For the remote rotary encoder I use a spare board that I designed for another project. The board has the size of a normal flash drive and on board are: a ESP8266-03, a 3.3v regulator and a capacitor. And there are a few connections broken out: 2x GPIO, UART, Bootloader button and a second pair of power connections.

This board is perfect for this project because every necessary connection is available. On board is a bootloader button but I connected another button to is so I could access it without opening the case. The rotary encoder used in this project is a simple breakout from china like this one and is easy to wire up. It has 5 pins:

1. CLK --- Clock
2. DT --- Data
3. SW --- Switch (On my module I had to solder on a 10k resistor)
4. VCC --- Power
5. GND --- Ground

Wiring:

• GPIO 12 --- CLK
• GPIO 13 --- DT
• SW --- Not connected
• VCC --- 5v
• GND --- GND