While the excellent Raspberry Pi and Arduino boards have gotten most of the attention in the last few years, another competitor, the ESP8266 module-based boards has been proving itself to be extremely useful Available at under $5, the module packs built-in WiFi as well as an 8o MHz processor into its tiny form factor. The video below shows how to get started with this excellent module using the Arduino IDE via a WeMos D1 Mini dev board.
As fascinating as that might be, most tutorials focus on simple IoT actions, like turning on a light or fan. On the other end of the spectrum, as seen here, they are powerful enough to be placed inside of a musical instrument to help visualize the notes that are being played.
Those are, of course, two extremes. What about something in the middle programming wise, such as an R/C car? It’s all a matter of what hardware you add to it. The kit pictured above includes a car chassis, as well as an ESP8266 development board. Since each of the car’s wheels is powered independently, its off-road traction should be excellent, and this would allow you to program some interesting turning algorithms.
For another vehicular ESP8266 use, be sure to check out my thoughts on a quadcopter flight controller based on this tech.
