Noob Questions.

What is the virtual driver? Why would you use it in your examples to control the ESP8266 when there is an ESP8266 driver as well? What is the difference?

Is a SIM card really necessary for SMS alerts? Could the ESP8266 or the IoT server not be programmed to use a website like this : webtext.ntelospcs.net/customer_site/jsp/messaging_lo.jsp to send SMS alerts?

Right now I have stepper motor for a projector screen that remembers whether it's up or down driven by an A4988, controlled by a picaxe chip using this code:

Will I be able to do this with an ESP8266 on it's own (use the eprom and pulse one of the outputes a certain number of times at a certain speed?) or will I have to use an arduino or pixace chip along with the ESP8266? What about for a dimmer? The example shows with an arduino but could the ESP8266 not do that on it's own?

I'm great with hardware but I'm a programming noob. I hope I can get my projector screen controllable from my phone, and I'd like to make a dimmable LED light too.

Hi EasyIOT, thanks for your reply and I appreciate all your work, but you didn't answer any of my questions.

I understand that the virtual driver can be used with the ESP8266, I see that in your examples, but why then do you have an ESP8266 driver? What is the point of it? There is no explanation for this that I can find and I have read everything on your site. It seems to just add confusion because there is never a difference explained.

For my projector screen control I need to have the ESP8266 pulse a GPIO pin low for 2-3uS, then high for 20-30uS, and repeat this a set number of times. Is this going to be possible to accomplish or should I just have the ESP8266 send a digital signal to my picaxe chip already programmed in basic code that does this job? Seems like a waste to do that since I think the ESP8266 would be able to do it on it's own, but I don't know how. Do I need to edit your webserver code that goes onto the ESP8266 chip to control the GPIO differently than just digital on-off?

I also understand the SMS interface is optional, the question I have is whether you can use a website that sends SMS messages for free to send alerts to your phone when you're away from your house, not to interface with the IOTserver through SMS, just to receive alerts. That way you don't need a SIM card and be paying a cellular company to send the SMS.

I understand you're probably very busy with this project, but if you could please take the time to answer my questions I will be very grateful. I will be putting together some cool projects that will work well with your system if I can figure out the software end with some help. Other than the projector screen I'm also doing two similar projects, pool cover roller and shutter/blind roller. I will share these designs which can be easily built by anyone with a 3D printer and a trip to the hardware store. The projector screen is already working, it just needs to get on the IoT!