# Improved hardware support

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/improved-hardware-support/29643>\
**Category:** Hardware\
**Created:** [6 July 2020 00:04 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/improved-hardware-support/29643 "2020-07-06T00:04:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 69

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dynamicdave](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dynamicdave/32/96_2.png) [@dynamicdave](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dynamicdave)\
**Post date:** [7 July 2020 22:55 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/improved-hardware-support/29643/69 "2020-07-07T22:55:09Z")

</div>

Sorry, VERY late to the party.

ESP Easy appears to offer support for the MCP23017 IO expander.  
I've not tried it, but here's a link to the docs.

[https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/index.php?title=MCP23017](https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/index.php?title=MCP23017)

They also offer support for PCA9685 to do PWM.  
[https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/index.php?title=PCA9685](https://www.letscontrolit.com/wiki/index.php?title=PCA9685)

Here's a link to the Slot Racing Car project I did with some of my IoT students.  
The project used a Wemos D1 Mini (ESP8266 12F) driven from a RPi-Zero-W via MQTT.

> [@Slot car racing - - - just pure fun](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/slot-car-racing-just-pure-fun/8782):
>
> I make no excuse at all - this is just pure fun. My students will love it !!!! I've just bought a slot car racing set from a local charity shop and have connected it to a WeMos D1 Mini on a breadboard driven from Node-RED via MQTT. On the breadboard is a PCA9685 (16-channel, 12-bit PWM module). It took some time sorting out the best PWM frequency and range settings, but eventually settled on 1500Hz with a range also of 1500. The car goes from a slow "creep" to just below "max speed", as at …

---

_[View the full topic](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/improved-hardware-support/29643)._