SIM800L & softwareSerial

[thayne]

After digging around, I found a couple posts online about the softwareserial.h library. It seems someone has modified the 8266 in an attempt to make it work, but not really. It was an old post though.

Does anyone have, or know where to get the softwareserial library file that actually works? I need it to communicate through the ESP32 to the Arduino IDE.

Also, if anyone has the ESP32 dev module (like the TTGO LoRa board) working with the SIM800L please let me know, or link to info.

Double also, how can I use the RX/TX pins on the back of my TTGO board to communicate the SIM800L to Arduino IDE? I know with the Uno and Mega boards there is a way by connecting the RESET pin with the ground. Is this same method possible?

Thanks!

[PeterR]

Hi,
I could not quickly find a schematic, post detailed links and you may get more help.

Its easy to assign any pins to RS232 using the ESP and very easy with the ESP IDF. I don't know with the Arduino.

Not sure that Arduino gets you over the line or is easier.
All the SIM800 examples I found are just that, examples. Fun to play with but single function, won't play nice with others and not production.
So maybe its worth jumping to IDF.
The main Arduino SIM library issue for me was that, say, an HTTP request might take some time. The Arduino libraries will block. So how do you flash the LEDs etc when you are waiting for the HTTP request to complete? And then on timeout the library would die. Also try & fit two libraries together when they assume that they are the only library in the world.
Its easier to multitask in IDF & generally the modules are written to play nice & share the CPU although I guess by directly using the RTOS that makes the library less portable.
EDIT: A constant I think is that for reliable/robust you will need to write your own SIM library.

[ESP_Angus]

One thing to note: ESP32 has multiple hardware UARTs and they can be assigned to any GPIO pins. So SoftwareSerial is probably not needed, unless you want to connect a large number of UART devices at the same time. This is true in both Arduino and ESP-IDF.