Adafruit HUZZAH ESP8266 Breakout - (AD55285)

Description:

Add Internet to your next project with an adorable, bite-sized WiFi microcontroller, at a price you like! The Espressif ESP8266 processor is an 80 MHz microcontroller with a full WiFi front-end (both as client and access point) and TCP/IP stack with DNS support as well. While this chip has been very popular, it has also been very difficult to use. Most low-cost modules are not breadboard-friendly, do not have a built-in 500mA 3.3V regulator or level shifting, and are not CE or FCC emitter certified... UNTIL NOW!

The Adafruit HUZZAH ESP8266 board is what we designed to make working with this chip super easy and super fun. We took a certified module with an integrated antenna and plenty of pins, and soldered it onto our custom-designed breakout PCBs. We added:

- Reset button,

- User button that can also put the chip into bootloader mode,

- Red LED that you can blink,

- Level shifting on the UART and reset pin,

- 3.3V output, 500mA regulator (you'll want to assume the ESP8266 can draw up to 250mA, so budget accordingly)

- Two diode-protected power inputs (one for a USB cable, one for a battery)

- Two parallel breadboard-friendly breakouts on each side give you access to:

- 1 analog input (1.0 V max)

- 9 x GPIO (3.3V logic), which can also be used for I2C or SPI

- 2 UART pins

- 2 x 3-6V power inputs, reset, enable, LDO disable, 3.3V output

A connection at the end has an "FTDI" pinout so you can connect an FTDI or console cable to upload software and read/write debug info over the UART. When you're done with your coding, remove the cable and this little module can be embedded in your project box.

Each module comes pre-loaded with the NodeMCU Lua interpreter (NodeMCU 0.9.5 build 20150318 / Lua 5.1.4 to be specific), you can run commands and 'save' Lua programs directly to the module's Flash using a USB-Serial converter cable. But, if you like, you can skip Lua and go straight to using the Arduino IDE. Once you download the ESP8266 core, you can treat it like a microcontroller + WiFi board, no other processors needed!

Each order comes with an assembled and tested HUZZAH ESP8266 breakout board, and a 0.1" header that you can solder and plug the connection into a breadboard. A soldering iron and solder are required for that and are not included. Solderless breadboard also not included. You'll really want a USB serial cable like a USB console cable (good for Windows, not recommended for MacOSX users), FTDI Friend (great for any OS) or FTDI cable (great for any OS) to upload software to the HUZZAH ESP8266. Our essential tutorial has wiring, pinouts, assembly, downloads and more.

Reference link