Erm, no, though you might think so by this headline.. https://hackaday.com/2015/07/13/new-part-day-the-esp8266-killer
Read the comments – the $5 ESP8266 – where? $2 ESP8266 more like it – less, even – http://goo.gl/VB0V9K
There’s even a claim that this new single-source board (Seeed Studio) has MORE memory – well at least one variation of ESP12 has 4Mbytes – and the EMW… according to the ad, 512K.
And what about the all important Windows and Linux support libraries? Erm, no.
Another comment – Chinese documentation? Well I don’t know about you guys but I have raft of English documentation that until recently came with the Espressif SDK and which is now maintained online.
And the last – Chinese – guess where SEEED are!
Cheap, reliable, effective, more compatible variations of ESP and more suppliers than you can shake a stick at – and we want to move for what reason?
But – if you like spending money – there’s this – even more expensive – http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/EMW3162-WiFi-Module-p-2122.html
Well that was interesting Ian – I’d not come across RUST before – just read some of the docs – I look forward to seeing that on some devices.
OpenSource ?
this is the real question, the ESP8266 SDK is closed source, so if this new chip will be completely open it will win the battle
Erm, isn’t there an open SDK somewhere (I use the Espressif one – my only gripe being their PWM software which never turns completely off).
The “esp-open-sdk” replaces as much as possible with open source alternatives, but there are still some proprietary blobs that require xtensa gcc is used to compile.
The Espressif guys have said they’ll make the ESP32 “as open as possible”. But because Cadence’s market value is their IP, they have to protect it. It would take an earth shattering act of altruism for these chips to become fully open. One that shareholders would not find in their best interests.
Personally.. I could give two hoots if it’s open source – as long as it works and I can do what I want with it…
Here’s some actual specs:
ARM Cortex M4 core at 100MHz (STM32F411CE)
2M bytes on-board SPI flash and 512K bytes on-chip flash
128K bytes RAM
ESP killer? No. But come on. It’s faster, has more RAM, and based on STM32F4, which is used in such devices as the Particle Photon and Amazon Dash. For $8 it’s not exactly fleecing your hard earned money. And where do you think those $2 ESP modules are manufactured?
Oh, and that article came out months ago. It’s OK to try new things. You might enjoy it.
I’ve no problem with stuff made In China (I might not have made that clear) – others seem to – hence the comment – I was saying there was no difference from that perspective as they are both made in China) – I get on great with the people from Espressif. For $ this new(ish) board isn’t fleecing anyone – but for 4 times the price are we going to get 4 times the utility – where are all the libraries out there , how will that extra RAM help – it no doubt WILL help if you’re still using Lua but for C – I’m no-where near out of RAM and there appears to be LESS Flash I try new things all the time – I have a large draw full of them, many slowly gathering dust. So the processor runs at 100Mhz, the ESP easily runs at 160Mhz (and drives a mean LCD at that speed), I think I’ll wait to see what libraries appear and what support appears before jumping into this one. Bearing in mind that the incredibly popular ESP8266 is just the start – their next effort will as I understand it be a lot more powerful yet at the same price – and I seem to recall it will also have Bluetooth.
Ah, now I gotcha. Sounded like you were bagging on Seeed and an $8 WiFi module that 1.5 years ago we couldn’t get for $30. That article is clickbait for sure, Espressif is just getting started. I’m hoping to get in on the new ESP beta, but I also have a few STM32 modules that are great to work with. I’m waiting on an EMW3165 dev board that was $7 on AliExpress to see how it fares with existing libraries, judgement withheld until I can see for myself.
I use my ESP modules more often than others, but some things, like the toolchain, are easier to deal with for STM/mBed chips. I’m on Linux so Windows libraries aren’t a concern, though I’ve heard STM does provide some good tools for Windows.
Apologies for flaming your blog, I’m just a big fan of all the great nerdy tech coming out of Shenzen, $2 or $8 for stamp sized WiFi, or $50 for quad core credit card sized computers. All of it is as awesome as Legos when you’re 9. So many things to build!
By all means fire away, I always want to hear about new stuff as to other people in here – I often get a little concerned as some people have out of date info on ESPs – they really are reliable and the tool-chains are good – for me as a Windows user, I use the “unofficial” toolkit with Eclipse and I feel right at home. I too am looking forward to the next model. Given that Espressif have stated they will support the current item for some years AND have stated that it will get even cheaper when the new one comes out – I think there is a lot of justification for gaining deep knowledge of this device. Ok, the PWM could be a lot better (you can’t turn it off – trust me) and the RAM could definitely benefit from quadrupling – but for sub £2…. not bad. Let’s hope their next unit has a lot more RAM.
If this be any indication, and it does, you won’t be disappointed: https://twitter.com/espressifsystem/status/662205725125414912
Thanks for that Ian – all new info welcome – I have of course long since applied for the beta program – more info as I get it.
Yes, once you figure out the ESP ecosystem, learn that Espressif releases new SDKs in a blog post, that there’s also an independent open sdk that’s often not differentiated from the official sdk in project docs, become proficient in reconfiguring Makefiles accordingly, and figure out that esptool is not esptool(.py), the build chain itself works a peach.
Even with helpful tool kits and docker images configured for you, there’s still a heafty learning curve.
Don’t get me wrong, I love these little guys, and the only thing I haven’t figured out yet is how compile Rust down to esp binaries. I’m a terrible C coder, and Rust looks so nice. Maybe someday 🙂