The issue I am just about to hit is, how do I expand this network to ~100 D1 mini's? The final project will need 100 D1's reading values from their sensors and logging them. I then need to be able to tell any one, or a group of them, over wifi to switch relay X for example. I also need to be able to retrieve the entire log file (it's a txt file) from any one or a group of the D1s over wifi.
My thinking was to have 1 act as a master, which has no sensors but instead simply runs as a webserver, serving up a basic HTML page to show all 100 sensors. I can click on any one, or group select multiple, and hit a "switch relay 2" button, or "download log file(s)", which will issue the command to the selected D1(s) in parallel via a router i.e. the master is connected to the router and acts as the webserver (fixed IP), all 100 D1s are also connected to the router (IPs dynamically assigned by the router), then I connect to the master over wifi using my laptop which pings the full address range and serves back a HTML page with all of the D1's listed (based the IPs that responded to the ping), with HTML buttons next to each.
Is this achievable? I can't find any examples of a network involving a router that is acting as the middle-man between a master and a large series of ESP8266's. All and any pointers, tips and advice are welcome. Thanks.