ESP8266 Community Forum

Hi, I created a project that controlls 12V 10W LED. I have a 12V power source and I'm not sure what is the most effective way to power the ESP. If I use linear voltage regulator (I use lm117t) to drop the voltage from 12v to 3.3v the heat to dissipate is big so that the regulator needs heatsink. I was thinking about buying switcher regulator but it seems to be an expensive option. Most reasonable solution I can think about is to use to separate power sources. What do you think? Thanks

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1pcs-lot ... 97873.html

These are cheap. I have used them in two commercial products. Converting 12 volts to 5 volts to power a Raspberry Pi and five inch color LCD, and in the second product, converting 12v to 5v then using a linear regulator to generate the 3.3v for a ESP-12 module. I needed 5 volts for a character LCD on the second product.

The listing says it is a LM2596 and that's not correct. I forget what switcher it is but it is far better. More efficient.

Cheap but it takes a while to get it.

Additionally I can recommend modules like these to drive the LED:
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PCS-10W ... 79916.html

I'm using one of those to drive a 10W LED from an ESP and it works quite nicely.
The IC used on these modules is a PT4115 (datasheet) and pin 8 (the one closest to the "out" label) happens to be a PWM input that can be connected directly to a GPIO pin of the ESP.

rudy wrote:http://www.aliexpress.com/item/1pcs-lot-Mini-360-HM-Buck-Power-Module-2A-DC-DC-car-power-supply-module-ultra/32643697873.html

These are cheap. I have used them in two commercial products. Converting 12 volts to 5 volts to power a Raspberry Pi and five inch color LCD, and in the second product, converting 12v to 5v then using a linear regulator to generate the 3.3v for a ESP-12 module. I needed 5 volts for a character LCD on the second product.

The listing says it is a LM2596 and that's not correct. I forget what switcher it is but it is far better. More efficient.

Cheap but it takes a while to get it.

Thank you a lot, that's exactly what I needed.