ESP8266 Community Forum

- Fri Jul 03, 2015 12:57 am #22316 As stated previously, I recommend the ESP8266EX chip for Wi-Fi applications, but definitely not recommend using the available modules, unless you can get a real FCC ID for it.

As for the datasheets, what you refer to is the standardized Western templated datasheet. As I need more and more often, I am now used to the funky Chinese datasheets, and this doesn't hurt me eyes any more They are not as structured, as most of them are written and formatted directly by the developers, they don't have the luxury to have an in-house documentation department.

AFAICT, Espressif was built selling SDIO Wi-Fi chips for cheap Android tablets, and they have a huge experience in Wi-Fi RF, leading to their unique auto-calibrating RF design. But they took the MCU from Tensilica, and they probably just used it with only a few optimizations, having probably a staff of software engineers to work on the firmware. But this situation where you buy some prefabricated IPs is not uncommon, even at TI, NXP, etc. Leading to the same situation where part of the design are just unknown to the design team itself!

Don't mix Shanghaï-based Espressif who is making the chip itself, and all these Schenzhen-based companies who are just copying / optimizing the reference design to make the cheap modules.

Your experience with large manufacturer's support may be biased because you are probably working for a US-based company, and probably large enough to keep their focus.

My experience from a middle-sized European company is different: their support dropped to almost zero within a few years, and this is true for most of the major manufacturers. Generally, they prefer to acquire startups to integrate trending products in their portfolio, rather than invest on internal development and knowledge. They also favor recruiting sales representatives that will bring in money, than FAEs that will cost! Short time view...

Put shortly:
ESP8266 modules vs. CC3200 for commercial modules: NO
ESP8266EX chips vs. CC3200 for commercial modules: YES

- Fri Jul 03, 2015 8:33 am #22343 Well I am located in US but very far from a large company. I completely agree with you about European support, or really the lack of it as I know of this first hand from working with a colleague. It's sad but I think we all agree that support is getting less and less.

I wasn't really referring to how the datasheet is laid out but for the actual content. This isn't an Asian style difference as I've worked with other Asian based companies that do provide more detailed documentation.

I think we also agree that the cost difference between the ESP8266 and any other available choice is large enough to make you take a look and that's what we're doing. I just wish that Espressif would read these posts and listen to us "early" adopters who are trying to use their parts.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and information, I think it's helpful for others to see what we have to say.

- Fri Jul 03, 2015 2:52 pm #22381 Yes, it is certainly worth sharing your experience!

It is not only the price difference that pulls this chip out of the crowd: its unique auto-calibration is a big plus, as unlike ALL other Wi-Fi chips, you don't have to calibrate the RF on the production line, and this makes the RF design trivial.

Espressif is actually looking at this forum, and they were surprisingly receptive to our earliest suggestions (it was 1 year ago): moving away from proprietary compiler, releasing most of what they have as FOSS, making big efforts on the documentation, even hiring some hackers to write demos (@Sprite_tm, see viewtopic.php?p=19621#p19621).

- Fri Jul 03, 2015 7:51 pm #22398 Also, I think that Athena on this forum is an Espressif employee.