What is the ESP8266⌗

The ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi microchip, with a full TCP/IP stack and microcontroller capability, produced by Espressif Systems¹ in Shanghai, China.

What version to get⌗

Hint: Its the CP2102 one!

Don’t save 50 cent on a board with the CH340G chip, its the cheap copy one - Get CP2102 onces. 👍

The biggest difference is the USB interface.
The real one uses a CP2102 USB to UART bridge. The copy uses a CH340G chip.
The CH340G is notoriously unstable and liable to die at a moments notice.
The CP2102 is far more reliable.
I recently accidentally nuked a Wemos D1 Mini pro which has the same CP2102 on it with 12V.
It took out the voltage regulator. It took out the ESP8266 chip.
I replaced both those, and the CP2102 was proved to still be working fine.
More than could be said for a CH340G - glance at one of those wrong and they die.

Source: stackexchange²

Pinout of the ESP8266⌗

Stuff to make⌗

A list of project where the ESP8266 controller would make sense.

• Door & window sensors.
• LED strip controller with WLED.
  • Requires WLED compatible LED strips like the WS2813 onces.
• Weather / Enviorment monitor for Home Assistant
  (DTH11 / DTH22 / AM2302)
• Loads of projects on the ESPHome website.
  ESPHome is custom firmware for the ESP8266 / ESP32 board with a lot of integrations.
• Tasmota custom firmware based on MQTT communication.
  Custom firmware for the ESP8266 / ESP32 board with webui, OTA updates and much more.