WiFi Controlled LED using ESP8266 and Arduino

What is ESP8266?
The ESP8266 WiFi 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 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 to be
integrated with the sensors and other application specific devices through its GPIO’s with minimal
development up-front and minimal loading during runtime.

Components Required:
1. Arduino UNO
2. ESP8266 WiFi Module
3. LED
4. 330Ω Resistor
5. 1K Ω Resistor
6. 2.2K Ω Resistor
7. Push Button
8. Connecting Wires
9. Mini Breadboard

Concept behind WiFi Controlled LED using ESP8266 and Arduino

Before getting into the details of the project like the circuit diagram, connections, let me take you
through the concept behind the WiFi controlled LED using ESP8266 and Arduino. The idea behind the
project is simple. Connect an LED to the Arduino Board. This LED must be connected over the WiFi i.e
within a local network through a Smart Phone or a Laptop. For this, use the ESP8266 WiFi Module and
Interface it to Arduino through Serial Communication. Arduino will command the ESP8266 module to
get connected to a WiFi network and receive data from the client (an HTML page). Based on the
information sent by the client, the Arduino will either turn ON or OFF.

Circuit Diagram
The circuit diagram for the WiFi Controlled LED using ESP8266 and Arduino project is shown
in the image below.
Circuit Design
I have used the software serial feature of the Arduino and made its digital pins 2 and 3 as RX and
TX. These pins must be connected to TX and RX pins of the ESP8266 WiFi Module. An LED is
connected to the Digital pins I/O pin 11 of the Arduino. (This is the LED that we will be controlling over
WiFi)

Coming to the rest of the connections with respect to the ESP826, it’s VCC and CH_PD pins are
connected to 3.3V of the Arduino and GND is connected to, well the GND pin of the Arduino. A push
button is connected between RESET of ESP8266 and GND. Both the GPIO pins of the Esp8266 i.e.
GPIO0 and GPIO2 are left open as we won’t be suing those pins in this project.

Use of Wireless of Communication?

As already discussed in the concept of the project. We will be using WiFi module ESP8266
Module to connect the user mobile or a laptop to the respected LED. So that the LED will turn ON or
OFF as the user wishes for. This will people to operate the light when not in home or not around the
device. It also conserves the time to turn ON or OFF it manually just clicking a button