Getting Started with ESP8266 NodeMCU using Arduino

2024 is the revolution for IOT (Internet of things). The market is getting spread to explore IOT technology for their respective businesses. Every business is looking for the opportunity to implement IOT technology and some are already leading the market. As the market is already leading this technology and some are exploring to make it better to excellence, the semiconductor companies are coming up with multiple ICs and the development boards. In this NodeMCU is one of best IOT development board to explore IOT solutions. NodeMCU is a board name or a variant with ESP8266 Wi-Fi microcontroller. Something is going on your mind now, right? Yes, ESP8266 is also a microcontroller. This electronic component ESP8266 is a microcontroller solution which has at least minimum jobs like GPIO, ADC,serial communication, flash memory, RAM as per other microcontrollers.

Overview

NodeMCU is an open source IOT platform based on Espressif ESP8266 SoC system. It is also an open-source firmware to design different IOT based prototypes or the solutions. This standalone device can be also used as Wi-Fi router to create a wireless network. Other devices or microcontrollers are connected as client to NodeMCU (SSID, Password).

There are two available versions of NodeMCU as version 0.9 & 1.0 where the version 0.9 contains ESP-12 and version 1.0 contains ESP-12E where E stands for “Enhanced”. Espressif also has ESP8266 SoC based another device called ESP32.

ESP8266 Pin Diagram

Getting Started with NodeMCU and Arduino

Once after successful installation of Arduino IDE (Follow references link to install Arduino IDE, Drivers, etc.), configure the IDE as below,

Step 1: Arduino IDE -> File – > Preferences – paste the below URL,

“http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json”

Step 2 : Tools -> Board -> Board Manager

Search ESP8266 device and install with right version. This will add ESP8266 board to arduino IDE.

Step 3: Now to recognize the nodemcu board on computer install the CP210x driver. Link can be found in below references tab.

Step 4: Select the ESP8266 board.

Tools -> Board -> esp8266 -> NodeMCU 1.0(ESP-12E Module)

Step 5: Test the nodemcu by blinking the led.

File – > Example -> ESP8266 -> Blink

Step 6: Now compile the code and flash to NodeMCU.

Video Tutorial

References

1. Arduino IDE download link – Software | Arduino
2. Wiki link for NodeMCU – NodeMCU – Wikipedia
3. ESP8266 NodeMCU datasheet – 0A-ESP8266__Datasheet__EN_v4.3.pages (components101.com)
4. Purchase link for NodeMCU – Buy ESP8266 NodeMCU CP2102 Board at Lowest Price In India | Robu.in
5. CP210x driver – CP210x USB to UART Bridge VCP Drivers – Silicon Labs (silabs.com)