Board advice for LED remote controlled sign

Using Arduino Project Guidance
#1

Hey all! I'm looking to break into the Arduino world, by creating a simple LED sign that can be remote controlled, but also reports its' status to a server.

The LED sign would be split into four quadrants and I want to be able to control their state (on/off) individually, via a remote (close proximity) switch.

The remote switch itself would be split into four quadrants as well, one for each quadrant on the main LED board. It would signal the main controller on the LED sign, turn on/off the appropriate light.

Additionally, the main board must be able to report that state change via an HTTP call to a server.

For the switch, I believe I need a capacitive sensor mounted behind a glass/perspex plate.

However, I am unsure what two boards to combine to achieve my goals.

to recap:

LED mounted board

  • Must be able to receive RF signals (close proximity)
  • Must be WiFi capable
  • As small as possible

Switch mounted board

  • Must be able to send RF signals (close proximity)
  • Capacitive
  • As small as possible

Thank you all so much for your time!

#2

I see that a popular choice for WiFi is the ESP8266. That has me wondering, what's the smallest board that can handle it and be able to drive a small LED board?

#3

ioannismav:
I see that a popular choice for WiFi is the ESP8266. That has me wondering, what's the smallest board that can handle it and be able to drive a small LED board?

I am proposing to use an ESP-01 with its USB interface adapter as a way to connect it to a USB "Phone charger" to drive a MAX7219 Moving Message Board using Marco_C's "Parola" libraries. The MAX7219 requires only three control lines and the inexpensive ESP-01 has just about three available I/O pins.

For WiFi, the ESP8266 (or more expensive ESP32) seems to be the only sensible option - trying to put together Arduino "shields" is simply too clumsy and expensive.

#4