Hello im moving my project from an ATMEGA2560+ESP8266 paired with Blynk.
It was an frustrated but still interesting learning processes and I got it to work eventually.
But to avoid futher hassle I want to switch to something more plug'n'play friendly so to speak, so I only have to worry about coding my project and not using days to get the board work.
I'm thinking about trying Arduino IoT Cloud.
My project will require multiple devices to send data like temperatur from different areas.
I have looked into the ESP32 but there is so many different ones and I want one which can use external antenna for more range.
The ESP8266 seems fine also but people say the ESP32 is better in all ways. But at the same time I can see people buying the ESP32-cam and have tons of issues.
So my critia is:
Good wifi range
Support both Blynk and Arduino IoT cloud out of the box.
Has build in USB
Good reliability
Not super expensive
Better than an Arduino UNO
I was thinking about the official Arduino IoT board but I find it way too pricey if I want to order like 10 of them.
I'm not Shure exactly what board you should use but make Shure it is made by a trusted brand like adifruit because I have previously bought eBay ones and they had fake USB chips in them and no matter what drivers I installed they didn't work and weren't recognized. But there is some helpful YouTube videos, if you search 'Andreas Spiess esp32' it should come up.
I normally buy from AliExpress I have the best experience there. It's very rare I have got something that was not functional, so I would rather buy from there than eBay. I will try look into the brand you mentioned.
Actually the ESP32-C3 (or ESP8685) could be considered the replacement of the old ESP8266. It is single core and low power consumption, for reading sensors should be more than enough (and it's RISC-V !). Otherwise you have the ESP32-S2 and S3 versions, more powerful, that are the new versions of the previous one, just ESP32.
I would choose one of these: C3, S2 or S3, with or without external antenna. Or even the previous version, ESP32. But not the ESP8266 that it's more outdated.
You can find small, cheap boards with or without antenna connector, like the ESP32-C3 Mini LOLIN, of Wemos (C3 mini — WEMOS documentation).
Yes, it should work. You could also check and test the board with the included antenna (not external), maybe it would be enough and you keep it simpler.
This is the ESP32 chip, that should be ok. But the new version is the ESP32-S3 with a similar price, more power and some enhancements. Both will be fine, or any of the other variants if you don't have special requirements of memory or something.
I don't really care about Bluetooth, I can't see the benefits compared to use wifi.
My first priority is range and reliability.
Im looking a bit into the Arduino IoT Cloud and wonder if i have misunderstood something, is it really possible to change and upload the sketch to your device through the internet? And if so is it only supported by Arduino devices or does the ESP32 support that too?
Because that's sounds super cool that you remotely can correct your sketch.
Okay i just watched a video using basic OTA for ESP32, it looked pretty straight forward. The video is 2 years old so I don't know if it's outdated.
I wondered if the blink sketch he uploaded overwrote the OTA Sketch, but as I recall reading one time, that it has multiple partitions for running the OTA sketch, checking the incoming sketch and last partition for the sketch when it has been verified.
Also I wonder if it's possible to do through the internet without too much hassle?
