Ever since I fell in love with the little Nextion displays I’ve been thinking about a little ESP8266 board to go with them – well, I’ve been beaten to it.
Today I received in the post a little box from Guy Molinari with his efforts – I have to say THANKS GUY. So what you are looking at is a small ESP8266 board complete with ESP12 that sits on the back of one of the smaller Nextion displays (coming soon, review of the 7” model Nextion).
I opened the box, plugged power into it and 4 buttons popped up – press the buttons – they trigger outputs – it’s as simple as that. Really, that simple.
Of course – that’s only the tip of the iceberg, you could put MQTT on the ESP and have it send MQTT messages off (which is exactly what I plan to do) – and as you’ve seen in my other blogs on the subject, making the Nextion displays pretty with some PowerPoint imagery is simple.
If you’re wondering what the hell I’m on about – the Nextion displays are a smart touch-display – which have TTL serial in and out – and that’s how you talk to them – ideal then for the ESP8266 which just happens to have serial in/out as well as WIFI.
The total cost of this is not high and so with a suitable case (which is ALWAYS the problem – DO let us know if you have solutions (but don’t say “just print one out on your kitchen 3d printer) there are possibilities here from home lighting to heating and security controls – you name it. The development kit for the Nextions is online so all you need is the actual display.
Getting a board that is a comfy fit is another matter and it looks like Guy has taken on this challenge – if you want to know more – reply in here and Guy will be looking in.
I think I may had a specific use for this board – I have a high end control panel for my heating but upstairs nothing – so take this board, put it in a box, have the buttons send MQTT messages and receive a temperature update and you have a tiny, tidy little ancilliary controls.
Right – I’m off to Ebay in search of a box. Talk to Guy in here if you want more info.
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