ESP8266 Community Forum

I've been wanting to play with the ESP8266 for a while. I've sourced a number of boards that use it, as well as a handful of ESP-12F modules by themselves.

Here's my problem: if they work at all, after a while they become dodgy and super-unreliable at best. I did see somewhere that they need a solid power supply, and one of the bare modules I had powered through an FT230X--but powering it separately seemed not to help. A module I acquired on AliExpress worked great for a while, but when I tried to power it myself rather than through the board it came with, nothing worked anymore, even through its original board.

Am I doing something wrong? Are these things just extra sensitive to static/heat?

What's the best procedure for learning to use this device?

Hi,

I've no solution, sorry, but I encounter similar problems.
This module seems to be much more sensible to power supply than my ESP-01. For example, the ESP-01 run on two NiMH, no caps. They are connecting to WLAN until voltage drops below 2.4V.
The ESP-12F with two NiMH cannot connect at all. I've a test-setup now with four NiMH feeding an LD1117, no caps. Now it is running fine. I think that in this configuration the four NiMH will be depleted too soon to be useful.
So, if anyone has an ESP-12F powered without a regulator on batteries, I would appreciate to learn about the setup.

Thx & Best