keep it in mind if I ever purchase more RGBs. I bought about 100 of the regular RGBs to do some infinity mirrors with my son some years back. We ended up using 60 of them, and burned about 5, so I should have about 35 of them left which are the ones I plan to use.

AMAZING how much things have changed in just a few years!