For the on-board microcontroller I am currently using an ESP8266-12F, however this will soon be switched to the recently-released ESP-32S. Both of these chips have power requirements of less than 500mA and operate on 3.3VDC. The dual-core capabilities and much higher pin count of the ESP-32S will be leveraged to providing on-board live video streams from each loco.
This page contains the most recent updates written on the ESP8266-12F. Recent changes include:
- Switching all communications to MQTT
- Ensuring only a single client viewer can assert control of a loco
- Providing smooth transitions between speed changes and directions
This software is compiled through the Arduino IDE. You will also need to install libraries for the following: