The Wemos D1 mini is a great little controller board. It is similar to the Arduino and can be programmed using the Arduino IDE.

The steps to get started are as follows:

• Install the Arduino IDE
• Install the library for the board
  • Select Tools->Board->Board Manager from the Menu bar
  • In the Type field, top left, select ‘Contributed‘ to reduce the list of libraries available
  • Scroll down to esp8266 by ESP Community (in my case version 2.3.0) and click on it
  • The whole section for that library will be highlighted and an Install button will appear, click it
  • Close the Board Manager dialog by clicking the Close button in the bottom right corner
• Create a simple test sketch
  • Select File->Examples->Basics->Blink
  • Connect the board to your laptop with a micro USB cable
  • Select the correct port from the menu by clicking Tools->Port and the COM port listed (COM 5 in my case)
  • Click the ‘tick’ icon to compile it and upload it to the controller

That’s it, you should now have the usual blinking LED on the board and are now ready to build other projects with your WEMOS board.

More details for the board can be found on their website here: https://www.wemos.cc/