You'll need to connect a 2-3 resistors to the ESP to get it to boot, and that breakout makes it easy. Or you can buy a WeMos D1 mini, which has a USB to serial adapter on it as well, and makes things much easier.
I absolutely love your little projects. Especially can't wait until that phone is finally done. Cue the next meeting where - to the sound of loud ringing - you pull an old fashioned phone out of an oversized pocket and start talking :)
Thank you! That's been done for years, though :) I've had more than a few stares, and people even came up and asked me if it was actually working. I even made a PCB for it, so it's much easier to convert a rotary phone to a mobile (haven't tested that yet, though).
Unfortunately, the ringer was too high-voltage to make work, and the Arduino wouldn't fit inside the phone unless I took out the ringer. Maybe the new PCB will fit, I'll have to try it out. Maybe I'll send you the next prototype unit as a gift, if I ever complete it (or, if you're ever in Greece, drop me a line and we can build it together!).
But they don't use a lot of current. It's about 90V AC iirc to make it properly ring, and 20 Hz, you could do that with a switched capacitor network or, alternatively, by using a step up transformer (will be a bit heavier). Ugly solution would be to re-wind the coil so it works on a lower voltage and drive it directly.
Yeah, it's definitely doable on battery, it was just harder than not doing it/out of my league back then. I think I'll actually give it a shot on the next phone, as I think the PCB can easily fit now (it's only 5x5cm, as opposed to an Arduino Uno with shield on the first prototype).
I loved your LEGO sorter, by the way, it was very large-scale and a very interesting project, well done. I greatly enjoyed reading the writeup. Do you still use it?
Paid work has been absolutely insane the 2nd half of 2017, we are barely managing to recover before the next all-out job is landed so unfortunately no time to mess around with other stuff. I have a few more fun projects lined up, one of which has to be ready for next summer so I will definitely be making some time for play besides more work. Can't complain though.
Ah, lots of paid work is always good news. I'm looking forward to reading about your next project, it helps with my inspiration as well. Make sure you don't spend too much time working, fun is important.
Here's the smallest breakout for the ESP8266 that I know of, one I made: https://github.com/skorokithakis/tiny-ESP8266-breakout
You'll need to connect a 2-3 resistors to the ESP to get it to boot, and that breakout makes it easy. Or you can buy a WeMos D1 mini, which has a USB to serial adapter on it as well, and makes things much easier.