ESP32 Forum

I want to buy two ESP32 development boards. I want boards that are "plain vanilla"; in other words not particularly special. I am in the USA but I am willing to consider boards built abroad such as in China or Europe.

I have read that rev 1 silicon of the ESP32 is better than rev 0 silicon of the ESP32 . Therefore, I seek boards with rev 1 silicon of the ESP32.

Also, I want ESP32 development boards that fit on a standard breadboard. I have read that some of the ESP32 development boards are slightly wider than normal and therefore require two breadboards.

I have looked at the following websites to purchase ESP32 development boards, but frankly I would prefer to buy boards that have better reviews.

Adafruit
Espressif ESP32 Development Board - Developer Edition
https://www.adafruit.com/product/3269
No reviews listed on that page. Page does not seem to have been updated recently.

SparkFun
SparkFun ESP32 Thing
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13907
Too many mediocre reviews listed on that page.

Olimex
2 PACK Espressif ESP32 ESP32-DEVKITC inc ESP-WROOM-32 soldered dils CE FCC Rev 1 Silicon
https://www.amazon.com/Espressif-ESP32- ... imex+esp32
Too many mediocre reviews listed on Amazon.

I also looked on eBay, Banggood, and AliExpress but, I did not find any ESP32 development boards that had generally stellar reviews.

It would be much, much easier for buyers like me if Espressif were to, say, certify 3rd party ESP32 development boards as "Espressif Approved" (sort of like a UL or CE stamp on a product). I have spent several hours trying to figure out how to obtain a high quality EPS32 development board, that fits on a standard breadboard, and that contains the most recent version of silicon but have failed to find one that has generally very high ratings.

Espressif customer support are you listening? I will wait and see. But I am not holding my breath. Any company that spends massive amounts of money to create a breakthrough product, but fails miserably (no, that is not hyperbole) to provide proper developer support, is not likely to be around for long. I remember developing for Nextel (an American wireless carrier that is not longer extant). They made life miserable for developers. I remember thinking, "Are they trying to go out of business? Without 3rd party developers actively developing for their platform they will likely go out of business." Then they disappeared, er, uh, I mean were acquired.

Here is part of a short instant message dialogue I imagine having with the CEO of Espressif:

Me: "Dear Espressif CEO, great products are not enough. Without myriad 3rd party developers developing on the ESP32, the company you are currently leading will sooner rather than later go out of business. You should make it very easy for developers to get started developing on the ESP32 by providing crystal clear directions about how to obtain necessary hardware and software to begin development.

Espressif CEO: Yes! We are aware of that! We are working on it! It is our top priority!

Me: Uh. Yeah. I see. Thank you for letting me know. Well, in the meantime while you are "working on it" as your "top priority" you are inviting competition to crush you. And you know what? CEO's who lose their job, usually have a tough time finding another CEO job. If you lose your job, you might need some help finding another one. Now. To prepare you for finding a new job after me, 'Would you like fries with that?' http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.p ... %20that%3F

Espressif CEO: I refuse to work at McDonalds!

Me: Ok. Maybe you prefer to work KFC? Then practice this, "Would you like something to drink with your order?" I am a disgruntled would-be ESP32 developer eagerly awaiting a competitor who will offer better support to developers.

In the meantime, I hope someone will help me out by pointing me to a website with stellar reviews for a high quality EPS32 development board, that fits on a standard breadboard, and that contains the most recent version of silicon (rev 1, I believe).

I am not trying to save money; I am trying to save the hassle and aggravation associated with obtaining mediocre (or worse) quality EPS32 development boards and/or ones that do not fit on a standard breadboard and/or ones that contains an older version of silicon (rev zero, I believe).

And really, I do not blame the CEO of Espressif, he is clearly not qualified for the job. I blame the Espressif board of directors for allowing a CEO to run Espressif who has failed miserably to provide proper support for 3rd party developers. Supporting 3rd party developers is not the most important job of the CEO of Espressif, but it is an essential one.

Almost all development boards can be used on the breadboard, they are usualy quite wide so only one raw is available on each side.
There are also the boards that leaves 3 raws on breadboard, like Widora air and some clones of it, or the new one ESP32-PICO Motherboard which has silicon rew 1.
LOLIN32 Lite also has silicon rev 1.
You can get ESP32 module with rev1 silicone and make your own development board.

What would stellar reviews mean? The boards are usually of simple design, so there are not much chance to make the bad one. I've never had any problem with any of the the boards I've tested. The quality is usually quite good. They are quite cheap, you can buy several and test the quality yourself.
There are large amount of boards and modules available, I don't quite understand what are you complaining about.

These were the best quality/price dev boards I've had so far in the standard form factor:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Officia ... 0.0.Uz0SJL

Something smaller would be preferable for breadboards, this one is nice and well made but not cheap: https://www.tindie.com/products/onehors ... ent-board/

Maybe Espressif will one day sell those: https://twitter.com/EspressifSystem/sta ... 5399549952

Devkitc is an official espressif product and olimex is an authorized distributor. You can get a wide breadboard or straddle 2 breadboards.

Adafruit HUZZAH32 fits a breadboard.

Wemos lolin32 lite fits a breadboard and cheap.

I have a few of these "DOIT" boards:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/ESP-32S ... 95774.html

They use V1 silicon and the UART works fine (no errors). I had an issue with WiFi that turned out to be power supply via the USB cable - replaced the cable and it works fine.

They fit two breadboards side-by-side, or one breadboard with just one row of pin holes available on just one side. Not ideal but easily worked around.

I'm confused by the whole ESP32 vs ESP32S vs ESP-WROOM-32 thing, but as far as I know these are not ESP32S. Or at least they weren't when I bought them - they might be now though.

loboris wrote:Almost all development boards can be used on the breadboard, they are usualy quite wide so only one raw is available on each side.

Right. Yes. You are making my point for me.

I read several user comments which indicated that the users needed to use two breadboards side-by-side with ESP32 development boards that were too wide. Why would I want that? For example, I excerpted the following from the 12th page of comments:

https://www.banggood.com/ESP32-Developm ... mds=search

This device has the same problem as the early ESP8266 NodeMCU boards. It is too wide and will only expose one side of pins while on the breadboard. The circuit is branded DOIT ESP32 Devkit 1. I would recommend getting the product named WeMOS NodeMCU instead, as it is not as wide and will fit on the breadboard just fine: http://bit.ly/2g8QKLy

loboris wrote:There are also the boards that leaves 3 raws on breadboard, like Widora air and some clones of it,

Thanks! I neither want nor need the capability for a battery.

loboris wrote:or the new one ESP32-PICO Motherboard which has silicon rew 1.

Thanks! However, Picos do not interest me at this point. They are too new. Also, I want to use a larger printed circuit board with larger components because it allows for high quality printed circuit board assembly with less precise machinery.


LOLIN32 Lite also has silicon rev 1.

One of the problems with this product on AliExpress as well as others, is the lack of reviews. I do not want to be a pioneer in this area.

loboris wrote: You can get ESP32 module with rev1 silicone and make your own development board.

Thanks for the information. But I want to buy something premade and ready to go.

loboris wrote:What would stellar reviews mean?

It means positive reviews. In other words, I want to read positive user opinions.

loboris wrote:The boards are usually of simple design, so there are not much chance to make the bad one.

If one would take the time to read the reviews of the products I linked to in my original posting and this posting then one would see that is a false and ridiculous assertion.

loboris wrote:I've never had any problem with any of the the boards I've tested. The quality is usually quite good. They are quite cheap, you can buy several and test the quality yourself.

That is an inane, self-centred and foolish assertion reasoning.

loboris wrote:They are quite cheap, you can buy several and test the quality yourself.

Please re-read my original posting carefully and thoughtfully.

loboris wrote:There are large amount of boards and modules available, I don't quite understand what are you complaining about.

You must make enemies easily because you have ignored germane points I made and proffered ridiculous self-centred arguments. Here is a suggestion listen (or read) and consider more, pontificate in a self-centred less.

BuddyCasino wrote:These were the best quality/price dev boards I've had so far in the standard form factor:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Officia ... 0.0.Uz0SJL

Thank you very much! I will wait to read other comments, but at this point I am tempted to purchase those boards. I really appreciate this information. It is valuable to me.

BuddyCasino wrote:Something smaller would be preferable for breadboards, this one is nice and well made but not cheap: https://www.tindie.com/products/onehors ... ent-board/

Thanks but I prefer larger printed circuit boards because I suspect they will be more reliable.

