About Arduino Mega 2560 with ESP8266-01 using Blynk.cloud Console

[PeteKnight]

@bluealbertz1

I need about at least 12 pins which the board couldn’t provide then I opted to use Mega 2560 with ESP8266-01 as Wi-Fi shield.

That’s an awful choice, far better to go for an ESP32 or something like this…

ESP8266 16-way relay board using 2x 74HC595 controllers

I saw this post from @Vitokhv recently and decided to order one of these boards and have a play around with it. Here’s a link to another supplier on AliExpress who’s selling the same board: The boards are basically an ESP8266 with two 74HC595 shift registers that allow the 16 onboard relays to be controlled via just 4 GPIOs. They seem to be available in versions that work with a 5v, 12v or 24v supply voltage, and the relays are supposed to be capable of switching up to 250v at 10A each. …

or this…

Using the MCP23017 IO Expansion Board

EDIT NOVEMBER 2021… Anyone interested in controlling multiple relays may also want to take a look at this topic, which uses a pre-built 16-way relay board and 2x 74hc595 shift registers: END OF EDIT . I had a project recently where I wanted to use 5 physical buttons, with built-in LED indicators, to control 5 relays. That meant having 15 GPIOs available, so I built the project around an ESP32 dev board. I also needed a few more GPIO pins for other sensors, so by the time I was done I was o…

Also, don’t use digital pins, use virtual pins instead…

Using Virtual Pins to control physical devices

I thought I’d write a guide about how to use virtual pins with app widgets such as buttons, to control physical devices such as relays, LEDs etc… Why use virtual pins anyway? I’d always recommend using virtual pins over physical pins when developing your code. There are a number of reasons, but here are what I consider to be the main ones: Virtual pins are hardware independent. This means that it’s far easier to port your code from one hardware platform to another in future (when you realise…

Pete.