It's a big red button that posts a message to Slack when you push it.

NodeMCU. I used the LoLin v3 board on AliExpress.

• PlatformIO to compile and upload your code. It's Arduino code, so it should compile just fine using Arduino IDE too.
• esptool if the PlatformIO uploader for ESP8266 doesn't work.
• A Slack team that doesn't mind you making a mess of their #random channel.

1. Acquire a Big Red Button.
2. Solder some jumper wires to its terminals.
3. Connect the jumpers to pin 0 and ground on your NodeMCU. Your pin numbers may differ from what's printed in silk on the board—on my LoLin v3 board, I had to use pins D3 and GND.

1. Go to https://YOUR-TEAM.slack.com/apps/build/custom-integration.
2. Create an Incoming Webhook and configure it to post to your channel.
3. Optional: Give your webhook a friendly name and icon, such as Big Red Button and 🔴.

1. Edit the constants in slack_button.ino to configure your wifi network and your Slack webhook URL.
2. Install PlatformIO.
3. Install support for NodeMCU: platformio platforms install espressif.

This bit is optional. You only need to install and use esptool to upload to your NodeMCU if PlatformIO fails.

1. Clone esptool with git clone [email protected]:themadinventor/esptool.git.
2. Run python setup.py install inside the esptool directory to install esptool and pyserial.
3. Make sure the esptool executable is in your system $PATH.

1. Connect your NodeMCU via USB.
2. Inside the project directory, type platformio run to compile the script.
3. Once the compile succeeds, type platformio run --target upload to upload to NodeMCU.
4. If the upload fails with PlatformIO, run ./upload.sh to compile and upload with esptool instead.

Just push it. You know you really want to.

But don't push it too many times or your boss will fire you.

NodeMCU: If you want to connect something to the internet, this is easily the cheapest and easiest way to do it. The dev board is crazy good—and it's $4 on AliExpress for just one.

PlatformIO: If you're looking to write, compile, and upload Arduino scripts, PlatformIO is the best tool I have ever used. It's got an awesome interface and is much nicer to use than Arduino IDE.

ESP8266 Arduino Core: If you want to write more ESP8266 Arduino code, here's where you'll find the API docs.

MIT