Trying to adjust thinking process to prepare molds for casting.
First experiment I though I’d try is to enable my Arduino to send and receive messages, since a friend of mine gave me a WiFi module for Arduino to me. After exploring this, this, and this - I realized that in fact what is going on on the background is a networking process on its own - a module has a controller on its own and Rx and Tx ommunication to the source. Arduino than has a software Serial to communicate with it.
Some of things that cema about i nthe process:
This oficial example helped me to understand the software serial a bit better.
One Confusing point for me was the set of command that you have to use to set up the network (not really well described in any of tutorials using them). This article was somewhat more explicit. Here I found a reasonable explanation of what these commands are - a command for communication in a broad range of communication scenarios: from WiFi to SMS, where AT stands for Attention. They were derived from Heyes command set. This article lists the ones used for Web Communication in ESP-8266 that the module has
One problem-solving step worth noting is that the pinout on mine chip was different so I didn’t realize the last pin (TODO: Which one?) I had to connect to power via resistor.
Eventually I got my module to log into the network:
// Add image of Serial communication of commands to the module via Arduino
And I successfully saw it appearing in the router:
// Add Image of router list
Next experiments will include automating this setup to be done at powerup, using this to actually send and/or receive something, testing out this library