ESP8266 Community Forum

- Sun Oct 29, 2017 4:47 pm #71366 First of all have lots of Thanks for your precise and well written analysis! This helps me a lot!

A - If you will me using the on board antenna then you should not be placing conductors (ground) underneath it.

Will use the external antenna.

B, C - You have a lot of vias connecting islands of copper that go nowhere.

D - All the current that is going into the ESP8266 is going through the one lone via at D.

I will take it into account on future revision! But isn't it shielding? Both areas are well connected, could this help to reduce EMI?

What voltage regulator are you using? And what is the input voltage?

I am currently using the standard ams1117 3.3V power supply. This could be a point, but it's working quite reliable on other boards, since the esp is a digital IC. So I already applied clean 3.3V bench supply but this didn't improve the situation.

Anyway great job rudy! My appreciation!

- Sun Oct 29, 2017 5:24 pm #71367 Would this Layout win?

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- Sun Oct 29, 2017 5:52 pm #71368 It is better. I still would like to see a cap between Vcc and Gnd. You have some space below Vcc. But I wonder about the parts below the ESP. They are mostly connected to the right side of the module. I would try and put them to the right of the module and put some bypass caps below the ESP. But I don't know what you are trying to do with the circuit, the reasons why you made the choices you did.

PCB design is a very "organic" procedure. It is a jigsaw puzzle that has no one right arrangement. Sometimes it grows a certain way, sometimes we get boxed in and have to make unpleasant choices. Sometimes it just turns out fantastic and years afterwards I still think it was a great layout. Of the things I do at work PCB design is my favorite as well and the most stressful.

The following board I did over a year ago. Notice the yellow cap below the ESP.

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- Sun Oct 29, 2017 6:27 pm #71370

I still would like to see a cap between Vcc and Gnd. You have some space below Vcc.

I do have some caps between 3.3V? I marked them on the picture.

But I wonder about the parts below the ESP. They are mostly connected to the right side of the module. I would try and put them to the right of the module and put some bypass caps below the ESP.

You are right, this wasn't possible. The parts below the ESP are more important and do have very strict layout specifications.

PCB design is a very "organic" procedure. It is a jigsaw puzzle that has no one right arrangement.

thank you for this!

The following board I did over a year ago. Notice the yellow cap below the ESP.

This looks super advanced! Is it 47µF?

In case I would run into serious power problems, I wanted to plug a 2200µF Elko into the 3.3V on the right (and I did so). But unfortunately it didn't help me. Although I do not very much like tantal caps.

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