I feel like the title is a misnomer given the article is called &quot;ESP8266: This $5 Microcontroller with Wi-Fi is now Arduino-Compatible,&quot; and on that front it&#x27;s really easy to get started with these [0]! ESP8266 boards abound on AliExpress, the easiest of which to get started with are NodeMCU variants. One example with seemingly good documentation is the Wemos D1 Mini [1] that comes with a USB-to-serial chip onboard. Here&#x27;s another decent reference I found to getting started with them [2].<p>[0] GitHub repo for plugging into the Arduino IDE: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;esp8266&#x2F;Arduino" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;esp8266&#x2F;Arduino</a><p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wemos.cc&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;doku.php?id=en:d1_mini" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wemos.cc&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;doku.php?id=en:d1_mini</a><p>[2] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.averagemanvsraspberrypi.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;11&#x2F;esp8266-node-mcu-setup.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.averagemanvsraspberrypi.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;11&#x2F;esp8266-node-...</a>