Use this forum to chat about hardware specific topics for the ESP8266 (peripherals, memory, clocks, JTAG, programming)

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By curiousity23
#42053 Hi guys,

So I'm rather a beginner here, I even have trouble with basic circuits. My question is how difficult it would be to connect an esp8266 to a raspberry pi zero, and what my approach should be, what components will I need? Will it be difficult? Do you think I can do it with help from this forum? :oops:

I am also not super-clear on the architecture I would use, since the esp8266 is itself a SOC. So how do I use it to give a Linux machine, i.e. the raspberry pi zero, wifi? (If it is even possible.)

Your help and advice is greatly appreciated. Bear in mind that if this is too foolhardy given my level of skills, perhaps I should instead only just look for a USB wifi key. :? But I think that the esp8266 is cheaper than a wifi usb key, and perhaps this approach is more robust.

Many thanks.
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By martinayotte
#42059 Although having an ESP connected to Raspberry Zero thru SDIO is interesting concept, it is much easier to use USB WiFi, especially that you can find ones under $3 on eBay, such as RTL8188. The limitation would be that Raspberry Zero has only one USB, so no more left unless you're using a hub.