Need help to start use ESP8266 nodeMCU

Hi, I have some month of experience in arduino and electronic. I already made an automatic window's blind controler to open/close my home's blinds at the morning and night (based on the time of the day)

Now I wish to be able to know the current state of those blinds (open or close) and also control them over the internet. maybe add light to my system.

I red a lot of thing about the esp8266 but there are a lot of variation. I red about the nodeMCU v1.0. It look easier to configure because there is a serial-to-usb converter on it. (Never use a serial-to-usb before so look a good option for me).

If you have a good guide to start using it, please send me the url, I have some difficultie finding a good one.

AND i wish to know how they (esp8266) works. I mean, I red about they can be use as server (so i need to switch my network on my router). Can they simply act as a "normal computer" and use my current network and gather/send infos over the internet ? If yes do i need to register on a website like thingspeak to update this info?

For now my controller send signal with 433mhz to my blind's receiver. So I thought about using a simple ethernet shield to interact with the internet and send the signal, but I wont be able to know the real state of the blind. Can it be easier for me ?

If I use esp8266, do i need one of these for each of my blind's ?

I know there is a lot of question but i'm kind of lost ? (like can an ethernet shield can work with a 433mz or not because of the interupt thing of the arduino )

Thank you for those who will help me.

I don't have answers to all your questions, but I have struggled with some of the confusion. What I will say applies to my experience with NodeMCU. First, download the latest Arduino IDE. Next, configure the preferences to include an addtional Boards Manager (see Using Arduino IDE | Adafruit HUZZAH ESP8266 breakout | Adafruit Learning System) for details on setting up the additional boards manager. When you upload your sketch, choose a NodeMCU board from the Arduino tools menu. My board is NodeMCU 1.0 (ESP-12E Module). So far I have achieved flipping GPIO pins on the microcontroller and sending messages to the serial monitor. The board has pins labeled D0, D1, D2, etc. These do NOT correspond to GPIO pin numbers or to Arduino pin numbers. To use pin D0, use the symbol D0 for example: pinMode(D0, OUTPUT); will make pin D0 and output pin ... if you use numbers instead of the symbols defined for the board, unexpected things can happen. For example, the code pinMode(6, OUTPUT); will reset my board. I hope this gets you started. I have not tested all the features and cannot confidently tell you how to connect to WiFi yet. That's my next challenge.

take a look at my site: electronicsupgrade.com

I completed my dissertation on home automaion using wifi. There some posts on how I connected sensors to a server using Xbee devices that can connect to wifi. Ive used boh ESP moules and Xbee's. Xbees are easier and more reliable over Wifi than the ESP modules but they have a much bigger price.

Ive also got a few things about ESP modules