ESP8266 Community Forum

Hello people. I have been using the mega2560+esp8266 for a couple of years now (the ones with "Wifi" written on the side).

Because of the recent chip shortage, this product has become unavailable in Japan, so I looked for a replacement on AliExpress. I found something with a matching photo ("Wifi" logo), but then they sent me a different product with HW-888 written on it.

https://ja.aliexpress.com/item/10050029 ... 4c4d7KuryS

I can upload my sketches to the mega2560 and esp8266 without any issue, but the trouble is that out of the 20 boards I bougt ONLY 1 actually succeeded in connecting to my home Wifi network...

I wonder if there is an issue with the hardware (crap antenna?), or possibly I need to upload some firmware that is more compatible with the "WiFi" type boards? (to be clear, there is no problem with the sketches. They have worked on 100+ "WiFi" board I bought these past 2 years).

Any suggestions/question to help me figure this out are welcome!!!

Actually I don't consider alliexpress a reliable source... Let's see if anyone suggests a feasible solution.

After much discussion with a veteran from the ESP forum, I found that the board could (eventually) connect to my wifi network after fitting a 470uf capacitor across the 3V/GND pins and fitting an antenna to the socket. But even then.... the boards cannot stay on the network for more than a minute or so.
Looking at the surface components, the layout is the same but a couple of 4.72 kOhms resistors are missing from the pads on the HW-888 boards. No idea whether that is significant (perhaps the copycats did not do their job properly?).
In summary: STAY CLEAR OF THESE BOARDS, THEY ARE A CRAPPY EFFORT AT COPYING THE WEMOS ORIGINAL.