ESP8266 Community Forum

Hello everybody. I guess, I am going to raise the issue of powering ESP8266 for a hundredth time at least. I apologize for that. For a test, I am trying to power my NodeMCU from 3 NiMH cells, which output 2000mAH and 4.5V, through a LM2596 DC-DC converter, which outputs 3.31V. When I wire the NodeMCU, there is no reaction from it. Of course, I checked, it worked when powered by the computer. What is going wrong ?

What happens when you feed the batteries directly to the 5V input on pin 1 (marked "VIN" or "VDDUSB"): with the USB port pointing to the right, the very first pin at the bottom right (the one next to it, pin 2, is ground)?
It might just work, but the on-board LDO has a drop of around 350mV, so as the batteries get depleted, it might not be enough anymore to power the board.

I would get my hands on a Wemos D1 with a battery shield and a LiPo battery if possible; it would make thing far more easy and reliable (I guess).