B4R Question [ChitChat] ESP8266 under pressure?

[barx]

Just thinking out loud before I start tinkering and looking for opinions.

I already have an ESP8266 (Wemos D1 mini) running doing the following:

• Software serial to an RS232 <-> TTL converter talking to a Solar PV inverter polling the data from it every second.
• MQTT client running, sending above data to Thingspeak.com server every 30 seconds
• WifiServerSocket listening to for http connections and responding with either a http response (web page) or JSON response based on the request path.

This seems rather stable.

I wish to now add the next stage to the project. I have a Energy meter that has RS485 ModBus Comms. I'm going to use the meter to measure the incoming mains supply to my property to see what is coming in (importing) or going out (exporting).

I'm wondering if it would be too much for the wemos to take on the burden of this communications too, again probabbly poll each second.
I have read that hardware serial should be used for RS485, is this true if you are using RS485 <-> TTL converter as you aren't dealing with the crucial timings yourself?

Am I correct in thinking b4r takes up the hardware serial? leaving just software?
Can you run multiple software serials without issue?

OK, enough thoughts for now, look forward to some replies

Thanks

 

[Cableguy]

I would rather use a node like solution, meaning (and also because) esp8266 are so inexpensive these days that a "one board per purpose" reporting to a central gateway would be the best way to go...
Both software and hardware wise are easier to maintain this way.