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  • Author Author: ntewinkel
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Arduino - Oak and WeMos

ntewinkel

I received my Digistump Oak a few days ago.

image

Picture is shown with an AA battery for size.  They included a pretty sticker and post card. Maybe that's to make it look like I actually received something, because that Oak is tiny!

 

The idea is that I should be able to use it just like a small Arduino, with WiFi.

They are still working on the firmware, so from what I can tell I can’t actually use it yet for anything (http://digistump.com - click through to their Kickstarter campaign for the updates). Please let me know if that’s not the case, I might be missing something.

 

Then a few nights ago, as I was browsing AliExpress for some art tools for my dear spouse, I came across the WeMos D1 mini (http://www.wemos.cc), which looks a LOT like the Oak, and it looks like it’s ready to use, and (at least when bought from a place like AliExpress) is only about $5 (shipping included).

 

Has anyone seen or heard of or tried the WeMos yet? and/or did anyone else sign up for the Oak, and receive it yet?

And will these be available through element14-and-friends in the future?

 

I forget who it was who said that crowdfunding/Kickstarter campaigns generally mean we pay today for next year’s technology (or something that might be outdated by the time it ships) - in this case that appears to be true again with WeMos and sort of with the $5 Raspberry Pi (with cheap WiFi dongle can be under that $10 mark), although the RPi is bigger so might not fit some applications. The Oak was $10, +$5 shipping to Canada (No regrets for sure, I'd still buy one at that price).

 

Cheers,

-Nico

  • in reply to shabaz

    Hi Shabaz!

     

    That's really interesting, given that those are not Atmel chips - nice to know that the Arduino platform is not limited to the one chip type.

    At first I thought there was also an Atmel chip on the board too.

     

    I find it hard to switch between too many platforms, so I've decided to focus mainly on Arduino and Raspberry Pi (with some easy CodeBug just for fun, and the occasional bit of mbed.org). The RPi can handle complicated things quite easily, and the Arduino has some very low cost options for smaller projects.

    I haven't used CCS for a while (the whole setup was too much like "real work"), but I might try the MSP430s again with Energia. I do like the low energy use of them though, and that might be important for an upcoming project. Maybe I should also build the Kitty Treat Dispenser with one of the smaller MSP430 chips, to see if the battery will last longer that way image

     

    One thing I've been missing is the WiFi connectivity with the Arduino, and I'm loving that with the RPi right now. My still-in-progress greenhouse controller had a bluetooth connection at one point, but the range was very limited and it could only store about 100 values. WiFi would allow for web based control much more easily.

     

    That's why I was interested in the Oak, so I'm hoping the Oak will be easy with Arduino. It sounds like they are putting a lot of work into that part of it though.

     

    I think I'll order a WeMos too, just for kicks image

     

    ps, I have one of the esp chips from a while ago... I'll have to dig that up to see how I can put that to use too image

     

    Cheers,

    -Nico

  • Hi Nico!

     

    The Wemos uses the ESP8266, so is near-identical (from what I can tell) to other ESP8266 boards too, just a

    slightly different form-factor and pin numbering perhaps, and the particular USB-UART device used.

    I originally was not interested in these but got curious and experimented with one (not a wemos one). They suffer that

    the documentation is all over the place, some of it incorrect, and some outdated : ( so the bad information grows

    since this is quite a popular device due to the cost. However I got it performing some basic stuff (toggling outputs,

    connecting to WLAN, etc). I used eLua, not Arduino. But might try programming it with Arduino language sometime.

    The CC3200 provides a much better experience for developers because all is documented nicely, uses their normal

    IDE (CCS). Or Energia for Arduino language.

    It will be fun to see what projects you do with it, I might use it for a project or two as well sometime. And we can

    help each other if we get stuck. It is definitely unique having such low-cost WLAN connectivity and processing capability in one.

  • in reply to clem57

    Looking around I found a big brother of Wemos...

    Right! I saw that too. Looks like the same thing with a Uno footprint, minus a few IO pins. Interesting.