“If you are not familiar with ESP8266 micro controller, I really feel you have been missing out! These things are incredible: they are cheap, powerful and best of all have built-in WiFi!ESP8266 started their journey out as a WiFi add on board for more traditional Arduino boards but shortly after, the community realized the power of them and added support to be able to program directly with the Arduino IDE.
These days if you are looking to use an ESP8266 for your project I would recommend using a development board such as the Wemos D1 Mini* ($2.50 delivered!!) or Adafruit Feather Huzzah. These boards have all the usable pins broken out, are easily programmable via their micro USB connector and have a built in 3.3V regulator.But what if you want to use an ESP8266 in a project with a custom PCB? The easiest way is to use an ESP12 module, and in this Instructable I’ll show you a couple of simple ways of programming them.”