Most of these boards are based upon the ESP32-WROOM chip. Some boards don’t have this feature and require an external FTDI adapter for programming. Many of these boards have an integrated micro-USB connector that will simplify programming. Just about any of them can be used for the experiments here. There are many ESP32 modules available for experimenters.

Note that many of the pins on the ESP32 share a number of the above functions, so not all of them are available concurrently.

Up to 16 channels of LED PWM (pulse width modulation).

Two I2S interfaces (for digital audio).

Two 8-bit Digital to Analog converters.

Up to 18 12-bit Analog to Digital converters.

It is also capable of operating in an ultra-low-power mode, ideal for battery-powered applications. It is faster and is available in a dual-core design. It offers both Bluetooth and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy), whereas the ESP8266 only has WiFi (which, of course, the ESP32 also has). The ESP32 improved upon the ESP32 design in a number of ways. Once the documentation was translated into English many experimenters soon became aware of the power of the ESP8266, and it quickly became very popular. The original ESP8266 was introduced on a module called the ESP-01, which had very little English documentation so it’s capabilities were largely unknown at the time. The ESP32 is an updated version of the ESP8266, which was a chip that took experimenters in the western world by “surprise” in 2014. It is available in a number of low-cost modules. The ESP32 is actually a series of microcontroller chips produced by Espressif Systems in Shanghai. But I also feel that it’s time to explore other microcontrollers. The Arduino is well-loved here in the DroneBot Workshop and I’ll continue to use it for many projects and experiments. That’s fifteen years, which in terms of technology is eons. Let’s face it, the Arduino has been around since 2005. But adding features like WiFi and Bluetooth requires external components. The Arduino certainly has enough digital outputs and inputs to satisfy most requirements, and its analog inputs are also useful. That’s certainly fast enough to build thousands of applications, but it’s a bottleneck for others.

The first one is speed, the popular Arduino AVR series of boards run at 16 MHz. It’s inexpensive, easy to use and has a generous number of digital I/O ports, and a few analog inputs as well.īut the Arduino, for all of its wonderful benefits, is lacking in a number of areas. When we think about using a microcontroller for a project we usually consider an Arduino.

Esp8266 arduino example code