From 0bb7dba4988f9617409e0f6f662534c8a092086a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Thorsten von Eicken Date: Sat, 29 Aug 2015 19:01:35 -0700 Subject: [PATCH] readme update --- README.md | 39 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++- 1 file changed, 38 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 34d3090..d90fa9b 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -26,6 +26,28 @@ Many thanks to https://github.com/brunnels for contributions around the espduino For quick support and questions: [![Chat at https://gitter.im/jeelabs/esp-link](https://badges.gitter.im/Join%20Chat.svg)](https://gitter.im/jeelabs/esp-link?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge) +Esp-link uses +------------- +The simplest use of esp-link is as a transparent serial to wifi bridge. You can flash an attached +uC over wifi and you can watch the uC's serial debug output by connecting to port 23 or looking +at the uC Console web page. + +The next level is to use the outbound connectivity of esp-link in the uC code. For example, the +uC can use REST requests to services like thingspeak.com to send sensor values that then get +stored and plotted by the external service. +The uC can also use REST requests to retrieve simple configuration +information or push other forms of notifications. (MQTT functionality is forthcoming.) + +An additional option is to add code to esp-link to customize it and put all the communication +code into esp-link and only keep simple sensor/actuator control in the attached uC. In this +mode the attached uC sends custom commands to esp-link with sensor/acturator info and +registers a set of callbacks with esp-link that control sensors/actuators. This way, custom +commands in esp-link can receive MQTT messages, make simple callbacks into the uC to get sensor +values or change actuators, and then respond back with MQTT. The way this is architected is that +the attached uC registers callbacks at start-up such that the code in the esp doesn't need to +know which exact sensors/actuators the attached uC has, it learns thta through the initial +callback registration. + Eye Candy --------- These screen shots show the Home page, the Wifi configuration page, the console for the @@ -237,7 +259,22 @@ The attached micro-controller can open outbound TCP connections using a simple [serial protocol](https://gist.github.com/tve/a46c44bf1f6b42bc572e). More info and sample code forthcoming... +Outbound HTTP REST requests +--------------------------- +The V2 versions of esp-link support the espduino SLIP protocol that supports simple outbound +HTTP REST requests. The SLIP protocol consists of commands with binary arguments sent from the +attached microcontroller to the esp8266, which then performs the command and responds back. +The responses back use a callback address in the attached microcontroller code, i.e., the +command sent by the uC contains a callback address and the response from the esp8266 starts +with that callback address. This enables asynchronous communication where esp-link can notify the +uC when requests complete or when other actions happen, such as wifi connectivity status changes. +Support for MQTT is forthcoming. + +You can find a demo sketch in a fork of the espduino library at +https://github.com/tve/espduino in the +[examples/demo folder](https://github.com/tve/espduino/tree/master/espduino/examples/demo). + Contact ------- If you find problems with esp-link, please create a github issue. If you have a question, please -use the gitter link at the top of this page. +use the gitter chat link at the top of this page.