I absolutely love the ESP8266 and esp32. I also love the raspberry pi as well. I am quite surprised with all the espressif users and ras pi lovers I don’t see more on the ESP iot PHAT.
I see RTOS , freeDOS and even windows 3 has been ran/ported over to the ESPs.
I personally am diving into the nostalgia of running DOSbox on my raspberry Pi’s. Using TheDraw to create new and exciting art like that of my childhood , my mind is racing with all the possibilities here with mesh networking, lowcost ESP and Pi’s and the Renengade BBS software I was so enthrailed with as a kid with my 2400 baud modem.
I am just curious is there anyone else exploring these? It seems to be quite simple stuff, with such small amounts of data to transfer that one could do quite a bit this day and age.
Really hope to find some people to share ideas on these.
Thanks TGF a.k.a Pirate Pilot (my BBS handles from the Early 90’s)
IoT PHAT isn’t on the shop anymore, so I can only assume it has been discontinued. I loved the idea and had a few things I wanted to play with, but I think the versions of the Pi with built-in WiFi wiped out most of the reasons people were using it.
the esp iot phat has the esp8266. that is a slow data transfer rate unlike the preceding esp32. it was not design to replace a wifi chip for common data transfers like streaming. it is better as a MCU bridge to wifi or mesh networking of less robust data transfer. The esp-iot-phat was made with that already known.
if you get the schematics you can make your own with the esp32 for better transfer rates. It is a simple phat, does not require much. I have a pile of esp8266 and esp32. you can also just connect via UART just watch you voltages to the ESPs. I believe some will fry easy. the node MCU has onboard voltage regulartors and either a cp2102 or ch340 so u can use via USB & arduino ide too.
I use my pi4 4g for my programming needs and pia3A+ or ras pi0 for my actual satelite/remote units. the ESP work standalon as well including the phat.
building your own version of the pimoroni esp-iot-phat is a great easy way to get your feet wet. and there are links here on pimoroni to the software you can use to start. I also recommend using the Arduino IDE as well.
i would love to have an esp32 as a AP to a private mesh ntwork of nodes like that of the old BBS software used to have/function like. i have to admit I am just everywhere mentally so although I know vast subjects and novice and beginner skils, I do lack alot more of the advance skills required to fix bugs I run into if I cant search and find similar things being implemented. that is why I started this feed. so we can share on this. those interested.
i really want a mesh networks that parralels the past we had on 8088 80286 80386 systems of yestur year. just not dial up but wifi access points and dos emulation to upcycle past software we were familar with
I believe pi hut has a cpl esp iot phats left. I was half tempted to buy them… to add to my unused fist fulls of esp32 and esp8266s… then I thought better. I am just going to make my own phat with the push pins you see on the esp programmers.
That would’ve made a better phat. Same schematic but with removable esp8266 and able to host a esp32 which could’ve occupied the proto perf area.
You can UART into an ESP32 or Esp8266 with RPI without wifi (models b1 a1 & b2 both 1.1 and 1.2 (preferred with the a53x4 core) without turning anything off and reordering gpio in config, in order to use all the samples and repos for this.
Perhaps the CM3 and CM4 without wifi allow the original UART pins to work by default as well. That i don’t know.
Otherwise , on wifi bt onboard RPI models, you either turn wifi off and those pins on for that or would preform more difficult task of jumper wires, another GPIO UART and dealing with whatever code conflicts when using other ppls examples etc…
I use a pi2b 1.2 and pi zero.
What would make this board better would be jumper pins to choice which UART you want from the GPIO as well as flexy pins for esp32/8266 instead of a fixed chip. With these features it would be timeless.
Perhaps solder bridges would be prefered to jumpers so unpopulated pcb holes probably best.
Currently I use a cheap multi esp32/8266 flexipin ttl/ftdl to usb board for my espressifs.