ESP8266 Community Forum

I think I want to do a fairly straight-forward project which I think I can pretty much just copy from here: https://github.com/corbanmailloux/esp-mqtt-rgb-led

I just want some lights to flash in certain ways/colours whenever my Pi sends a signal via Wi-Fi.

Can anyone advise how to determine whether I want ESP-01 or 02 or 03 etc? I only need three GPIO pins but I care about a) signal strength and b) power consumption (a is more important to me than b).

You're new? Get a NodeMCU or Wemos (b is much more important than a, believe me).

You've got everything running and know your way around the ESP: go for the ESP that fulfils your requirements (i.e.. you wouldn't be asking here).

QuickFix wrote:ESP power requirements are 3.3V±10%@500mA

Thanks; I ordered a Wemos that had a ceramic antenna but also a connector for an external antenna.

I was wondering whether I should use a buck module to reduce the 12 V to 3.3 V for the ESP or should I just use a less efficient regulator? If the ESP was going to use 500 mA all the time, I'd use the buck but if it only spikes to 500 mA occasionally and mostly uses 5 mA then I might as well just use a cheap but wasteful regulator.

Wemos can be powered from 5V (or from USB) as it has on board 3.3V regulator. You can bypass that and use 3.3V directly if you wish.

The module will use around 80mA average whilst active with occasional short spikes up to 300mA.

Personally from 12V I'd use a buck converter as they are small and dirt cheap < UKP1 and avoid the unnecessary power disspation (600mW) of a linear regulator. Linear LDO regulators are good when running from low voltage sources like a LIPO battery where the drop across the regulator is small.