Here are the pinouts that are defined in the firmware for the IoTBox based on the ESP12 adapter board shown below. It is possible to solder directly to the ESP chip if space is tight but you will need to take into account the various pull ups (eg CH_PD) if you do so.
In order to do the initial programming and testing of the module, install the VCC, GND, GPIO0 cables and pins for TX and RX. If you are using a larger box, you may use jumper pins for all of the connections.
| Pin | NodeMCU | IoTBox use | Future Use |
| tx | tx on programmer | Additional I/O | |
| rx | rx on programmer | Additional I/O | |
| gpio4 | D2 | to I2C – SCL screen (GPIO4 is sometimes mislabelled labelled as GPIO5 on breakout board!!!) | |
| gpio5 | D1 | n/c | PIR, Vibration |
| gnd | 0 volts | ||
| gpio15 | D8 | resistor 150 ohm to led = RED | |
| gpio2 | D4 | data pin for 1-wire ds18b20 (or dht22 with 10k resistor to vcc) | |
| gpio0 | D3 | push to make switch (optional:held high via 10k resistor?). Other side of switch is at GND | |
| gpio14 | D5 | to I2C – SDA screen | |
| gpio12 | D6 | resistor 150 ohm to led = BLUE | |
| gpio13 | D7 | resistor 150 ohm to led = GREEN | |
| vcc | 3.3 volts (NOT 5v!) | ||
| gpio16 | D0 | n/c | Wake |
| ch_pd | n/c (held high on the breakout board) | ||
| adc | A0 | n/c | Potentiometer / Light detection |
| reset | n/c |
(Corrected Pins for the colours Blue and Green)
You will need to do an initial flash of the IoTBox chip which will then allow you to do the upgrades from the built in menu. Connect a 3.3v USB FTDI programmer to TX/RX and GND. Connect GPIO0 to GND and then power up the module from a source that supports around 300ma (do not power from the FTDI module).
Here is the commandline to flash the esp8266, (please remember that the esp8266 is 3.3v only – the 5v usb interfaces will kill it!)
(All on one line, may need python2.7 installed for esptool.exe. My USB programmer is using COM2)
esptool.exe -p com2 -b 115200 write_flash -fs 32m 0x00000 rboot.bin 0x02000 iotbox.bin 0x80000 iotbox.espfs.bin
The required files are here.
However, the esptool.exe requires Python to be installed on yourWindows PC – this can cause issues. An alternative ESP8266 flasher is here: Electrodragon.com
Hello,
First of all, excellent work 🙂 but i have one question – are the source code open or just binaries are available
Thank you!. It started as a simple project but grew and grew – there are about 40 or so IoTBoxes out in the wild now.
I will publish the sourcecode on Github soon. I just need to tidy it.
Have you managed to build it yet?. If so, make sure that you do an OTA upgrade to get to v2.4 (the current version today)
First box will be ready in 2 weeks I hope – i’m waiting for my paycheck 🙂 If it will work as I expect – You will have 10 more in the wild 🙂
Hi Tony
Have you forgotten to swap the LED pins in your recent version?
thanks
John
Hi John
I changed the pins on the table to match my code…
Should match now. The table showed my first hardware version – I had to change due to layout constraints…
Thanks Tony… out with the soldering iron..