ESP8266 Community Forum

I am making a project with the esp8266 12-E and I need some clarification about the CH340 and CP2102 versions. As far as I understand it these chips are just used for programming the esp8266 chip. Is this correct?
Does this mean that once my project is programmed that I won't actually be using these chips? I'll just be providing power to the esp8266 from the 5v usb through the voltage regulator?

Thank you

Dermot

a esp 12-e doesn't have any CH340, CP2102, usb or voltage regulator...

The CH340 and CP2102 chips are serial adapters - they do not have voltage regulators. They serve two purposes, namely to allow you to programme the ESP8266 and to permit serial communication in normal use. If you already have a way of programming the ESP12 module and don’t need serial communication once the sketch is uploaded, you do not need either.

However, the ESP12 module is not good for general use as it includes neither serial comms nor a voltage regulator so unless you are using this solely to deploy a production ready device, you would be much better off using either a Wemos D1 mini or NodeMCU both of which can safely be powered by USB and have built-in serial to USB adapters so are much easier to develop with.

I think saying that the ESP-12E (ESP-12F) is not good for general use can be somewhat misleading.

I agree that for development purposes the integrated modules like Wemos and NodeMCU can be very convenient (certainly for beginners) as they make it easy to connect to a development IDE platform for uploading and debugging.

However, once a project has been developed then the raw modules, like the ESP-12F, can become a good vehicle for deployment. This is especially the case for applications not requiring serial comms (many projects) or for battery powered items where they offer the lowest power usage particularly those using deep sleep as they do not have extraneous circuitry drawing unnecessary current. They also offer the smallest size for those wishing to minimise deployment size. I appreciate that some may still want to use the integrated modules for deployment for powering convenience but for me even here adding a simple LDO regulator makes using the raw modules easy.