What's your favourite ESP32 board? (# Best, good, cheap, quality, reliable)

Here is my config https://github.com/CrazyCoder/upsy-desky/blob/8d8d8519d6c945017aae30c18fca06d03cd9e1b3/firmware/base.yaml.

For logging, use this:

logger:
  hardware_uart: USB_SERIAL_JTAG

No harm in a short discussions, but for detailed discussions about debugging and support, please start another thread.

Want to keep this one clean and on topic. Cheers.

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Understood. I was just trying to understand how flexible peoples’ favourite boards were, are some best suited to simple GPIO whilst others are good at communication/control of peripherals.

The new variants (C3,S2,S3) tend to generate a lot of discussion about the level of ESPHome support they have, a lot of which is covered on other threads. Cheers.

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As I am new to ESP32 and would like to understand what the “easiest to start with ESPHome” board is - could you please point me to a thread?
Right now I just want to build some sensors and think about
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005005967733312.html for Ethernet and
https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005005664356453.html for Wifi

not using esphome, but i could get this wonderful supermini (i definitely fell in love :smiley: ) to replace my old esp8266 mini for 2 relay, 2 input button (a real button and a water flow meter), i2c (for a hd44780) and serial (for a pmsa007), also with logging on the usb jtag.
probably the fact it’s a one core device, it seems also quite stable with asynctcp, not bad.

I would go with boards recommended in this thread. For example, QuinLEDs.

I would pick traditional ESPs and not newer variants (not C3, S2, S3 and definitely not C6).

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Many thanks - the Eth01 is using the S1 so this is ok? I would prefer cable Ethernet for some applications.

I don’t know about S1s. But QuinLED also come in ethernet variants.

@MassiPi Thank you! Now to do some reasearch…

@Mahko_Mahko More usefull information to investigate!

If you are looking for a small footprint ESP32 AND you want I2C I would recommend the Super-mini over the Xiao. I “need” a small footprint as I’m trying to fit everything for my project into a small model. I found the Xiao works well if you require a UART OR I2C. That is unless someone can say otherwise?

After the recommendations above I’ve now tried both the Xiao and Super-mini in identical hardware configurations. The Xiao was more troublesome to get to compile and I could only get it to work with either UART or I2C, I wasn’t able to get a reliable Xiao board configuration for both to work successfully. However, the Super-mini, after removing my copy/paste errors, worked with the default ESP32 C3 board configuration!

EDIT: Removed reference to I2S working, whilst it does work, it’s not really usable. UART and I2C works a treat though.

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2 posts were split to a new topic: Powering ESP

I’ve read a lot of people having problems with the configuration of the ESP32-C3-super-mini board.

I also had problems as shown in this topic and tried a lot of different configurations.
Later I Found out that when you remove the board from the breadboard it works fine and connecting fast to the WiFi network with a strong RSSI.

I tested with

  • display(st7735)
  • stepper(ULN2003)
  • servo( MG90S)

and experienced no problems at all with the wiring connecting direct to the board pins.

I think the problem with the ESP32-C3-super-mini board has to do with unstable pins. When the board is on the breadboard it looks like the metal strips works like a sort of antenna and disrupt the GPIO’s.

#esphome:
#  name: esp32-c3-super-mini
#  platformio_options:
#    board_build.flash_mode: dio

#esp32:
#  board: esp32-c3-devkitm-1
#  variant: esp32c3
#  framework:
#    type: esp-idf
    
  #platform: esp32
  #board: esp32-c3-devkitm-1

esphome:
  name: esp32-c3-super-mini
  platform: esp32
  board: esp32-c3-devkitm-1

# Enable logging
logger:
  logs:
    component: ERROR # solved speed problems with my display st7735
#  hardware_uart: USB_SERIAL_JTAG
#  level: NONE

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
  encryption:
    key: "key passphrase"

ota:
  password: "password"

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password
  fast_connect: true
  manual_ip:
    static_ip: 192.168.178.44
    gateway: 192.168.178.1
    subnet: 255.255.255.0

  # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
  ap:
    ssid: "Esp32-C3-Super-Mini"
    password: "password"

captive_portal:

# ---------------------------

I hope this information solves some problems out there …

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This nugget was a savior. I probably lost 6 hours trying again and again to flash OTA my C3 Supermini while it was on a breadboard. It would only work one time in ten. I actually fried one board from a failed OTA. Then after hitting the same problems with a new board, I remembered reading something about the breadboard interference. Sure enough as soon as I took it out of the breadboard, connections and OTA flashing were perfect.

Holy Maccaroni what kinda Magic is THIS?
Couldn’t use the “board_upload.flash_size: 4MB” command because it’s used twice… BUT it WORKS! Finally!

BTW i’m using those Luatos ESP32C3 Boards.

Hi Nick,

Does your experience remain still good after 2 more years?
Is the board actively supported by ESPHome?
Does it also support OTA?

I have seen that all ESP pins are brought out on the 40-pin HAT. That’s good news, but do you know how many free GPIOs with hardware PWM are supported? I would assume that some pins surely will be reserved for networking, relays etc…
My plan is to build an LED application with at least 8 channels, and since I want to position the board right next to the router, Wifi doesn’t really make sense - so I’m looking for a suitable Ethernet board…

Cheers! Renato

The schematic is available, the link is in the first of those pages @bdraco posted.

Did you see and consider the QuinLED ethernet? The esp32 it is built on comes recommended by many.

I don’t know if it meets your other requirements.

I’m a sucker for m5stack’s design. Mostly because the antenna’s look great unlike the seemed Xiao that stick out like a sore thumb. While not a board, their new camera is tempting, want to replace my P1S camera with it if possible, especially now that they replaced that proprietary downloaded with USB C to grove connectors… That and the m5stampS3, although I believe they quick selling the breakout boards



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