ESP8266 Community Forum

- Mon Aug 31, 2015 3:04 pm #27480

Richard,
See the following post: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rev2-ESP-03-C ... 35ee530998
Very similar to your solution, already out there although this one communicates through serial without the flexibility of programming the ESP through the IDE.
Dans

Well that sucks, misses the point... thats why we are chatting it up here before the final release. Misses also the FCC and the power supply issues being fixed, as there is no current left for the person to experiment with!!!! The regulation of the power is very key with ESP8266 devices, most people under power them and have reset issues.

Richard.

Additional current should be supplied by external circuitry, never a good idea to power external devices of CPU regulator source. In terms of FCC, a screened can does not always guarantee harmonic levels fall within compliance, PCB design and track work are a key factor here, one should use through hole via's to a solid ground plane around any devices that generate RF. This come's from many years experience designing FM broadcast transmitter solutions.
I think it would be a good idea for you to publish your schematic so we can all input in to the design stage and see if any further improvements can be made.

Nice board-work by the way, good job so far.

Dans

[RichardS]

- Mon Aug 31, 2015 3:14 pm #27484 Solid ground planes are used, proper vias, I have an RF friend who helped on the RF end of things, its a very well thought out board in RF terms for sure. The 2 XTALS have proper grounding, etc... Should get it looked at soon at a lab and see... Files coming out shortly.

Richard.

Surplus parts
https://epartsconnect.com

Live realtime stock market prediction website. https://www.stocksignalslive.com my latest creation. Uses AI and machine learning.

New site featuring ESP8266 and ESP32 projects. tutorials, and news.
http://EverythingESP.com

ESP8266.com Founder and Administrator
The Mind Factory (get more from your 3D printer)

Home of the ESP8266, ESP8285, and ESP32 microcontrollers....

- Tue Sep 01, 2015 1:17 am #27524

Richard,

See the following post: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rev2-ESP-03-C ... 35ee530998

Very similar to your solution, already out there although this one communicates through serial without the flexibility of programming the ESP through the IDE.

Dans

The Cactus Micro is not a bad little board. I have got a few of the Rev2 version. Yes, programming the ESP is a little bit of a procedure - you have to program a serial passthrough program into the 32U4, that also powers on the ESP8266.

One approach to get around this is to use the wifi interface to program the ESP, using the "telnet" example that is doing the rounds. Another option is to use LUFA to create two virtual serial interfaces, one of which is connected to the 32U4, and the other that connects through to the ESP. The 32U4 and the ESP are also connected via SPI, so you can have bidirectional comms between the 32U4 and the ESP, as well as monitoring it via the serial port. This is just a theory at this point, but according to the documentation, it should work.

- Tue Sep 01, 2015 4:46 am #27537

Richard,

See the following post: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rev2-ESP-03-C ... 35ee530998

Very similar to your solution, already out there although this one communicates through serial without the flexibility of programming the ESP through the IDE.

Dans

The Cactus Micro is not a bad little board. I have got a few of the Rev2 version. Yes, programming the ESP is a little bit of a procedure - you have to program a serial passthrough program into the 32U4, that also powers on the ESP8266.

One approach to get around this is to use the wifi interface to program the ESP, using the "telnet" example that is doing the rounds. Another option is to use LUFA to create two virtual serial interfaces, one of which is connected to the 32U4, and the other that connects through to the ESP. The 32U4 and the ESP are also connected via SPI, so you can have bidirectional comms between the 32U4 and the ESP, as well as monitoring it via the serial port. This is just a theory at this point, but according to the documentation, it should work.

Correction, the ESP and the 32U4 have the option to connect over I2C (by connecting a pair of jumpers on the underside of the board), not SPI. SPI might still be possible, given that both modules have SPI capability, but one would need to connect the appropriate pins yourself.