Axoloti and ESP8266 simple communication example

#1

Hello,

I'd like to hook up a 2x16 characters LCD display to an axoloti via an ESP8266 but I can't find any suitable tutorial on how to do this.
I really don't know much about SPI, I2C and those sorts of things. I can use it on a high level, of course, like on an Arduino or a Teensy. But I don't really know where to start on a Axoloti and every topic I read about it looks like I'm gonna have to plunge into the rabbit hole because they're about much more complicated things that what I need to do.

Basically, **I just need to transmit the value of a parameter from an axoloti to an ESP8266.

I'm pretty sure that I would only take a minute for somebody who knows how to do it to tell me :

  • what the axoloti patch would look like (or why not to attach a example patch directly :slight_smile: )
  • how to connect the two boards
  • what the ESP8266 sketch should look like (a sample of the code would be perfection)

Thank you, SPI expert, whoever you are.

Gaëtan

#2

You may want to read through this thread,

It doesn't use a 2 x 16 display, but as the description explains, it is about SPI/I2C.
It is a very long post and started a while back, but it does eventually show how the Axo can communicate with a small screen to display info.
:grin:

#3

What is the ESP8266 supposed to be good for? Will it do something beyond driving the display? As the communication with it would presumably have to be SPI or I2C, which the common cheap displays already talk by themselves, there is not much point of inserting it just for a character display. As Gavin said, people are even addressing OLED displays directly ouf of the Axoloti, where the memory footprint of the graphics library would be a more valid reason to use intermediate controllers.

#4

Thank you Gavin but I already started reading this thread. It's just that it's long as the Bible, focused on much more complicated stuff that what I'm trying to achieve and doesn't seem to ever explain anything directly how things are done.
I'm tired of having to reverse engineer everything. It's such an ineffective way to work :slight_smile:

#5

Thank you sevo... for replying to my question with a question :slight_smile:
The ESP8266 allows me to handle easily strings and other stuff and it is programmable OTA (over the air) which allows me to change those data without having to access the insides of the enclosure I'm making. And also, I think I can make it auto update by updating a firmware file kept at a specific place on a web server. The thing I'm building is for a fellow musician and I want him to be able to be as autonomous as possible.

Anyway, the point of my question was to learn how to make an Axoloti and another device communicate via SPI I2C or something alike.