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Pi zero WIFI....

rew

I've designed a board which plugs onto a raspberry pi zero to provide WIFI through an ESP8266 module on the serial port of the Raspberry pi.

 

Now you may say: Why not just use an USB-wifi dongle? Those are cheap and work out-of-the-box! You're right. But in some cases that's not the best solution: When you are space-constrained and need exactly ONE usb device, not having to use a HUB pays off. imageimage

I have not yet soldered on the connectors in these pictures, to facilitate other configurations should that turn out to be practical.

 

So...

 

If you think this is useful, If you have some programming skills, If you have a use for this.....

I have the following offer: At the cost of the components (EUR 2.50 for the ESP, EUR 1.00 for the PCB+ rest) and shipping (max EUR 5.25) I can send you one. The deal is that you'll try to make the wifi part usefull....

 

Of course, developing the software is probably more convenient on a "bigger" pi.

 

Should something essential be hooked up wrong. We'll respin the board and get you a new version. No charge. The main reason that I'm not giving the hardware away for free initially is that I don't want people to say: oh, it's free, lets get it, I'll decide later if I need it/can help and then of course nothing happens. By asking for a little bit of money I force people to think about it and scare away the freeloaders. Also, the offer applies "as long as supplies last", i.e. whenever I think there is enough activity...

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  • Hi

     

    That looks like a really neat board! image

     

    I am a bit tight for time at them moment, but I'm curious what you mean by making the wifi part useful?

  • in reply to gadget.iom

    Oh, yeah. That could've been explained a bit better.... The ESP by default comes with "UART" software. you can ask it over the UART: "please connect to SERVER X.com on port Y" and then "please send... " and things like that. Linux on the other hand would prefer to see a "network interface": the raw packets.

     

    Several options of "making it useful" are available, at different levels of difficulty.

     

    1) Make a program that talks to the UART, retrieves a webpage and outputs the result. Think: commandline compatible with "lynx --dump" .

    2) Write software for the ESP8266 that allows the pi to send arbitrary packets.

    2A) Have a user-space program that asks the kernel for packets (a tunnel interface works for this IIRC), and then in userspace talks to the UART to get the ESP to transmit the data.

    2B) Have a kernel driver do this.

    3) Think of a better interface between the pi and the ESP. SPI? I think both the pi and the ESP have a "master only" SPI module..... Hardware patching is probably necessary for this step. The good news is that I've broken out most of the ESP pins, and with a through-connector like pictured, many raspberry pins are available as well.

Reply
  • in reply to gadget.iom

    Oh, yeah. That could've been explained a bit better.... The ESP by default comes with "UART" software. you can ask it over the UART: "please connect to SERVER X.com on port Y" and then "please send... " and things like that. Linux on the other hand would prefer to see a "network interface": the raw packets.

     

    Several options of "making it useful" are available, at different levels of difficulty.

     

    1) Make a program that talks to the UART, retrieves a webpage and outputs the result. Think: commandline compatible with "lynx --dump" .

    2) Write software for the ESP8266 that allows the pi to send arbitrary packets.

    2A) Have a user-space program that asks the kernel for packets (a tunnel interface works for this IIRC), and then in userspace talks to the UART to get the ESP to transmit the data.

    2B) Have a kernel driver do this.

    3) Think of a better interface between the pi and the ESP. SPI? I think both the pi and the ESP have a "master only" SPI module..... Hardware patching is probably necessary for this step. The good news is that I've broken out most of the ESP pins, and with a through-connector like pictured, many raspberry pins are available as well.

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