ITP Camp 2023

A Simple and Low Cost Way to Connect Electronic Devices Over 300ft Wirelessly without Internet

Date: June 13, 2023 3-5pm


Format: Hybrid (In-person with online access)


Tags: #wireless #ESP


How to connect electronic devices wirelessly? There are many ways to do that. Especially if we use Internet. In this session I'd like to introduce a not very often used way of making wireless connection without Internet.

We love Internet, so why do we want to stay away from it? Maybe we're thinking an installation to be installed out in the field somewhere with no Internet connection. Maybe it's costly to setup Internet connections. Maybe it's just more complicated technically.

I'll talk about a way using ESP-01 microcontrollers with ESP-NOW protocol. ESP is a simple microcontroller like Arduino, and ESP-01 is the simplest model. It's less then two dollars. ESP-NOW is an ESP proprietary wireless protocol. It's similar to the connection you use to connect mouse or keyboard to your laptop, but this can reach reliably more than 300ft! I'll talk about and demonstrate the simplest one-to-one type topology, but you can implement daisy chains or meshes with this.

Prerequisites : Even though the ESP protocol itself is simple, I'll suppose you're familiar and comfortable with physical computing basics, Arduino, and Serial communication codings. You need to come with a laptop computer. ESPs and basic parts are supplied.