I wonder if someone could advise me of a reliable, robust, capable (cheap but less important than the other requirements) wifi module? To elaborate, I got caught up in the phenomenon which is the ESP8266 family of modules. I bought it and started playing with it BEFORE doing much research, hence I want to correct that mistake before buying anything else.
My target function is to connect to a home wireless router, configured with port 80 forwarded to this module, which will be connected to an Arduino, and will serve a webpage or pages publicly.
My exploits with the ESP8266 (firmware V 0.95) mimics everyone elses that has tried making a web server, unstable, unreliable, random hanging etc.
I require a STABLE device capable of sending several hundred bytes of data in a single chunk, such as
String webpage = "<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN\"><html><head><title>Vivarium Monitor</title><meta content=\"text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1\" http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" /><style type=\"text/css\"></style></head><body bgcolor=#000000 STYLE=\"background-color: #000000;\"><h1 align=\"center\"><span style=\"color: #00ff00\"><u><em>Vivarium Monitor</em></u></span></h1><h2 style=\"text-align: center\"><span style=\"color: #00ff00\"><em><u><span>Sensor Values</span></u></em></span></h2>";
I am totally new to the possibility of an Arduino based webserver, but I DO know that I want more than 2 buttons on screen, and minimal information exchange.
If there are any suggestions people have, I would be interested to know if there are also any ready written libraries, or established Arduino uses and users and English based documentation.
What zoomkat tis suggesting IS a WiFi solution. His suggestion includes a W5200 base Ethernet shield such as this one from Seedstudio
Connected to a little pocket WiFi router such as the TP-Link WR703n or 702n or 3020. There is a whole host of these little routers that work. With the little WiF router connected per WiFi to your main router in bridge mode ( or actuall it's called client mode in the TP-Link documentation) all you network sees it the Ethernet shield.
This is a very reliable solution based on my own experience in several projects.
Another idea would be to use an Arduino Yún. The WiFi chip used on the yun is actually the same Ateros processor that's used in the Tplink TL WR703n pocket wifi router.
It runs an embedded linux specifically OpenWRT (I think).
All on one Aruino form factor board, no shield rquired!
I'm also looking for alternative to ESP8266, and I found HLK-M30, I didn't got it yet but looks more... I'm gona say finished product. It looks like it's new out there since there is not lot of examples, but they did write some user manuals, at commands list with description, some examples, ....
Here's the link to description and files: http://hlktech.com/en/productshow.asp?id=148
I, with about 8 damaged 8266's lying around have wondered this too. Uzo, did you get one of HLK chips? If so, how does it fair up?
A note about the 8266 though,
I spent ages hunting the Internet for a solution and have since sort of decided:
Buy Local:
ones bought from eBay here in the UK for £4 ish are always SUBSTANTIALLY better than their mass produced, month delivery counterparts. Mine tend to be later firmware, OEM components and well produced in comparison.
Listen to the specifications:
I'm fairly certain every one that failed was running at or near its maximum specs. Given soldered connections, a good, stable power supply and the correct rx voltage seems to keep them from failing. Common problems are connecting the 5V arduino TX to its 3.3V input and a bad power supply, easily fixed by a restive potential divider and a good voltage regulator with EXCESSIVE Output Capacitors.
I now have PCB's made up for a project with them soldered directly to the board. I use an LM1117 regulator and connect like this:
(ArduinoTX)---<2k2>---(EspRX)---<4.7k>---(GND)
With VCC,RST,CH_PD connected to 3.3V from the LD33V (for breadboard) which should be powered with 'vin' on the arduino or an external supply.