ESP32 Forum

Hi there,
I am very new to the whole subject of MCUs and while I was reading a lot about this topic, I also looked through the different products. Now for the ESP32, I don't understand the exact difference between the ESP32 SoCs and the Modules? As I understood it, the SoCs already have Wifi and Bluetooth? Why would I need the Module then? What is their purpose?
Sorry for this very basic question, hopefully someone is willing to help me understand this a bit more.
Thank you in advanced!

Module:
https://www2.mouser.com/ProductDetail/E ... abkKPu5A==
SoC:
https://www2.mouser.com/ProductDetail/E ... HJSZQic%3D
Devkit:
https://www2.mouser.com/ProductDetail/E ... lezsXmY%3D
Can you see difference now?

thank you, but I already had a look on those before. Sorry, I am not very technical, yet I want to understand what you need them for. The module to me looks like, it enables wifi for the chip? But the SoC itself is Wifi capable, is it not? At least that's what the description is implying for some of the ESP32 SoC, or am I wrong?

With other words, I want to start programming an ESP32 SoC. Why would I need a module? Isn't enough to have the SoC and a dev board?

Hi,

The Arduino docs have a small description of SoC and Modules.

Arduino ESP32 Docs: Boards

If you know electronics design and your project needs a different format or special specification, you can use the SoC due to the design flexibility. However, to design using the SoC (a.k.a chip or IC) you need high skills, and the module, which includes the SoC inside, does the job for you. You don't need to deal with the SoC, antenna, crystal, flash, etc...

The module makes the design easier and you can focus on the other things. The main advantage of using modules is that the modules have been tested and most of them are CE and FCC certified.


In sum, the SoC is the bare MCU (including WiFi/BLE, peripherals, etc) and the module is the SoC with crystal, flash, and all required resistors, capacitors and antenna (or IPEX connector).

See the Product Selector for all versions of SoC and Modules.

In module you have all passive elements required to make SoC works, including antenna, flash memory(some SoC have embedded memory, other dont), XTAL etc. Without basic knowledge about electronics you still wont understand what i am talking about.
Here is schematic of wroom module (page 17) which you can consider as minimal usable design to work with esp32 SoC:
https://www.mouser.com/datasheet/2/891/ ... 223836.pdf

In other words, think about SoC it is engine, and only engine, and it can run/work, but it is not a car yet, you cant drive it.

Thank you to both of you. It's true that I have no knowledge of electronics in general, but both of your answers helped me out to further understand this better. So I see, it's not enough to just have the SoC with a dev board. I think that was the point I intially misunderstood. And also thank you for the links, I will keep on reading on this^^

cheers
seb

If you have some devboard with SoC, but without module it is also fine, because that devboard is designed similar to module design.

https://www.tme.eu/pl/details/esp32-pic ... /?brutto=1
https://www.banggood.com/pl/M5Stack-STA ... 82248.html
https://thepihut.com/products/tinypico- ... ment-board
https://shop.atmegazero.com/
https://m5stack.com/

All boards are with bare SoC, and there is more similar.

Fwiw, the general reason to get a module is because a. you don't need to worry about finicky RF things like getting the correct antenna specs, impedance adjustment network, repeatable PCB dieelectric constant etc because the module has all these things sorted out, and b. it can make things like FCC compliance easier. If these are not an issue for you, you can also go with a bare IC.