BuddyCasino wrote:Maybe Espressif will one day sell those: https://twitter.com/EspressifSystem/sta ... 5399549952

Espressif could easily set up a program wherein they would charge a nominal, say, 100 US dollar fee to 3rd parties who make ESP32 development boards to obtain "Espressif developer board certification" Then Espressif could post a list on the Espressif site with a link to those boards 3rd parties who make ESP32 development boards. Would be 3rd party developers could then visit that page so they could quickly and easily purchase a high quality ESP32 development board.

It would be very easy for Espressif to do. Why don't they do it? They have an incompetent CEO running their company.

If the Espressif boards of directors (or whoever is in charge of doing such things) were to appoint a new CEO then perhaps this issue might be properly addressed, but clearly the current Espressif CEO has failed miserably in the critical area of making it easy for 3rd party developers to get started developing on the ESP32.

Make no mistake about it: this sort of terrible support for 3rd party developers puts Espressif squarely in the "here today, gone tomorrow" category of company. Excellent products alone will generally not sustain a company in a very competitive market.

WiFive wrote:Devkitc is an official espressif product and olimex is an authorized distributor.
http://espressif.com/en/products/hardwa ... c/overview Wow! Thanks for that link. I appreciate it! Overall the reviews on Amazon.com were not high enough for that product https://www.amazon.com/Espressif-ESP32- ... itc+olimex

I suppose it would be better if Espressif were to certify 3rd party companies to assemble ESP32 development boards for, say, a nominal fee of 100 US dollars.

WiFive wrote:You can get a wide breadboard or straddle 2 breadboards.

Thanks for letting me know I can get a wide breadboards. I did not know that. Yes, I did know about using 2 breadboards. Generally, I prefer to stick with standard products. If there is a standard sized breadboard, then I prefer to purchase and ESP32 that fits on standard sized breadboard.

WiFive wrote:Adafruit HUZZAH32 fits a breadboard.

As I indicated in my initial posting, Adafruit has no customer reviews for their products such as the Adafruit HUZZAH32 https://www.adafruit.com/product/3405 The lady with pink hair who runs Adafruit seems to expect customers will pay a premium price for the products her company sells yet Adafruit does not offer customer reviews on its website. Adafruit is not likely to be able to fend of cheap Chinese competition without a great website (that features, amongst other things, customer reviews). Without protectionist measures (such as tariffs or quotas) Chinese makers of products such as ESP32 boards sold on sites like Banggood and AliExpress will likely push Adafruit and Sparkfun out of the hardware distribution business.

WiFive wrote:Wemos lolin32 lite fits a breadboard and cheap.

Thank you very much! That is helpful and valuable information. After a very quick search on Google I found the Wemos lolin32 lite at https://www.cnx-software.com/2017/09/14 ... -for-4-90/ The Wemos lolin32 lite looks like it might be an excellent solution.

Leitukey wrote:I suppose it would be better if Espressif were to certify 3rd party companies to assemble ESP32 development boards for, say, a nominal fee of 100 US dollars.

I think that is probably two orders of magnitude away from being reasonable.

meowsqueak wrote:I have a few of these "DOIT" boards:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/ESP-32S ... 95774.html

Thanks for informing me of that.

meowsqueak wrote:They use V1 silicon and the UART works fine (no errors).

Thanks for informing me of that too.

meowsqueak wrote:I had an issue with WiFi that turned out to be power supply via the USB cable - replaced the cable and it works fine.

I want to have two, or maybe even three development boards, breadboards, USB cables, and any other necessary hardware so I can easily suss out (figure out or determine) problems like that.

meowsqueak wrote:They fit two breadboards side-by-side, or one breadboard with just one row of pin holes available on just one side. Not ideal but easily worked around.

Thanks for informing me of that! I do not intend to purchase these boards because of that. Why should I bother working around when other off-the-shelf boards come in standard widths that will expose more than one row of pins?

meowsqueak wrote:I'm confused by the whole ESP32 vs ESP32S vs ESP-WROOM-32 thing, but as far as I know these are not ESP32S. Or at least they weren't when I bought them - they might be now though.

I also was (and still am) confused about the ESP32 vs ESP32S vs ESP-WROOM-32. (This is yet another reason why I think Expressif needs a new CEO. Sure tech companies typically come up with inane naming conventions for their products, but at least tech companies should put all of the products in a "product family" on one page and clearly define them and the differences between them).

The following sheds some light on the differences:

- viewtopic.php?t=222
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP32

My hunch is that the ESP32S might possibly be out-of-production. I found it advertised on some older products such as:
https://www.seeedstudio.com/ESP-32S-Wif ... -2706.html