IoT Bytes

Bits and Bytes of IoT

ESP8266

Pradeep Singh | 28th March 2016

ESP8266_Chip

The ESP8266 integrates a 160 MHz microcontroller with a full Wi-Fi front-end (both as client and access point) and TCP/IP stack with DNS. ESP8266’s flexibility and price point have driven its explosion of use. It is produced by Shanghai-based Chinese manufacturer, Espressif. The chip became popular for IoT with the ESP-01 module, made by a third-party manufacturer, AI-Thinker.

ESP8266EX is among the most integrated Wi-Fi chips in the industry. Measuring just 5mm x 5mm, ESP8266EX requires minimal external circuitry and integrates a 32-bit Tensilica MCU, standard digital peripheral interfaces, antenna switches, RF balun, power amplifier, low noise receive amplifier, filters and power management modules – all in one small package.

Engineered for mobile devices, wearable electronics and the Internet of Things (IoT) applications, ESP8266EX achieves low power consumption with a combination of several proprietary technologies. The power saving architecture features three modes of operation – active mode, sleep mode and deep sleep mode, thus allowing battery-powered designs to run longer.

Supported Pins:

The ESP8266 chipset has following types of Pins (For more details on Pins refer to ESP8266 Hardware Guide-ESP8266 Datasheet and ESP Pin List Docs)

  1. General Purpose Input/Output Interface (GPIO)
  2. Secure Digital Input/Output Interface (SDIO)
  3. Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI/HSPI)
    1. General SPI (Master/Slave)
    2. SDIO / SPI (Slave)
    3. HSPI (Master/Slave)
  4. Inter-integrated Circuit Interface (I2C)
  5. I2S
  6. Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter (UART)
  7. Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM)
  8. IR Remote Control
  9. ADC (Analog-to-digital Converter)

 ESP8266 Family:

ESP8266_Family

Board ID Pins LEDs Antenna Ant.Socket Shielded Dimensions mm
ESP-01 8 Yes Etched-on PCB No No 14.3 x 24.8
ESP-02 8 No None Yes No 14.2 x 14.2
ESP-03 14 No Ceramic No No 17.3 x 12.1
ESP-04 14 No None No No 14.7 x 12.1
ESP-05 5 No None Yes No 14.2 x 14.2
ESP-06 12+GND No None No Yes 1 x 12
ESP-07 16 Yes Ceramic Yes Yes 20.0 x 16.0
ESP-08 14 No None No Yes 17.0 x 16.0
ESP-08 New 16 No None No Yes 18.0 x 16.0
ESP-09 12+GND No None No No 10.0 x 10.0
ESP-10 5 No None No No 14.2 x 10.0
ESP-11 8 No Ceramic No No 17.3 x 12.1
ESP-12 16 Yes Etched-on PCB No Yes 24.0 x 16.0
ESP-12E 22 Yes Etched-on PCB No Yes 24.0 x 16.0
ESP-13 18 No Etched-on PCB No Yes 20 x 19.9
ESP-14 22 Yes Etched-on PCB No Yes 24.3 x 16.2

 Firmware Options:

Development / Prototyping Boards:

Wiki and Forums:

Learning Resources:

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