ESP8266 Communication with CASP

Download Project

This example project demonstrates how to establish WiFi communication from host PC to the target board connected with ESP8266 WiFi module. We try to acquire analog data from the target board to the host PC through WiFi and plot the data on the host PC. We also try to control the on-board LED present on the target board from the host PC.

Target

Arduino Leonardo is used in this project. However, any CASP supported boards can be used.

Description

Connect the circuit as shown below. Connect any sensor to the ADC pin A0 of the target board for sensing. We use the on-board LED at pin-13 for controlling.

Following are the steps to properly program the target board.

· Connect the target to the host PC via a USB cable.

· Note the serial port number to which the board that is connected to the host PC, from the host operating system.

· Run CASP and load the ‘target_model’ project.

· Open Home->Simulation->Setup Simulation Parameters menu item. Under TargetHW->General tabs set ‘Target Hardware Programmer Port’ parameter to the serial port to which the board is connected.

· Build the model and program the board by clicking on Run button.

· The ESP8266 block WiFi is set to Access Point mode with SSID: esp8266_ssid and SSID Password: 0000000000. User may need to connect the host PC WiFi to this network before continuing.

Following are the steps to run the native model on the native PC

· After successfully establishing WiFi connection with the target, load the ‘native_model’ project. If different IP address domain is configured in the ESP8266, follow the below procedure to modify the host setting accordingly.

· Click on Home->Simulation->Configure Simulation IO menu item.

· ‘Configure Simulation Hardware’ window will open. Under Native Nodes and GPIO Device Nodes, change the IP addresses marked in the below figure (by double clicking on the item) to respective local and device IP addresses.

· Click on ‘Connect Device’ button and check the ‘Online Data’ check box. The program should now communicate with the target with cycle time less than 20msecs. Target board is now available as end point ‘EP0’ to the native model. Native model can use this end point to connect to respective IOs on the target.

· Click on ‘Save’ button to save the configuration and close the window.

· Run the model by clicking on the Run button. A simulation panel window should open and communicate with the board.

· Screen shot of the output simulation panel running on host PC is shown below.

References

Please go through our video tutorials, tutorial projects and CASP main documentation for getting started with CASP.