ESP8266 Community Forum

- Thu Dec 17, 2015 11:45 am #36660 The pololu S7V8F3 board is probably your best bet. $5 each in quantity isn't terrible. Not great, but not terrible.

From where i sit, it looks like that board or building your own power supply.

- Thu Dec 17, 2015 12:11 pm #36663 Maybe you should get one of the pololu boards, and one of the 1117-3.3 devices, and do some testing to see if the smps is really necessary?

- Thu Dec 17, 2015 5:40 pm #36675 Smps?

I order some AMS1117 today.
I'll probably buy a pololu board but the shipping cost to France is high compared to the board itself

- Thu Dec 17, 2015 7:12 pm #36682

Smps?

Switch Mode Power Supply.

I order some AMS1117 today.

Those are terrible for battery powered applications. They have a drop-out voltage of at least 1.1V and the regulator alone, doing nothing will consume up to 10mA.

I'd recommend a modern LDO such as XC6203 or MCP1702. They have much lower drop-out voltage, consume less than 10uA (only 1/1000 of the AMS!) and are available in even small packages (like SOT-89, which fits on the white ESP-12 adapter boards).

I'll probably buy a pololu board but the shipping cost to France is high compared to the board itself

The ESP itself should work fine down to at least 3V, so you don't need a buck-boost converter for the ESP (since you shouldn't discharge LiPos much lower than that).
The only issue are the LEDs. Blue ones typically need a little over 3V and the WS2812b is rated for 3.5-5.3V. It would probably work mostly fine, when you run it directly off the unregulated LiPo voltage, but the colors may shift a little when the battery runs empty, sine blue LEDs might not light as bright as intended.