ESP8266 Community Forum

- Tue Jan 17, 2017 8:31 am #61128 Hi,

This is my 2nd project with the esp8266 chip and this one needs powering from the mains as it will need to be on and listening all the time.

It is an IR Blaster type device that can send an ir signal once given the command from mqtt. It works well but I'm not sure how correct it is or if the method i've used for power is safe.

I've attached the design image. The project uses:
ESP8266 esp-01 chip
2n2222 Transistor
2x IR Led's
2x 10k resistors
FT232RL for power

I'm using an FT232RL FTDI set to 3.3v for power, connected to the mains via a usb phone charger.
These are the ones from ebay:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/FT232RL-FTDI- ... 7675.l2557

Is it safe to use these for mains power? It seems to work ok.

Thanks
Matt

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

- Sat Jan 21, 2017 8:45 pm #61330 It might be a little less power in amperage, than the ESP8266 is looking for.. the FTDI FT232RL's internal 3V3 pin, is not really designed for powering external circuits, (Per spec sheet at http://www.ftdichip.com/Support/Documen ... FT232R.pdf ), also the size of the chip, negates even a smaller internal regulator than even the Arduino's 1117L... I've gone the brute-force way, powering most of my 3.3V projects, with a semi-modified (green wire to GND for on/off, 33-Ohm, 5W wire-wound resistor across +5 to GND) ATX power supply (max output 500W, Massive-Overkill-on-a-Galactic-Scale to the 8266's 200mW requirement ). (which, is why they say the Arduino's 3.3V output pin is too weak, causing brown-outs/reset.) I just recently bought two of the ones your link points to (now, old seller has taken their ebay ad down.) I have the version with the ISP & slide switch, but it too, still has +5V VCC pin, I've already tried running a L78L33 regulator from the +5, and it still seems weak. I just fed one of my 8266-01's to a MEGA, running a idle program (no entry for the main & loop voids, and outputting the RX/TX pins from the MEGA16U2 USB/UART., trying to reflash the firmware, failing with going as far as saying it was erasing the flash RAM, and then failing with a "bad header' for the 9600-baud and the 115200 baud versions. I noticed both the red LED (power) and blue LED (active) were fairly weak with the 78L33, and the MEGA's 3.3V output. But, showed a normal brightness to the 8266 just sitting idle, when powering with the external supply.

- Mon Jan 23, 2017 4:27 am #61405 Thanks for the info.

I've decided I'll stick to using batteries for the esp8266 chips I have, they seem to work well with them.

I'm now using a Particle Photon chip that I had laying around, it has an on board micro usb port for powering so it's a lot easier plus the online ide makes development a breeze!

Think I'll try out some wemos d1 chips for future mains powered projects as they are still pretty cheap and have on board usb for power, as good as the Photons are they are not cheap.