IoT boards based on ESP8266 MCU

ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi MCU with full TCP/IP support. It's built by Espressif, a Chinese manufacturer. For further information about this chip, refer to http://espressif.com/en/products/hardware/esp8266ex/overview.

There are many boards based on the ESP8266 chip. The following is a list of board platforms built on top of ESP8266 MCU:

• NodeMCU: This board uses NodeMCU firmware, with Lua as the programming language. For more information, refer to the official website at  http://www.nodemcu.com/index_en.html.
• SparkFun ESP8266 Thing: This is developed by SparkFun. You should use serial hardware, such as FTDI, to write a program in this board, but this product is ready for a LiPo charger. You can read more about it at https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13231.
• SparkFun ESP8266 Thing – Dev: This board already includes a FTDI-to-USB tool, but no LiPo charger. It's developed by SparkFun and product information can be found at https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13711.
• SparkFun Blynk Board – ESP8266: This board includes temperature and humidity sensor devices. You can read about it at https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13794.
• Adafruit HUZZAH with ESP8266 WiFi: This is developed by Adafruit. Product information can be found at https://www.adafruit.com/products/2821.

If you're interested in the ESP8266 chip, I recommend that you join  the ESP8266 forum at http://www.esp8266.com.

Although NodeMCU v2 and SparkFun ESP8266 Thing boards have the same chip, their chip model is different. NodeMCU v2 uses the ESP8266 module. On the other hand,  the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing board uses the ESP8266EX chip. In addition, the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing board provides a LiPo connector, which you can attach to an external battery: