I have been using Blynk quite successfully with the standalone ESP8266 module.
I have another project where i have to use the ESP13 WiFi shield with a UNO. The only problem here is the ESP13 has level shifted Tx and Rx of the ESP8266 connected to the D0 and D1 pins of the UNO via a switch. This is the Hardware serial ports and cannot be changed on the shield.
So this means i have to use the Hardware serial of UNO to link with ESP8266 . All examples in the Blynk use the software serial of UNO to talk to ESP8266 and the Hardware Serial of UNO is used for debugging.
With the ESP13 shield these ports need to be swapped. Anyone done this ??
From 0/1 on the shield to some other pins on the Arduino? You would have to use extending jumper wires, but can be done.
Or are you referring to the software setup? If so, simply use Serial (as is done in the USB-Script option, minus the script) instead of SoftwareSerial.
One issue here is that you have to remove the shield each time before programming the UNO, and you will not have any serial monitor output… in fact you might be best to keep the USB unplugged whenever using the shield (use external power instead).
Yes you got it right. Normally the UNO + ESP8266 combo uses the Software Serial to communicate between each other in the Blynk example. But the ESP13 has hardwired Rx and Tx pins via level translators to the UNO hardware pins. So i was wanting to know how to Swap the serial ports so that Communication is via Hardware Serial and Debug via Software Serial.
I saw the USB Serial example and it looks close to what i want …but frankly i cant figure a use case where the USB Serial Blynk can be used !!
My problem is to grab some 4 analog channels on the UNO and send it to Blynk via the ESP13. ( Since i need to capture 4 analog channels using the ESP8266 as stand alone is not possible )
OK, in that case you have a few options… use an addon Analog convertor chip to the ESP… many types available:
Or run the Arduino without Blynk code and pass the sensor data, as “slave” of sorts, to the ESP in standalone Blynk operation… using something like this in I2C mode:
Both solutions - particularly the one with the standalone ADC one is a killer. I get a higher resolution and with a I2C interface. I wonder how i missed the I2C interface - possibly the mind was locked with Serial !!
And just so we are discussing this when or where exactly does one use the USB-Serial method of Blynk ? I guess in this method the Laptop to which the Arduino is connected connects to the web ??
That is more a bench testing way of connecting basic Arduinos to a Blynk server… since most Arduinos don’t have any built in networking, the blynk-ser.* script basically turns your computer into an oversized USB to ethernet adapter for the Arduino.