Thanks for the quick reply – I am learning this all quite quickly and quite enjoying it. I wasnt concerned with the $$ (I think it cost me $10 for the ESP8266), just thought it would be one less component in the mix, but if its going to be quicker and easier to use a second esp8266 then I will just go ahead and purchase one. The specific item I purchased is this one: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/272580283375 – do you see any reason this wouldnt work? I have successfully upgraded to firmware 0.96, configured it onto my network and started a tiny web server on it to test the unit works and it seems fine. Obviously I havent even looked at the pin config as yet, so if you can see why it wouldnt work I would appreciate it. If you confirm its ok, then I will grab another one the same, or if you can recommend a better one then I will go for that.
Cheers,
Raoul