My app communicates with an UNO through a serial port (Java app and JSerialComm API).
I send a char to the Arduino and recieve a string from it (sensors and switches).
I just choose a COM port from the app to a UNO board with previously uploaded sketch.
I ordered one those integrated devices UNO + WiFi R3 ATmega328P + ESP8266 USB-TT just for learning and testing.
I know there is software out there for tunneling wifi devices as virtual com ports etc....
My question is what is the simplest way to do what I'm doing with a USB cable but do it with wi-fi?
You could​ either use AT commands, but this means that you have to change your Arduino code. Or you can program the ESP directly, writing your own program that takes data from a TCP connection, for example, and sends it to the Arduino as a string.
Pieter
I set up the "all in one" board, uploaded a sketch from ch340 to esp8266 and pinged the IP.
What is my strategy from here?
My idea is to set up two serial streams on the esp8266. One to Arduino and one to the WLAN.
With a third party virtual serial port app I set up a TCP to COM then?
Thanks for any feedback.
I've previously used the WebSocket protocol to send data form a Java Android App to an ESP8266, that just sent all data from the WS connection straight to the Arduino, over a UART (Serial) connection. However the ESP seemed to crash when sending a lot of messages. (Keep in mind though, that I was running an OLED display, a web server, DNS server, mDNS, OTA, UDP, some LED driving code, stepper drivers ... all on the same ESP, so that could have been be the reason.)
Or you could use Java to connect to the ESP over TCP directly.
I'm not sure if there's a protocol available for a virtual COM over WiFi. Anyway, it's not that hard to implement it yourself, once you have established a WS/TCP connection.
Pieter