There are some great Arduino modules with integrated ESP-8266 wireless chips, some of the most popular of these modules are:

• Adafruit HUZZAH
• NodeMCU
• WeMos

Along with these modules comes some excellent libraries.

For Arduino to PC or Raspberry Pi communications that are a few options to choose from. A TCP client/server is simple and straightforward and it is excellent for sending single point information. For sending multiple data points take a look at MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport), it’s a common standard for IoT applications and it’s built into Node-Red.

Arduino TCP Client

The Arduino module can be a simple TCP client that can talk to either a Python or a Node-Red TCP server. Below is an example that sends a random integer to a TCP server every 5 seconds.

/*
Test TCP client to send a random number
 */
#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <ESP8266WiFiMulti.h>

ESP8266WiFiMulti WiFiMulti;

void setup() {
    Serial.begin(9600);

    // We start by connecting to a WiFi network
    const char * ssid = "your_ssid";       // your WLAN ssid
    const char * password = "your_password"; // your WLAN password
    WiFiMulti.addAP(ssid, password);

    Serial.println();
    Serial.print("Wait for WiFi... ");

    while(WiFiMulti.run() != WL_CONNECTED) {
        Serial.print(".");
        delay(500);
    }
    Serial.println("WiFi connected");
    Serial.println("IP address: ");
    Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());
    delay(500);
}

void loop() {
    const uint16_t port = 8888;          // port to use
    const char * host = "192.168.0.123"; // address of server
    String msg;

    // Use WiFiClient class to create TCP connections
    WiFiClient client;

    if (!client.connect(host, port)) {
        Serial.println("connection failed");
        Serial.println("wait 5 sec...");
        delay(5000);
        return;
    }
   
    // Send a random number to the TCP server
    msg = String(random(0,100));
    client.print(msg);
    Serial.print("Sent : ");
    Serial.println(msg);
    client.stop();    
    delay(5000);
}

Node-Red TCP Server

Node-Red is an excellent visual programming environment that is part of the Raspberry Pi base install. Node-Red is a simple tool to create your own Internet of Things applications. The base Node-Red installation includes a TCP server and client.

To install the web dashboards enter:

sudo apt-get install npm
cd ~/.node-red
npm i node-red-dashboard

To start Node-Red either use the on-screen menus or from the command line enter:

node-red-start &

Once Node-Red is running the programming is done via the web interface at: //localhost:1880 or //your_Pi_ip_address:1880 .

To configure the TCP server, go to the Input nodes section and drag and drop the TCP in node. After the node is inserted double-click on it and edit the port and message settings.

To create a gauge Web dashboard, go to the dashboard nodes section and drag and drop the gauge node. After the node is inserted double-click on it and edit the dashboard group, labels and ranges.

For debugging and testing an output debug node is useful.

To access the Web dashboard enter: //localhost:1880/ui or //your_Pi_ip_address:1880/ui

TCP Python Server

The python TCP server will see the incoming Arduino message as a Unicode (UTF-8) text, so convert message to an integer use: thevalue = int(data.decode(“utf-8”)). Below is the full code.

import socket
import sys

HOST = '' # Symbolic name, meaning all available interfaces
PORT = 8888 # Arbitrary non-privileged port

s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
print ('Socket created')

#Bind socket to local host and port
try:
s.bind((HOST, PORT))
except socket.error as msg:
print ('Bind failed. Error Code : ' + str(msg[0]) + ' Message ' + msg[1])
sys.exit()

print ('Socket bind complete')

#Start listening on socket
s.listen(10)
print ('Socket now listening')

#now keep talking with the client
while True:
#wait to accept a connection - blocking call
conn, addr = s.accept()
data = conn.recv(1024)
print ('Connected with ' + addr[0] + ':' + str(addr[1]) + " " )
thevalue = int(data.decode("utf-8"))
print ("Value: ", thevalue)

s.close(

Summary

In our final application we mounted the Arduino module outside and we powered it with a small solar charger. We also include a humidity value with the temperature, and we used a QR code that linked to our web page.