Best IoT microcontroller ever, Lolin D1 Mini ESP8266, why use something else?

Using Arduino Microcontrollers
1

I use arduino for a lot of projects and I have seen a lot of microcontrollers,
at the end of the day I always choose the Lolin D1 Mini Lite v3.1 based on the ESP8266.

This controller is super duper awesome.

You can find cheap clones for less than 1 dollar, but the good one, the genuine premium one from Lolin costs 3 dollars.

With 3 dollars you have:

  • ESP8266 with 4MB flash very useful for OTA upload
  • one of the smallest footprint you can have but with the difference that you have tons of pins and microusb connection
  • WiFi
  • 11 digital input/output pins, all pins have interrupt/pwm/I2C/one-wire supported(except D0)
  • 1 analog input(3.2V max input)
  • a Micro USB connection
  • Compatible with MicroPython, Arduino, nodemcu
  • tons of shields available

I tried some cheap clones and they are not that good (not so precise with digital pins output voltage)
but for 3 dollars you can get the premium genuine one from Lolin

I used this board for RGB led strips, for stepper motors (it can power 5V stepper motor directly), for OLED I2C displays, water pumps, PIR sensors, ambient sensors and so much other thigns.

This boards deliver, you want to do something? It deliver.

So why choose something else?
If you need more power like the ESP32 ok, but why choose something else in other cases?

Is there any sense in choosing something different? WiFi is a must have for the answer. We are talking about microcontrollers for iot.

A lot of people who love ESP8266 already chooses NodeMCU board but why?
This is so much better.

Please share your toughts.

2

sblantipodi:
Please share your toughts

Perhaps ask yourself why intelligent people, in some circumstances, choose not to use the ESP8266\ESP32.

3

Is there any sense in choosing something different?

Yes.

Price, clock speed, bit width, number of pins, number of ports, memory capacity, security, number and types of built in peripherals, power consumption, backwards compatibility, ease of programming, etc. are all taken into consideration, which is why manufacturers sell tens of thousands of different types of processors, and keep coming out with new ones.

BTW the Lolin D1 Mini Lite v3.1 you show has far too few I/O pins for many of my applications.

4

jremington:
Yes.

Price, clock speed, bit width, number of pins, number of ports, memory capacity, security, number and types of built in peripherals, power consumption, backwards compatibility, ease of programming, etc. are all taken into consideration, which is why manufacturers sell tens of thousands of different types of processors, and keep coming out with new ones.

BTW the Lolin D1 Mini Lite v3.1 you show has far too few I/O pins for many of my applications.

Can you give me some examples of cheaper boards with better specs please?

5

The Arduino Pro Mini has the best specs at the best price for my typical applications. Cost about $1 on eBay.

The board you like so much has too few I/O pins for my purposes.

6

jremington:
The Arduino Pro Mini has the best specs at the best price for my typical applications. Cost about $1 on eBay.

The board you like so much has too few I/O pins for my purposes.

Probably I was not clear enough.
I mean microcontrollers for iot.

Internet connection is a must have for my original post sorry

7

Thanks, I had no idea why you were pushing that board.

Consider editing the title of your OP to make the primary application clear.

8

sblantipodi:
I mean microcontrollers for iot.

Then also appreciate that one of the major 'iot' applications does so without WiFi connections.

So it was not at all obvious for the requirement added later 'WiFi is a must'.

9

I agree these are great boards. Amazing value. All that stuff the OP said.

Why people still try to use Uno + esp-01 instead of D1 mini perplexes me. If more pins are needed, digital or analog, I would rather use i2c or SPI I/o extenders or adc modules rather than Uno+esp-01.

But of course they are not perfect. Low power current gets down to 150~200uA, which isn't bad, but I can get atmega328 down to 30~40uA quite easily for my battery powered LoRa sensor nodes. One analog pin and few digital pins, and many of those cannot be used any way you like (have to be low/high for normal boot, for example).

10

PaulRB:
I can get atmega328 down to 30~40uA quite easily for my battery powered LoRa sensor nodes.

Why so high ?

Sub 2uA is the norm for an ATmega328 or ATmega1284 with regulator and LoRa device.

11

srnet:
Why so high ?

Maybe I'll start a thread about that! (Not an urgent priority for me right now.)