Add directions for connecting device to internet

[a1611sword]

so i get Cayenne and am excited to get started. I watch the great videos and when watching ‘Getting Started’ it jumps OVER the most important part of using Cayenne- connecting the device to the internet.

Could you please add detailed instructions on connecting to the internet? I know all the veterans may be rolling their eyes saying, another noob. That I am and i came to cayenne to teach me and help me do projects. I am now stuck at the basic level of making my ESP13 on an Arduino Mega 2560 talk to the internet.

Anyone want to offer some constructive instruction on how to do this? Thanks in advance!

[vapor83]

So you are using the ESP as a shield on the mega?

[a1611sword]

Yes ESP13 which seems to be confused with the 8266. Very little info on the 13 vs 8266. I have had it for 6 months and gave up after cayenne came up short with help. Any help is appreciated

Artemas

[vapor83]

So when you use the ESP as a “shield” style connection, the ESP needs to have AT firmware and connected to a Tx/Rx pair on the mega for it to communicate on. This style of connection works good but honestly not as well as using the ESP alone or using MQTT. Here are instructions for a 8266 but should work on the 13 too. The main thing is you need to get AT firmware on the ESP and then a different library for cayenne. Another important note, you can’t use Serial Monitor if you have the ESP & Mega connected to each other by Serial. To get around this on a mega, you can either use a different set of Serial connection like Serial1 or Serial2 for the ESP communication, or us a FTDI adaptor on those and set the sketch to print to tthem rather than the main Serial. Check out this tutorial and see how it goes.

Esp8266

So I’ve been using the ESP8266-01 & the new ESP8266-01S. I take a proto shield and mount the ESP to it or use a breadboard adapter if you want to be able to remove it (see pics). I basically make a ESP shield that goes to the Serial RX/TX with a switch on it for easy uploading to the arduino. [image][image] First you need to upload the AT firmware for the ESP so the arduino/cayenne can talk to it using AT commands. You need the following: ESP_download_tool_v2.4 & the ESP_IOT_SDK 1.0.0. …

[a1611sword]

i should have been more specific. Mounting the esp13 to mega was simple. Flashing it was simple. Connecting it to internet, I presume by wifi. isn’t as easy. I have the 13 mounted to mega and the red and blue lights are flashing and I can find it in my list of wifi sources. Seems I made it a wifi rather than just connecting it to internet.

My project consists of having the mega talk to my phone wherein I can control devices for aquaponics. I need to have have flow meters, temps (h2O and air), RH%, fish feeder etc. I have worked on a sketch and have it where 4 flow meters are all working independently telling the mega what the flow rates are in liters per min. I am stuck on creating the connection between my mega and my phone or mega and the internet which will hopefully allow me to connect with the internet via Cayenne.

[adam]

Follow this post here to use your 8266 as a shield (the ESP13 is an 8266 - they have many names)