ESP8266 01 Wifi Chip

This is a ESP8266 based wifi modile. The ESP 01 ESP8266 Serial WIFI Wireless Transceiver Module is a self-contained SOC with integrated TCP/IP protocol stack that can give any microcontroller access to your WiFi network. The ESP8266 is capable of either hosting an application or offloading all Wi-Fi networking functions from another application processor.

Each ESP8266 module comes pre-programmed with an AT command set firmware, meaning, you can simply hook this up to your Arduino device and get about as much WiFi-ability as a WiFi Shield offers (and that’s just out of the box)! The ESP8266 module is an extremely cost-effective board with a huge, and ever-growing, community.

This module has a powerful enough on-board processing and storage capability that allows it to be integrated with the sensors and other application-specific devices through its GPIOs with minimal development up-front and minimal loading during runtime. ESP8266 ESP-01, it comes with a pre-installed AT firmware. It is possible to program the chip with another firmware such as NodeMCU, for example. However, AT firmware is compatible with the Arduino IDE.

The ESP8266 ESP-01 module has three operation modes:

1. Access Point (AP)
2. Station (STA)
3. Both

In AP the Wi-Fi module acts as a Wi-Fi network, or access point (hence the name), allowing other devices to connect to it. This does not mean that you will be able to check your Facebook from your device while the ESP-01 module is operating in the AP mode. It simply establishes a two way communication between the ESP8266 and the device that is connected to it via Wi-Fi.

In STA mode, the ESP-01 can connect to an AP such as the Wi-Fi network from your house. This allows any device connected to that network to communicate with the module.

The third mode of operation permits the module to act as both an AP and a STA. 

Basic AT Commands

• AT+CWMODE=1 (STA = 1, AP = 2, Both = 3)
• AT+CWMODE? (check what mode your Wi-Fi module is in)
• AT+CIFSR ( To check if already connected with Wifi)
• AT+CWJAP= “Wi-FiNetwork”,“Password” (To connect to a network)
• AT+CIPMUX=1 (Single = 0, Multiple = 1)
• AT+CIPSERVER=1,80 (close server mode (0), or open server mode (1), HTTP Default number 80)
• AT+CIPSEND=0,5 (To send some data and display it in web browser’s window, 0 is channel number and 5 is number of characters)
• AT+CIPCLOSE=0 (To close the channel)

Technical Specifications