What to buy?

[knobbling]

Hey all

I'm just considering playing with esp32 for the first time, but have limited information about them. What is the minimal purchase I need in order to program and test a unit? I imagine it's as simple as a micro USB and a unit that includes micro-usb and CP2102 interface, like the Geekcreit/Adafruit units?

I guess that was question 1.
Question 2 is, once I have a working set of logic on the unit, what is the smallest I can make a unit to be used elsewhere. Say for example I want to control a light via WiFi, could I buy just the basic ESP32, give it some power, and then control a normal relay board using wires soldered directly onto solder points on the chip?

Relay board example: https://www.sainsmart.com/sainsmart-2-c ... ry-pi.html

Question 3 (assuming question 2 says I can use a barebones esp32) is, how do I "flash" these chips with their new instructions - which I would have prototyped on the board with the micro-usb/cp2102?

I just want to get some clear idea of what I need to purchase before I place an order. I live in South Africa, I can't get what I need "overnight", so I'd like to make sure I get it all at once.

Cheers!

[ESP_Sprite]

I would just get a development board, either a DevkitC, or one of the boards made by third parties like the one you mentioned.

For what you need, there's the ESP32 Hardware Design Guidelines document. Be aware that even if you can solder wires directly to the tiny QFN chip, it's going to negatively affect performance... if you want to do that anyway, I'd say to grab an ESP-Wroom32 module, which has all the needed stuff built-in.

You would flash them using an external usb-to-serial (3.3V signal level) converter or something.