An Introduction to the ESP8266

Brian — Sun, 24 Mar 2019 18:11:59 +0000

This was originally written on my blog, but I figured it can help save others hours of troubleshooting so I'll share it here as well!

Disclaimer: This was written and test on a Debian based Linux system. Commands may vary for Mac, Windows, and other Unix-like machines.

Toolbox

esptool - Needed for uploading the initial firmware

ESPlorer - Needed for uploading source code

Firmware - Self-explanatory, the link points to the recommended cloud firmware builder for ease of use.

These were chosen because they work cross-platform for the most part. However, additional tools/options can be found here.

Firmware Upload

Assuming you have downloaded your firmware with any additional modules, run the code below to upload it to your microcontroller:

sudo esptool/esptool.py write_flash -fm qio 0x00000 <nodemcu-firmware>.bin

Esptool, depending on your version, will enumerate all available serial ports until it finds a connected device. As such, specifying the serial port should not be necessary in later releases- in theory.

Note: I had to run the command with sudo in order to access my serial port (which I hate to do to be honest). If yours works without sudo than feel free to omit.

Note Note: This is also assuming you have the esptool.py repository and the firmware in the same project root. Your paths may vary.

Testing the ESP8266

Now, run ESPlorer via the following command:

sudo java -jar ESPlorer/ESPlorer.jar

Note: Although it launches just fine without sudo, I noticed I still wasn’t able to establish a connection unless I launched it with sudo.

Once it’s launched, set the baud rate, next to the open connection button, to 115200 if it isn't set already (that’s what worked for me to open the connection after extensive troubleshooting and an obscure unresolved github issue). Once that's confirmed, connect your device and open a connection.

Lastly, copy and paste the following sample lua code into ESPlorer as a new file. Replace mySSID and myPassword with your own network credentials.

local SSID = "mySSID"
local PASSWORD = "myPassword"
function startup()
    if file.open("init.lua") == nil then
        print("init.lua deleted or renamed")
    else
        print("Running")
        file.close("init.lua")
    end
end

-- Define WiFi station event callbacks 
wifi_connect_event = function(T) 
  print("Connection to AP("..T.SSID..") established!")
  print("Waiting for IP address...")
  if disconnect_ct ~= nil then disconnect_ct = nil end  
end

wifi_got_ip_event = function(T) 
  -- Note: Having an IP address does not mean there is internet access!
  -- Internet connectivity can be determined with net.dns.resolve().    
  print("Wifi connection is ready! IP address is: "..T.IP)
  -- a simple http server
    srv=net.createServer(net.TCP) 
    srv:listen(80,function(conn) 
        conn:on("receive",function(conn,payload) 
            local response = {
            "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\r\nServer: NodeMCU on ESP8266\r\nContent-Type: text/html\r\n\r\n",
            "<html><body>Hello world, come here often?</body></html"
            }
            print(payload)

              -- sends and removes the first element from the 'response' table
            local function send(localSocket)
                if #response > 0 then
                    localSocket:send(table.remove(response, 1))
                else
                    localSocket:close()
                    response = nil
                end
            end

            -- triggers the send() function again once the first chunk of data was sent
            conn:on("sent", send)
            send(conn)

            -- conn:send(response)
        end) 
    end)
--   print("Startup will resume momentarily, you have 3 seconds to abort.")
--   print("Waiting...") 
  tmr.create():alarm(3000, tmr.ALARM_SINGLE, startup)
end

wifi_disconnect_event = function(T)
  if T.reason == wifi.eventmon.reason.ASSOC_LEAVE then 
    --the station has disassociated from a previously connected AP
    return 
  end
  -- total_tries: how many times the station will attempt to connect to the AP. Should consider AP reboot duration.
  local total_tries = 75
  print("\nWiFi connection to AP("..T.SSID..") has failed!")

  --There are many possible disconnect reasons, the following iterates through 
  --the list and returns the string corresponding to the disconnect reason.
  for key,val in pairs(wifi.eventmon.reason) do
    if val == T.reason then
      print("Disconnect reason: "..val.."("..key..")")
      break
    end
  end

  if disconnect_ct == nil then 
    disconnect_ct = 1 
  else
    disconnect_ct = disconnect_ct + 1 
  end
  if disconnect_ct < total_tries then  
    print("Retrying connection...(attempt "..(disconnect_ct+1).." of "..total_tries..")")
  else
    wifi.sta.disconnect()
    print("Aborting connection to AP!")
    disconnect_ct = nil  
  end
end

-- Register WiFi Station event callbacks
wifi.eventmon.register(wifi.eventmon.STA_CONNECTED, wifi_connect_event)
wifi.eventmon.register(wifi.eventmon.STA_GOT_IP, wifi_got_ip_event)
wifi.eventmon.register(wifi.eventmon.STA_DISCONNECTED, wifi_disconnect_event)

print("Connecting to WiFi access point...")
wifi.setmode(wifi.STATION)
wifi.sta.config({ssid=SSID, pwd=PASSWORD})

If you aren't familiar with lua, don't worry, I wasn't either- a lot of it is still trial and error. But experience is the best teacher so don't let that stop you! In short, the code above sets up a wifi station with our own custom event callbacks for when the device connects to the network specified, when it receives an ip address, and when it disconnects for whatever reason.

Once it receives an ip address, it sets up an http server where it will listen for any inbound connections on port 80 and return a simple message

When we finally click the Save as Init button and then the Save to ESP button, ESPlorer will upload the file and try to run it (you may have to hit the little reset button on the actual device if the button's are greyed out as that means a connection has not been fully established yet). Now, once it connects and gets and ip address go to http://ipaddress from a device on the same network to see if we can successfully connect to the device.

Success! :)

Conclusion

We did it team! Now we can play with the code and use it as a baseline for your next project. For example I’m using it to interact with GPIO pins and control my robots via wifi, and since I fried my first microcontroller trying to connect it to stepper motors, that'll probably be the next guide to save someone else the frustration. Regardless, the possibilities are near endless with the available firmware modules. What are you building with yours?

Feel free to ask any questions if anything needs clarifying! The modules documentation is definitely a useful resource as well. :)

User Deletion vs. User Retention

Brian — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 17:46:41 +0000

I was having a weekly call with a startup I'm currently working with and the co-founders shared an interesting point of view and I wanted to know if others felt the same way.

We were going over features for the next sprint, and one of the features they mentioned was content deletion. Meaning, as a user, I should be able to delete my own content along with anything associated with it (likes, comments, reposts, etc.).

I agree it's needed if we want users to maintain ownership of their work, but I also took it a step further and wanted to include user deletion. Meaning, as a user, I should be able to delete my account (and anything associated with it) if I no longer want to be on the platform. Pretty straight forward, right?

So I was a bit confused when I got push back with the main concern being, in short, "we want to keep our users so if anything we should only allow deactivation in case they change their mind, not complete deletion".

Now I've worked with startups in the past that have written internal viruses almost to ensure they scrub user data, and any associations to the user, from their systems if a user requested to be removed- no questions asked.

But after seeing the other end of the spectrum where organizations solely care for user numbers as opposed to churn rates or user activity, I'm a bit uneasy.

Maybe I'm just being a privacy freak who de-authorizes apps linked to my gmail account when I'm not using them anymore, so I assume everyone would want the ability to delete their account if/when the time comes.

What are your opinions? Should platforms that require user sign also have a delete account feature by default? Yay? Nay?