I recently stumbled upon the LinkNode R4 ESP8266 which is a small microcontroller board that contains a WiFi module and 4 relays for controlling high powered equipment. It uses the standard Arduino IDE for programming, and can control devices from a online website account.
This fully integrated system seems comparable to a Arduino+ThingShield+Relays combination, except it doesn’t have a Zigbee/Z-Wave transmitter for communicating to the Smartthings Hub.
Has anyone explored using the LinkNode R4 for use with the Smartthings Hub? Since this device runs about $10 US, seems like an affordable solution to adding an expensive controller to the ST Hub.