Book Image

ESP8266 Internet of Things Cookbook

By : Marco Schwartz
Book Image

ESP8266 Internet of Things Cookbook

By: Marco Schwartz

Overview of this book

The ESP8266 Wi-Fi Module is a self contained System on Chip (SOC) with an integrated TCP/IP protocol stack and can give any microcontroller access to your Wi-Fi network. It is capable of either hosting an application or offloading all Wi-Fi networking functions from another application processor. This book contains practical recipes that will help you master all ESP8266 functionalities. You will start by configuring and customizing the chip in line with your requirements. Then you will focus on core topics such as on-board processing, sensors, GPIOs, programming, networking, integration with external components, and so on. We will also teach you how to leverage Arduino using the ESP8266 and you'll learn about its libraries, file system, OTA updates, and so on. The book also provide recipes on web servers, testing, connecting with the cloud, and troubleshooting techniques. Programming aspects include MicroPython and how to leverage it to get started with the ESP8266. Towards the end, we will use these concepts and create an interesting project (IOT). By the end of the book, readers will be proficient enough to use the ESP8266 board efficiently.
Table of Contents (15 chapters)
ESP8266 Internet of Things Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface
Index

Discovering the over the air update of the ESP8266 (OTA)


In this recipe, we are going to learn about the OTA update functionality of the ESP8266. This will enable you to understand how OTA works and how you can apply it in your projects. With this knowledge, you will be able to easily program your ESP8266 boards that are situated in remote locations.

Over the air

An OTA update involves loading firmware to an ESP8266 module via Wi-Fi, instead of using a serial port. This is a very important feature that ensures the delivery of firmware updates to ESP8266 boards in remote areas. You can do OTA using an Arduino IDE, a HTTP server, or a web browser.

The Arduino IDE is usually used for the software development phase. The other two are more important after deployment. They allow you to provide modules with application updates either automatically with a HTTP server or manually using a web browser.

Initial firmware is uploaded onto the ESP8266 board via a serial port. Once the OTA routines are implemented...