A few months ago a new user to AnalysIR, from Canada, asked us to assist in adding ESP8266 NodeMCU Infrared decoding over WiFi into AnalysIR. We set about making some upgrades to AnalysIR for this and in double quick time he had AnalysIR accepting IR signals from the ESP8266 over WiFi. He stressed the ease of use of the support within the Arduino IDE for ESP8266 devices and he wasn’t kidding. This motivated us to go and order an ESP8266 for US$3.60 including shipping from Aliexpress. Just the other day the NodeMCU arrived, presumably delayed somewhat by the extended XMAS holidays & celebrations, in this part of the world. So we set about porting our existing firmware for Arduino & Photon over to the new device.
ESP8266 NodeMCU now joins a growing list of devices supported for use with AnalysIR, including:
- LearnIR (from AnalysIR with Send & Receive support, Dual emitters)
- A.IR Shield Nano (from AnalysIR with Send & Receive support, Dual emitters/ Receivers)
- A.IR Shield Photon (from AnalysIR with Send & Receive support, Dual emitters/ Receivers)
- A.IR Shield rx (from AnalysIR with Receive only support, Dual Receivers)
- Arduino Duemilenove
- Arduino UNO
- Arduino Leonardo
- Arduino Yún
- Arduino Due
- Photon over Serial & WiFi
- iTach flex WiFi
- PSOC4
- All other Arduinos & copies with USB serial running at least 16MHz clock speed.
- USB IR Toy (with Send & Receive support)
- Raspberry Pi
- MSP LaunchPad (some models/beta)
- Chipkit (some models/beta)
- Teensy (3.x beta, earlier models should work with little or no changes to sketch, due to similarity to standard Arduinos)
Sketch source code is provided to all users of AnalysIR (on request until the next official release) and we are happy to assist efforts customising for new platforms. At this stage the firmware should be easily ported to just about any modern MCU platform with ease.
ESP8266 NodeMCU Infrared decoding added to AnalysIR over Serial & WiFi
We regard to the next release of AnalysIR, we are working diligently on bringing the documentation up to date with all the new features. In the meantime, all users can get access to the latest ‘dev’ release (8103) which includes many fixes and new features including support for over 75 of the most common Infrared protocols, including many more of the popular Air Conditioner protocols. (contact)
Sending IR signals with the ESP8266 NodeMCU
Stay tuned for our follow-up article showing how to send IR signals with rock solid PWM on the ESP8266/NodeMCU device. If you cannot wait until the next article, then registered users of AnalysIR may contact us for a working copy of the firmware, with examples of sending a selection of different types of signals, including the longer ones for AIR Conditioners.
Yesterday, we ordered yet another type of ESP8266 NodeMCU device for the grand sum of US$2.60, including shipping. This is insane pricing at the same price as a postage stamp here. Its hard to think how both Arduino/Genuino camps will compete in this emerging Devkit landscape, not to mention the’ Bigger players’.
You can get your own copy of AnalysIR here.
Note: AnalysIR is not affiliated with any of the companies referenced in the post or any of their products.