I’m trying to build wifi enabled window blinds. these are the parts im considering using, do you think these are what I need?
Thing: Can this be connected directly to my PC and programmed via arduino software? and can it also be connected to blynk and to the servo? https://www.sparkfun.com/products/15258
Battery: will this battery be strong enough to power the Thing and the Servo? https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13854
Servo: Can this servo be powered by the battery and the Thing? https://www.sparkfun.com/products/11965
Do you recommend the blynk board instead of the Thing? https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13794
Thank you for your guidance
The ESP8266 Thing Starter Kit can drive a servo and is capable of being connected to your PC using the included FTDI adapter and is also able to be controlled through the Blynk service.
If you’re comfortable writing software I’d go with the ESP8266 Thing Starter Kit of the Blynk Board only because it’s a bit smaller and more geared toward embedded projects than the Blynk Board is but either will work. Also, the Blynk board has a bunch of other stuff included that will just sit there and draw power even though it’s not being used in your project and that will run the battery down quicker. (The Blynk board is a good learning tool but there are better options for a project.)
Most servos are going to want 6 volts to see maximum speed and torque, you’d need to test the servo and battery with your particular setup to see if the 3.7 - 4.2 volts a single cell lipo battery provides will give you enough torque to work for your application. If it doesn’t, you could use a second battery just for the servo.
this is great, thank you.
Do i need to install the esp8266 board in arduino to work with this board?
i’ve tried installing it by putting this url in preferences then adding it via boards manager but it arduino gives an error:
http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/packa … index.json
What error are you getting?
You might need to uninstall Arduino and then reinstall it if you keep getting errors.
I put this in the Additional Boards Manager URL
https://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/pack … index.json
I go to boards manager and search for esp8266 , i find it and click install on version 2.7.4 (but i tried every version) and at the bottom of the boards manager window it reads in red:
Error downloading https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/rele … -2.7.4.zip
is this an issue on the esp8266 githubs end? will i need this board to use the sparkfun thing? can i install it a different way?
You might give a different computer a try and see if it works there.