ESP8266 Community Forum

I am going to use ESP12F in one of my commercial design. I was bit confused about the supply considerations.
I am using ESP12F to drive LED array circuit for dimming and other functions. Supply from LED driver is constant current for LED array. What does ESP12F requires? Constant current or Constant voltage? And what should be minimum amp I should take into consideration. I am considering 3.3v, 1A supply.

Constant voltage. If you have to ask I wonder if your implementation will be adequate for a commercial product. It is easy to connect parts but to make a reliable product it helps to understand the current requirements. Not just dc values.

3.3v at 1 amp is more than enough. 500mA would be the bare minimum in my opinion.

What, in your opinion are adequate requirements for a commercial design based on ESP12F module? What am I missing?. Please help

rudy wrote:Constant voltage. If you have to ask I wonder if your implementation will be adequate for a commercial product. It is easy to connect parts but to make a reliable product it helps to understand the current requirements. Not just dc values.

3.3v at 1 amp is more than enough. 500mA would be the bare minimum in my opinion.

Life is full of tradeoffs. I like to use a linear regulator for it's lower noise but it is not as efficient as a switcher. So in my ESP8266 designs I tend to use a switching regulator to obtain 5 volts and then I use a 3.3 volt linear regulator.

Routing of traces and wiring makes a different. In noise susceptibility and also in radiated noise. I include different values of capacitors to handle the instantaneous current requirements. A larger value for lower frequency and smaller capacitors to handle the higher frequency demands. Larger capacitors will have a lower self resonant frequency and are useless for very high frequencies. I lean towards surface mount components as they have lower self inductance. For higher frequencies I tend to use multiple 0.1uF capacitors. Sometimes I will also add 10nF in parallel as well. Of course I try and put this as close as I can to the Vcc and gnd connections of the module. I try and not use through hole connections to the opposite side of the board but it doesn't always work out that way.

In series with all this I like to use an inductor to reduce the effect of transients coming through the power supply. I don't do this as often as I should.

Using a ground plane when I can but I tend to stay away from multilayer boards because of the additional cost. So I try and do what I can with two layers. Compromises are just a part of life, and circuit design.

Having done what I can for the power I also take equal care on the signal lines, in and out. Noise immunity is just as important there.

Of course manufacturability is important.