Strapping PinsAll the required strapping pins are pulled up or pulled down, as per the datasheet, to 3.3v or ground respectively. This made me think, sure, there are already ESP32-based boards in this form factor available commercially, but why not make my own instead, as well as a few of my most used modules in a standardised shield form, to make my life just that little bit easier?The picture above shows my attempt, with most of the GPIO broken out onto female header pins (except for the 6 gpio that are connected to the internal flash chip on the module).The Blank PCB ( front )PCB- BackThe PCB explained…Power:The board can be powered in two ways, either via the VIN pin ( at an optimal 7.0v DC – the LDO regulator can handle up to 15v, but I personally find that to stress it a bit hard ), which will use the onboard LDO voltage regulator to provide the needed 3.3v or from an external 3.3v PSU, which can provide a bit more current if needed…There are also plenty of 3.3v and ground connections on the two 20-way headers to connect to other sensors. My second issue is that when you have done your breadboarding, and want to go to a permanent project, which does not always need a dedicated PCB, you are now required to either live with things on a breadboard, scary to say the least or have a “spider” with many modules and wires, in a box or partly on protoboard etc…My Solution, the ESP32-S DEV Board, in Arduino Uno form factorMy solutionWhile not the most elegant, personally I really like the size, and layout of the humble Arduino Uno, with its standardised pinouts, and a large number of addon shields available for the platform. I am quite sure many people can relate to this problem. These modules are cumbersome to fit on a breadboard, to say the least, taking up a lot of space, and leaving very little space to connect to its pins with anything else.Some of these modules do not even fit on the breadboard, making it necessary to hang one side off the breadboard or use two breadboards with a gap in the middle. This is great for a project, but as most projects do not start on a custom-built circuit board, I am usually required to use a breadboard module. I do however have an issue with it, which I usually get around by designing a custom circuit board with a specific purpose. It ticks almost all of my boxes for features required in a microcontroller, with a lot of gpio’s, WiFi, and Bluetooth, as well as a lot of storage space for code. ESP32-S in Arduino Form FactorThe ESP32-S is, at least in my opinion, one of the most versatile microcontrollers available to the Maker at this moment.
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