Summary of Arduino Basic Wifi Project using ESP8266 wifi module
This tutorial demonstrates using a Seeeduino (or Arduino Uno) to control an ESP8266 WiFi module to request a static web page via TCP socket communication. It covers hardware connections, programming using Arduino IDE with example code to connect to a Wi-Fi network and send HTTP GET requests, and monitoring output via serial communication. The ESP8266 handles Wi-Fi networking with minimal external circuitry, and software serial is used for debugging due to hardware limitations.
Parts used in the Arduino Basic Wifi Project using ESP8266 wifi module:
- Seeeduino V3 / Arduino Uno
- ESP8266 Serial WiFi module
- UartSBee v4 / USB to TTL converter
Overview
In this tutorial, we’ll use a seeeduino to control the ESP8266 WiFi module to request a static page from the internet. This is a basic use of TCP socket, for other usage, please refer to the AT command guide of the module.
Material list
- Seeeduino V3 / Arduino Uno
- ESP8266 Serial WiFi module
- UartSBee v4 / other USB to TTL converter
Note： We used a software serial to print some debugging information as there’s only one hardware serial on seeeduino board. But the limitation of software serial is that it can’t communicate in a higher baud rate than 19200. So part of the output from ESP module will be dropped because the baud rate 57600 of ESP module is higher than that of the software serial. If you have a board with more than one hardware serial (e.g. Arduino Mega 2560), the case will be easier.
Step 1 – Connection
Step 2 – Programming
- Open Arduino IDE and create a new sketch;
- Parse the following code into the sketch editor (need modifying the SSID and PASS macros into your own situation);
#define SSID “xxxxxxxx”
#define PASS “xxxxxxxx”
#define DST_IP “220.181.111.85” //baidu.com
SoftwareSerial dbgSerial(10, 11); // RX, TX
void setup()
{
// Open serial communications and wait for port to open:
Serial.begin(57600);
Serial.setTimeout(5000);
dbgSerial.begin(9600); //can’t be faster than 19200 for softserial
dbgSerial.println(“ESP8266 Demo”);
//test if the module is ready
Serial.println(“AT+RST”);
delay(1000);
if(Serial.find(“ready”))
{
dbgSerial.println(“Module is ready”);
}
else
{
dbgSerial.println(“Module have no response.”);
while(1);
}
delay(1000);
//connect to the wifi
boolean connected=false;
for(int i=0;i<5;i++) { if(connectWiFi()) { connected = true; break; } } if (!connected){while(1);} delay(5000); //print the ip addr /*Serial.println(“AT+CIFSR”); dbgSerial.println(“ip address:”); while (Serial.available()) dbgSerial.write(Serial.read());*/ //set the single connection mode Serial.println(“AT+CIPMUX=0”); } void loop() { String cmd = “AT+CIPSTART=\”TCP\”,\””; cmd += DST_IP; cmd += “\”,80″; Serial.println(cmd); dbgSerial.println(cmd); if(Serial.find(“Error”)) return; cmd = “GET / HTTP/1.0\r\n\r\n”; Serial.print(“AT+CIPSEND=”); Serial.println(cmd.length()); if(Serial.find(“>”))
{
dbgSerial.print(“>”);
}else
{
Serial.println(“AT+CIPCLOSE”);
dbgSerial.println(“connect timeout”);
delay(1000);
return;
}
Serial.print(cmd);
delay(2000);
//Serial.find(“+IPD”);
while (Serial.available())
{
char c = Serial.read();
dbgSerial.write(c);
if(c==’\r’) dbgSerial.print(‘\n’);
}
dbgSerial.println(“====”);
delay(1000);
}
boolean connectWiFi()
{
Serial.println(“AT+CWMODE=1″);
String cmd=”AT+CWJAP=\””;
cmd+=SSID;
cmd+=”\”,\””;
cmd+=PASS;
cmd+=”\””;
dbgSerial.println(cmd);
Serial.println(cmd);
delay(2000);
if(Serial.find(“OK”))
{
dbgSerial.println(“OK, Connected to WiFi.”);
return true;
}else
{
dbgSerial.println(“Can not connect to the WiFi.”);
return false;
}
}
Step 3 – Monitor
Open Serial Monitor and press the reset button of board, you’ll see the output.
At last, Happy Hacking! 
Resources
Here’s the main wiki item for it:
http://www.seeedstudio.com/wiki/WiFi_Serial_Transceiver_Module
We’d like to thank Rudy who translate the entire datasheet, we recommend all developers take a look at this before you tinkering.
https://nurdspace.nl/ESP8266
With thanks to Arduino Basic Wifi Project using ESP8266 wifi module
