Spent the weekend punching in lots of Lua into my ESP8266. Here are my takeaways.

Lua as an IOT programming language

Bearing in mind I am not building some fancy gadget (it sends ambient temperature and humidity to a REST server), the language - while not perfect - is adequate to support critical features like Over the Air (OTA) code updates.

ESP8266 firmware uses Lua v5.1.4. Current Lua version is 5.3.5. IMHO it's fairly current.

ESP8266 as an IOT hardware

From a power consumption perspective: connected a portable battery with 3 solar panels to the device and placed it under direct Texan sunlight. Either

battery cannot charge and drain simultaneously
device drains more than it can charge
solar power in fall/ autumn isn't strong

ESPlorer as an IDE

It's functional with some useful macros. Unfortunately development seems to have stopped Battery is completely drained in a few hours. Will be looking into using its Deep Sleep capabilities; expecting battery life to increase at least 3-fold.

I wish there is a faster way to transfer code over USB (as a virtual COM port). Doesn't feel like true 115200 baud connection.

ESPToy as a learning board

This ESP8266-based board deserves mention as a time saver for anyone learning ESP8266 programming. The built-in button and 3-color LED comes in very handy; code can go south easily and often!

The first thing I did was to code a fallback/ safe-mode when the button is depressed at boot time. The LED is very handy in indicating WHEN boot time happens.

This nifty little board is also shorter than standard nodemcu boards. Plus it supports battery connection (I really like to try this).

::: warning Note To enable Deep Sleep GPIO16 needs to be wired to RST; schematics here. Without this the device will never wake up. :::

Opportunities for improvement