Internet speed test with NodeMCU

In world of IOT, it is mandatory to have good internet connection(all the time). Due to limited understanding of the internet technology. we end-up increasing bandwidth of the internet to every internet speed related problems. Did this solve your issues? I think, No. Because internet speed does not always dictate by bandwidth.

There are two terminologies used for good quality of internet, one is Bandwidth and other is latency. Most of the peoples are aware of the bandwidth, but not latency. As per my understanding you need less latency(less) with good bandwidth(higher) for quality experience. This you can compare with your water pipe diameter and length. A diameter of the water pipe is your bandwidth and length of the water pipe is your latency. So, no matter How big is your bandwidth(diameter) but if length(latency) is higher you may face glitches in your connection. It may be specific to site also.

Wiki definition of the bandwidth is, the amount of data that can be transferred from one point to other in seconds. which measured in "MB/second", but latency is the time that a data packet takes to travel from one point to another which measured in "delay".

Hope we have better understanding now, A bandwidth you can check online and latency you can measure with help of ping command in you command line.

In above screenshot, I pinged google four time and measured mean time in milliseconds. In bottom-line it shows mean values of all four pings.

It is time consuming process to measure latency with help of computer and command line, Here I have quick tutorial of making stand alone latency measuring device with help of ESP8266 with SSD1306 display. It pings google at every minute(10 time and then provides mean value) and capture response time in milliseconds.

Basic feature,

1) Standalone latency measuring device.

2) Onboard SSD1306 SPI display for results.

3) Internet ping time capture at every 1 second (changeable).

Basics you need to know,

1) NodeMCU with Arduino IDE

2) SSD1306 SPI display with its library and connection.
3) 16850 battery (Optional) Or you can connect micro USB to NodeMCU.

Future scope,

Integration of reading with Google drive for everyday check with power-sleep mode.

To Start with SSD1306 SPI display.

It comes in different options please make sure you have display with SPI connection or have compatible driver in Arduino. Im using a display with SPI connection.

Arduino library:

1)      Display connection to ESP8266 library from squix78

https://github.com/squix78/esp8266-oled-ssd1306

2)      Ping machine library from dancol90

https://github.com/dancol90/ESP8266Ping

Hardware connection:

Display connection with NodeMCU (ESP8266)

Please note all the data pins are mentioned as per NodeMCU hardware, If you want to make direct connection with ESP8266 check corresponding pin numbers.

Code:

Do not forget to change SSID, Password section.

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>

#include <ESP8266Ping.h>

#include <SPI.h> // Only needed for Arduino 1.6.5 and earlier

#include "SSD1306Spi.h"

const char* ssid     = "SSID";

const char* password = "Password";

const char* remote_host = "www.google.com";

// Initialize the OLED display using SPI

// D5 -> CLK

// D7 -> MOSI (DOUT)

// D0 -> RES

// D2 -> DC

// D8 -> CS

SSD1306Spi        display(D0, D2, D8);

String avg_time_ms;

int i;

void setup() {

  Serial.begin(115200);

  delay(10);

  // Initialising the UI will init the display too.

  display.init();

  display.flipScreenVertically();

  display.setFont(ArialMT_Plain_10);

  Serial.println();

  Serial.println("Connecting to WiFi");

  WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

  while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {

    delay(100);

    Serial.print(".");

  }

  Serial.println();

  Serial.print("WiFi connected with ip ");  // Just for troubleshot purpose.  

  Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());

  Serial.print("Pinging host ");  // Just for troubleshot purpose.

  Serial.println(remote_host);

}

void loop() {

    if(Ping.ping(remote_host)) 

    {

    Ping.ping(remote_host, 10);  //10 time ping to google, You can change value to higher or lower

    i= Ping.averageTime();

    avg_time_ms = Ping.averageTime(); // reading string and Int for easy display integration.

    Serial.println(i);

  if (i < 99)  // It is in general term, Please change as per your requirement

 {

    display.drawString(14, 40, "Pingtime :");

  display.drawString(64, 40, avg_time_ms + " ms");

  display.drawString(14, 20, "Internet condition");

  display.drawString(14, 30, "Good");

 }

  if (i > 100 && i < 199)  // It is in general term, Please change as per your requirement

 {

    display.drawString(14, 40, "Pingtime :");

  display.drawString(64, 40, avg_time_ms + " ms");

  display.drawString(14, 20, "Internet condition");

  display.drawString(14, 30, "Bad");

 }

    } 

    

    else 

    {

    Serial.println("Error :(");

    display.drawString(14, 20, "Internet condition");

    display.drawString(14, 30, "Offline");

    }

  

  display.display();

  delay(60000);  // Every minutes

  display.clear();

}

Final Output: