Thanks for this video, I have more than 10 ESP boards laying on my desk and always difficult to chose the right one for the right project, your spreadsheet is a very good reference.
A. very thorough and informative video (we wouldnt expect anything less!) Keep up the good work Andreas. The Electromaker team will be looking forward to your videos in 2021 :)
DEAR ANDREAS I ADD YOUR WORK IN THESE VARIOUS PUBLISHED VIDEOS. IT IS A LOT OF WORK AND KNOWLEDGE ALREADY TRANSMITTED. I AM AN ELECTRICIAN ENGINEER, 64 YEARS OF AGE, AND I HAVE DEDICATED TO ELECTRONICS FOR 6 YEARS. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE CONTINUE, BECAUSE THIS JOB IS LOUDABLE A HUG, LUIZ ALVES RIO DE JANEIRO BRAZIL
Great video! Quick note about the TTGO T7 versions and the Live D1 mini: The inner pin headers have the same form factor and pin layout as the Wemos D1 mini. This enables a lot of readily available shields to be used! They can often be a drop in replacement by just changing some pin definitions. I always use the TTGO T7 V1.3 as it does not have PSRAM, and thus has pins 16 and 17 also available!
@@AndreasSpiess Agree, for the hobbyist and many of this channels viewers. One interesting spin to these tests would be, what would the design criteria be for the "ideal" ESP32 maker board, maybe a community challenge you can bring up -- if we can agree ... Lol.
Interesting and useful comparison, thanks. Is there a video for the light sensor project you mention at 10:30? A quick search through your past videos didn't find it.
Huge thanks for all your excellent videos this year. They have really helped to keep me sane in a challenging year. I don't know how you find the time to make so many informative (and funny) videos. Hope you have an enjoyable new year. Looking forward to more fun next year.
@Andreas Spiess - I have tested really a lot of ESP32 boards because i do this on a daily work day. I mean use ESP32 boards for profeesional use. I use always now since a year and a half the LOLIN D32 Pro. The one with the display adapter, ssd battery and SD card adapter. VEry well working and coding for use of both cores. I that time the 1 1/2 year i have tested Europe produced boards too because of warranty issues when needed. But still ím on the D32 Pro. It works very well and i use all connectors. Coded is all in C++. Thanks for sharing your view.
Nice overview ! Very handy. Recently I also found out about the increased shipping costs... So sad ! Happy holidays and the best of whishes for a happy new year ! Thnxs and congratz for all the videos of the past year. Usefull and interesting....
Another great video! Thanks a lot. You put so much work into planning out and making these videos they are so informative. I also love your soft Swiss accent. Thank you.
Andreas, thanks for mentioning shipping costs and woes. I have been fighting these lately, as well as items getting lost, cancelled or significantly delayed. I find ordering through distributors and through bigger eBay sellers and Amazon and those with local stock to be faster, more reliable and affordable. Digikey was a favorite distributor when I was a design engineer for similar reasons. As with much of the pandemic I fear these choices may result in smaller businesses being pushed out, but what can you do? +1 for a future video on the topic and the supply chain in general. Thank you.
Your channel provides information that really needs a lot of effort to gather from elsewhere,, you deserve a lot of subscribes sir, i always try to let everyone i know to subscribe to your channel because it's not fair.. have a great year Mr. Andreas
@5:06 To fix the need to press the button to upload to the board, you add a resistor to one of the pins to pull it up/down, it is something I have added to my boards, I’m in bed right now so I cannot look it up on my designs PCB for you right now, reply to this message and that should remind me to look it up for you in the morning.
Agreed. I just checked how much they would be shipped to Switzerland: 56$ for one of each. Not too expensive for me, but for a lot of my viewers I fear.
>Seon has shared his comprehensive engineering efforts supporting the ESP32 community Have you looked at the schematics for those boards? They are claiming they are special when in reality they are using the same LDOs as all of the cheap ones from china.
@@TradieTrev >I'm sure you're aware that they're based off the manufacturer specifications. What does that even mean? FYI Those tinypico boards were claimed to have some super magic "power path" in the crowdsupply campaign from what I remember. It was an LDO with an enable signal. If that's level of engineering on offer..
@Andreas Spiess excellent videos, they are so helpful. You asked if anyone knows of any ESPs that doesn't need the button pressed to upload code, I have not read the 586 comments below so if this has already been mentioned sorry. The "DevKitc v4" and "ESP32-S2", when uploading code from fast desktop almost never, but with slower laptop most times button needs holding down. So pooling resources with you and others my experience with these modules they have slightly better antennas than the "DOIT" boards, probably because the antennas have more space and over hang the main motherboard. Unfortunately the DevKitc v4 does use the AMS1117 regulator for the 3.3v however the board maker, Espressif, say it is fine to power the 3.3v pin directly with your own power supply, therefore one could assume deep sleep power usage is low but I have not proven if the AMS1117 leaks power on it's output pin, the power LED would also need removing. I power my boards via PoE splitters so I prefer a mix of deep_sleep and light_sleep.
I found a solution to the "button problem". Add a small cap between EN and ground and the problem is gone :-). And yes, the AMS1117 is not made for low current applications.
Thanks, nice overview. I love the Lolin D32 v1, lasts very long on battery with deep sleep and it can measure thre battery voltage with an internal voltage divider on GPIO35
At 5:10 you mention a problem with uploading to the KeyesStudio board and having to push the boot button. I have seen this on 2 other modules and found 2 solutions: Connect EN to ground with . 2.2uf cap or ground pin D2. Maybe if it works you can explain it. Hope this helps.
On closer inspection the TTGO T7 V1.4 appears to be pin compatible with the MHET Live D1 Mini, and the TTGO T7 V1.5 is also very similar, and might be able to be retrofitted to a project with a minor code change/rebuild.
Deep sleep current while USB powered is sometimes also important. For example when building a sensor, that also measures temperature. Deep sleep power usage from the board can easily affect the measured temperature 0.5 - 1 degrees. A lot also depends on proper case design for such a sensor.
I am not so sure if a few microamperes will create a lot of heat. I anyway would not put a temperature sensor near the MCU because it can influence the temperature when it iis active.
@@AndreasSpiess Thank you , alas I was on my own with the cat too. Hope you find happy times very soon.Happy new year p.s you have been a fantastic teacher to us all over the years Andreas here's to many more.
Just noticed the TTGO T-display aliexpress link is for a seller who isnt Liligo, who I think designs and manufactures the device and has it for a lower price.
@Andreas. Thanks for your table. I have one question (sorry, I am totally new to this): Is the 3.3V Pin on the boards only input or also output (if powered over usb or lipo), and if yes, how much current does it supply? I am especially interested in the TTGO T7 V1.5. Thanks for an answer.
Thanks for a very useful video. Unfortunately the Lolin D32 v1v0v0 is no longer available. I wonder where they all went?! I have tried another variant of the board and hope it will have the same low Iq. The product I purchased is the "LOLIN32 Wifi Bluetooth Development Board Antenna ESP32 ESP-32 REV1 CH340 CH340G MicroPython Micro USB Lithium Battery". I will see how this performs when it arrives!
Thanks Andreas this will greatly help users to save their tons of time, I don't know how i missed the previous comparison video or may be i forgot, can you please share the link in the description, thanks
Great stuff ! I wonder though what are the two (4-pin and 2-pin) external connectors on TTGO T7 V1.5, for example. Failed to find this information on google.
Your Keyestudio board looks exactly like my DOIT boards. I found that I often have to press the EN button to get a sketch to load, but a capacitor from the EN pin to ground sorts out most of them. Some boards are said to need 10uF, I have 0.33uF on mine and it's fine, yet I also have one board that never gives a problem at all. It seems to be worse on my new MSI motherboard than on my previous Gigabyte board (vintage 2009!). Try it, you never know, it might work.
have you thought about designing some of the boards, ordering them and soldering yourself? most of these boards have just basic components like ldo regulator, some leds, usb-to-serial chip and a battery controller. The shield is easy to solder and bypasses hard challenges in wiring it in correctly. If you need more than 10 of these devboards I would definitely go with this. The most expensive part of course is the esp32 shield and you can get it as cheap as 2.2$ per piece on lcsc and the pcbs are almost free on jlcpcb. As to make it easier to solder, just using through hole and dip chips should do the trick.
on the boards with pins too close to fit over middle of sigle breadboard... connect two breadbards side to side with 2 rows of the thin power trace blocks between the big blocks, the dev board then stradles the two boards and now you have 3 open holes for each slot... EVEN BETTER than the wide one that fits a single breadboard in my opinion.
Shipping prices: check the price for shipping to Germany. If you live near the border you can get a PO box in Germany for cheap and mostly no customs charges. BTW count yourself lucky, for Serbia for anything over $5 shipping is $30+. Had to resort to shipping orders to Germany then waiting for friends in Switzerland to pick those up and ship it my way.
I assume the prices from China are similar. In addition, orders below 65$ are duty free in Switzerland. In Germany this amount seems to be only 20Euro. But I order a lot of European stuff to Germany and fetch it there...
TTGO T7 v1.5 do they come with the external antenna connector soldered on? or is that something that needs to be ordered separately and installed? Great video, thanks!
oh yeah hot titles ! I love comparisons. especially in microcontrollers, it tell me what I can do with a certain board and compare that with another board my suggested next comparison, is the speed between arm and esp microcontrollers, should be interesting. who agree with me ? edit: this comment is before going through the video
@@AndreasSpiess I've watched several. Yes, your channel is interesting. I'm working on esp32 and just want to do a complete web control UI. I've got some html and css and just to get a grasp on javascript ..
If I'm not mistaken, the PSRAM and flash is powered via VDD_SDIO and completely off during main chip sleep. So sleep current must be not affected by it.
Hi Andreas, i really wonder why the power consumption is so different across the boards... If the battery input is passing a voltage regulator for the boards with the higer consumption, and the "winners" are cheating by just passing the 3.7v to the Processor directly, i would consider that as a bit unfair (maybe the other boards would be able to perform the same if you connect the battery to the 3.3v Pin?!?) For my plans i learned (from other Videos / Articles) that the best options for long running battery powered projects is two Lithium AA Cell which stay at 1.5V for a pretty long time... Here the Li-Ion Battery seems to be a real option, at least if the two winner boards to regulate the battery in. Did you investigate why these extreme differences exist? By the way ... thanks for the video - reaaally useful information on your channel!!
Just for fun, I'll be ordering some modules from Europe before Christmas, spreading some cheer. POE looks interesting for the not-very-remote devices without susceptibility to wireless noise or the need for battery. Just a UPS supply to the POE switch to survive power outages. ... Would be interesting to see how much of the POE can be siphoned off for active sensors. i.e. how marginal the power converter has been dimensioned.
I use POE also for my Access points. So I connected a bigger power supply to the switch. If you source "European" I would be glad if you can share your experience. I plan to create a spreadsheet where we can share our "supplier experience" I just placed orders in the US and in Australia...
Espressif Development Boards Maybe I missed it, but I didn't seen any reference to the Espressif development boards. I got one from Amazon for $10 and free shipping from Amazon. I've been using it for a month in my hydronics/greenhouse to monitor temps, humidity, control fans and circulator pumps, etc. It has worked flawlessly so far. I have it configured for OTA and it's a breeze to flash remotely.
Thanks Andreas, I did not know about the ME6211 regulator, might use that in place of the AP2112. It is slightly cheaper with a bit more power. Still using the AMS1117 when it is running a few sensors as well as the ESP32.
@@AndreasSpiess Yeah, it is not good for battery power but i am running a vs1053, 2.1W amp, CP2104, IR, RF, LDR, buzzer, WS2812s, a fingerprint sensor, and a nextion on the same board so running with a battery is distant dream :-)
Thank you, this isvery helpful. I still plan to build a Wifi-Weather-Station soon. Most probably I will not use solar but charge the battery, when needed. This would be acceptable for me, if the batteries run for more than a month. I was close to buy a Adafruit HUZZAH32, but after some research this board seems not to be the right choice. I guess the Lolin D32 will be the board of choice. Have a nice holiday season and stay healthy Micha
@@AndreasSpiess Thanks, my plan is to transfer every 10 or 15 minutes (if there was a significant change in temp/humidity/air pressure/rain). There will be a short connection to write data to my NAS.
My experience with digi-key CH is that some days or weeks after the UPS package arrives, a customs bill with a 20-30 CHF fee will arrive. Only if the order is fairly large this extra cost is negligible...
Maybe you could produce a video about the light sensor project. I'm highly interested! Sounds great that the small solar cell can charge the battery during the winter time. In video #155 it seemed to be a bit complicated and without success. Thanks!
It is indeed a strange world we live in, when an American product is cheaper than a Chinese one in Switzerland. 🤷♂️ In any case, I'll be glad to see your take on some of the Adafruit products!
5:00 Most of the boards out there with an ESP32 module DON'T have 100nF between EN and GND. Haven't seen schematics for this Keystudio board, but my guess is it is the same as DOIT and DOIT doesn't have this cap. I made a bunch of projects based on ESP32 (any) and never had to push the BOOT button. I always put this cap on EN.
@@AndreasSpiess Andreas, I'm one of the unfortunate ones who can't program esp32 using their Mac with OS 11.x . If anyone is going to know it is yourself, have you ever come across a solution to this?
Great Overview, Thank you! If I build a solar-powered project, as described in #154 (Solar -> TP4056->Battery) should I connect the battery via an LDO (+cappacitors) to the 3.3 v pin of the board, or should I connect the battery to the battery connector if the board has one (LoLin D32 V1.0.0)? or Maybe the TP4056 to the battery connector to benefit of battery protection?
The TP4056 charges the battery, so it has to be connected to the battery. If you use a module with protection, you have to connect it according to its data sheet ( www.aliexpress.com/item/32930640893.html )
Well maybe the "LIVE D1 mini ESP32" is my favorite because it is small enought for my needs and still big enought to handle. The sd card is still a nice touch for logger/website functionality i think
@@AndreasSpiess make one :P it looks like something really cool. I've actually tried to create a lux meter using a photo resistor but could not get the math to work.
Hey Andreas, thanks for the informative video and happy new year. I'm not sure what you mean with "board definition" at 5:15, however I usually put 2.2uF Cap between EN and GND, maybe that fixes your problem? You could just tinker a small "Cap-Jumper" for that adapter board.
TTGO documentation is not more than ok, but they have some pretty good features on some boards. For example the TTGO display has a beautiful color ips display.. which is dimmable via pwm, and normally pulled down, so you can deepsleep without holding pins down and the backlight is auto off. Or if you read the battery voltage, you need to close the path to the voltage divider via a mosfet or transistor, so it is not wasting energy thru the divider all the time if you’re not reading it. On the other hand, you can only charge the battery via usb - not the 5v pin. And it is usb c ...
Please do a video on part shopping strategies for makers. For example, I haven't used Digikey for years because of the "overhead" costs involved with small orders. Now, based on your report, I need to include them in my shopping. But, the situation is changing rapidly. Aliexpress is an interesting case. Summer 2020, shipping times to the US increased by 2-3X. Now, as you point out, their shipping costs have increased drastically for small parts. But it seems that they air ship to a US based re-shipment point for delivery by US mail. Net result is that Aliexpress shipping times beat Amazon "standard" shipping (free over $25).
Banggood already has stock locations in various countries and also on AliExpress I can sometimes can chose European warehouses... I think, things keep being interesting...
Thank you for sharing your experiances. I really like the swiss dialect as well - in english as well as in german. :-) As I always had very good experiances with the D1 mini with ESP8266, the D1 mini version of the ESP32 looks interresting to me. Greetings from the rhine-main-region, germany Alex
I especially appreciate the info on power usage in deep sleep - - accurate data is hard to find. I'm delighted to know that Lilygo improved that issue in their new v1. 5 of the T7 TTGO (after desoldering the LED). However, the link you provide currently offers the v1. 3 board instead, probably because the 3rd-party vendor changed the product at that link. I almost ordered it before I noticed. Perhaps you should link directly to the LilyGo store on Aliexpress instead?
Sorry for the wrong link. It should be corrected by now. I usually use the links I purchased my boards and I got a 1.5 version from that supplier. Maybe you contact him before. Or buy where they promise the 1.5 version.
Thanks for taking the time to update the ESP32 boards and the reminder about shipping costs! Happy Christmas Andreas :)
Thank you and happy holidays, too!
Perfect timing! I was looking for a low power board for my project. Very good presented! Thanks Andreas.
Glad I could help!
As always, as informative and helpful as it can. Congratulations Mr. Spiess
Thank you. Glad you liked the video!
Thanks Andreas. This video's data will help tremendously. Happy Holidays!!
Happy holidays, too!
Thank you, this is a really great video full of lots a useful information. Have a wonderful Christmas.
Thank you. And happy holidays, too!
@@AndreasSpiess please can you do a review on an ESP32 with an inter grated camera module and a built in microusb for power
@@Riazbapoo DroneBot Workshop has what you are looking for
Thanks for this video, I have more than 10 ESP boards laying on my desk and always difficult to chose the right one for the right project, your spreadsheet is a very good reference.
Glad I could help! I am glad we have a choice, especially the LoRa boards were very handy for a few projects...
This video was well made and very informative.
Thank you for making and sharing it.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I hope you'll have a safe and Merry Christmas. Thank you for all the interaction and your kindness.
You are welcome. Happy New Year to you!
Many thanks - again - for the high quality content around ESP32! (and have a nice Christmas and a happy new year!)
You are welcome. Happy holidays, too!
Dishika Cat was like interrupted from deep sleep 😸
Merry Christmas
Cheers✨
:-))
Thank you! Happy holidays, too.
What's her deep sleep current? ;)
A cookie from time to time ;-)
@@AndreasSpiess what is the deep sleep current consumption for this board? www.aliexpress.com/item/33006577783.html
I do not know.
A. very thorough and informative video (we wouldnt expect anything less!) Keep up the good work Andreas. The Electromaker team will be looking forward to your videos in 2021 :)
Thank you! I hope I will find some interesting stuff also in the future...
Another great video topic so useful to have real data to help decide which is best. Have a safe and relaxing Christmas period. Simon
Happy holidays, too!
DEAR ANDREAS
I ADD YOUR WORK IN THESE VARIOUS PUBLISHED VIDEOS.
IT IS A LOT OF WORK AND KNOWLEDGE ALREADY TRANSMITTED.
I AM AN ELECTRICIAN ENGINEER, 64 YEARS OF AGE, AND I HAVE DEDICATED TO ELECTRONICS FOR 6 YEARS.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE
CONTINUE, BECAUSE THIS JOB IS LOUDABLE
A HUG,
LUIZ ALVES
RIO DE JANEIRO
BRAZIL
Thank you and enjoy your hobby. We have the same age, BTW...
Great video! Quick note about the TTGO T7 versions and the Live D1 mini: The inner pin headers have the same form factor and pin layout as the Wemos D1 mini. This enables a lot of readily available shields to be used! They can often be a drop in replacement by just changing some pin definitions.
I always use the TTGO T7 V1.3 as it does not have PSRAM, and thus has pins 16 and 17 also available!
Thank you / bedankt Marc. That was my question. I have a few MH-ET Live and the are really nice but without battery support.
Good point with the small shields. I used them in a project in the past where I build 30 for a IOT introduction...
Thanks for all work you put into these vids, with lots of useful information. It's interesting to see that only one board use a decent antenna. Cheers
Most Wi-Fi connections are not critical I think because of the small distances.
@@AndreasSpiess Agree, for the hobbyist and many of this channels viewers. One interesting spin to these tests would be, what would the design criteria be for the "ideal" ESP32 maker board, maybe a community challenge you can bring up -- if we can agree ... Lol.
Hi Andreas, thanks to share your knowledge as you do.
You are welcome!
Interesting and useful comparison, thanks. Is there a video for the light sensor project you mention at 10:30? A quick search through your past videos didn't find it.
Unfortunately not
Thanks for the quick reply.
@@AndreasSpiess Hello Andreas, maybe you can share with us what board you had selected for charging the battery?
Huge thanks for all your excellent videos this year. They have really helped to keep me sane in a challenging year. I don't know how you find the time to make so many informative (and funny) videos.
Hope you have an enjoyable new year. Looking forward to more fun next year.
Thank you and a Happy New Year to you, too!
@Andreas Spiess - I have tested really a lot of ESP32 boards because i do this on a daily work day. I mean use ESP32 boards for profeesional use. I use always now since a year and a half the LOLIN D32 Pro. The one with the display adapter, ssd battery and SD card adapter. VEry well working and coding for use of both cores. I that time the 1 1/2 year i have tested Europe produced boards too because of warranty issues when needed. But still ím on the D32 Pro. It works very well and i use all connectors. Coded is all in C++. Thanks for sharing your view.
Thank you for your feedback! What European boards did you test?
@@AndreasSpiess I will come back to you on discord in your channel via a PM when this is ok for you.
Now there's a new S3 based TTGO T-Display. Looking forward to a review, with heaps of quality technical detail.
There are a lot of new boards on the market. Maybe I will do such a video in the future...
I wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful 2021 to you and your family. Take care and be happy !
Thank you! Happy Holidays to you, too!
Nice overview ! Very handy. Recently I also found out about the increased shipping costs... So sad !
Happy holidays and the best of whishes for a happy new year ! Thnxs and congratz for all the videos of the past year. Usefull and interesting....
I think we all knew that this will come one day... Also Happy Holidays to your and your family!
Another great video! Thanks a lot. You put so much work into planning out and making these videos they are so informative. I also love your soft Swiss accent. Thank you.
Glad you like them! And Thank you for your nice words.
ESPectacular work dear Andreas!!! Thanks for your effort!
You are welcome!
Great video. Thanks for sharing the comparison sheet!
Not my task. This is why I started the "Superpower" project ;-)
@@AndreasSpiess We need SuperPower board soon - as there are no good choices out there as you pointed out in other video. Happy Holidays!
Hi Andreas. Thank you for the comprehensive review. I think it's time for me to get more ESP32s :-)
Only if you have projects in mind. But this should be no problem for you...
Thank you very much for the another useful video overview.
Glad it was helpful!
Andreas, thanks for mentioning shipping costs and woes. I have been fighting these lately, as well as items getting lost, cancelled or significantly delayed. I find ordering through distributors and through bigger eBay sellers and Amazon and those with local stock to be faster, more reliable and affordable. Digikey was a favorite distributor when I was a design engineer for similar reasons. As with much of the pandemic I fear these choices may result in smaller businesses being pushed out, but what can you do? +1 for a future video on the topic and the supply chain in general. Thank you.
(removed... prices already in the list (headbang)) thank you Andreas for this module overview. Mary Xmas and be healthy.
Happy Holidays to you, too!
This is awesome, thank you Andreas!
My pleasure!
Merry Christmas Sir and have a nice weekend. Thanks for all these great videos
Happy holidays to you, too!
Gruß di Andreas, thanks for another great video! Frohe Weihnachten und ein guten Rutsch!
Thank you. And Happy Holidays, too!
so organised and a spreadsheet to match, I had to subscribe
Welcome aboard the channel!
Wonderful videos, keep up the good work! (just found these, love especially all the rf stuff)
There is quite some RF stuff on this channel...
Thank you. Merry Christmas. 🎄
Happy holidays to you, too!
Your channel provides information that really needs a lot of effort to gather from elsewhere,, you deserve a lot of subscribes sir, i always try to let everyone i know to subscribe to your channel because it's not fair..
have a great year Mr. Andreas
Thank you for your support!
Awesome analysis! Merry Christmas and happy New Year!
Same to you!
Thanks for this info.Very useful .Could you take a look at the LilyGO TTGO T-Watch-2020 - ESP32.Seems interesting.
Maybe ;-) (I have one laying on my desk)
@5:06 To fix the need to press the button to upload to the board, you add a resistor to one of the pins to pull it up/down, it is something I have added to my boards, I’m in bed right now so I cannot look it up on my designs PCB for you right now, reply to this message and that should remind me to look it up for you in the morning.
Actually I think I remember now, I’m pretty sure it was a 10K pull up onto the EN pin.
Thank you. I will try it. And sleep well. I thought it must be very late where you live...
You saved me, what a good video. Thanks a ton!
Glad the video was helpful!
Where's our Aussie made one the TinyPICO? Seon has shared his comprehensive engineering efforts supporting the ESP32 community. Locally great for me!
Agreed. I just checked how much they would be shipped to Switzerland: 56$ for one of each. Not too expensive for me, but for a lot of my viewers I fear.
>Seon has shared his comprehensive engineering efforts supporting the ESP32 community
Have you looked at the schematics for those boards? They are claiming they are special when in reality they are using the same LDOs as all of the cheap ones from china.
@@donpalmera I'm sure you're aware that they're based off the manufacturer specifications.
@@TradieTrev
>I'm sure you're aware that they're based off the manufacturer specifications.
What does that even mean? FYI Those tinypico boards were claimed to have some super magic "power path" in the crowdsupply campaign from what I remember. It was an LDO with an enable signal. If that's level of engineering on offer..
@@donpalmera Lol, maybe you can't read. Same LDO? Not seen ANY other board using the LDO I use, but you know best ;)
Thanks a lot. I was struggling what module does fit the best.
Glad it was helpful.
@Andreas Spiess excellent videos, they are so helpful. You asked if anyone knows of any ESPs that doesn't need the button pressed to upload code, I have not read the 586 comments below so if this has already been mentioned sorry. The "DevKitc v4" and "ESP32-S2", when uploading code from fast desktop almost never, but with slower laptop most times button needs holding down. So pooling resources with you and others my experience with these modules they have slightly better antennas than the "DOIT" boards, probably because the antennas have more space and over hang the main motherboard. Unfortunately the DevKitc v4 does use the AMS1117 regulator for the 3.3v however the board maker, Espressif, say it is fine to power the 3.3v pin directly with your own power supply, therefore one could assume deep sleep power usage is low but I have not proven if the AMS1117 leaks power on it's output pin, the power LED would also need removing. I power my boards via PoE splitters so I prefer a mix of deep_sleep and light_sleep.
I found a solution to the "button problem". Add a small cap between EN and ground and the problem is gone :-). And yes, the AMS1117 is not made for low current applications.
@@AndreasSpiess That is handy to know, the cap. Keep up the excellent work Andreas.
Thank you Andreas. Very helpful, as usual.
Glad to hear that!
Thanks, nice overview. I love the Lolin D32 v1, lasts very long on battery with deep sleep and it can measure thre battery voltage with an internal voltage divider on GPIO35
Good to know that it already has a voltage divider. I added the info to the spreadsheet
I tried to buy one but they have sold out. I ordered another variant and hope it has the same low Iq ☺
At 5:10 you mention a problem with uploading to the KeyesStudio board and having to push the boot button. I have seen this on 2 other modules and found 2 solutions: Connect EN to ground with . 2.2uf cap or ground pin D2. Maybe if it works you can explain it. Hope this helps.
You are right. Adding a 10uF cap solved the problem on all three boards. Thanks!
@@AndreasSpiess Now the question is why does it work. The solution comes from TH-camr, Xtronical.
Thank you so much! Your videos helped me a lot. Thank you for sharing all the knowledge!
You are welcome!
You r the best Andreas! Tks very much!
You are welcome!
Great Video, useful spreadsheet.
Pity about some of the gaps - I'd really like the deep sleep power consumption figures for the MHET Live D1 Mini.
On closer inspection the TTGO T7 V1.4 appears to be pin compatible with the MHET Live D1 Mini, and the TTGO T7 V1.5 is also very similar, and might be able
to be retrofitted to a project with a minor code change/rebuild.
Thank you for sharing the good info!
My pleasure!
Deep sleep current while USB powered is sometimes also important. For example when building a sensor, that also measures temperature. Deep sleep power usage from the board can easily affect the measured temperature 0.5 - 1 degrees. A lot also depends on proper case design for such a sensor.
I am not so sure if a few microamperes will create a lot of heat. I anyway would not put a temperature sensor near the MCU because it can influence the temperature when it iis active.
Great video, just what I was looking for!
Glad I could help!
I literally posted a question about the TTGO T-Display myself a few days ago on one of his videos too =)
Oh by the way "MERRY CHRISTMAS " i hope you and the cat are not bloated out on the hams and turkey hope your having a nice day friend tc
This time Christmas was very quiet... Happy New year to you!
@@AndreasSpiess Thank you , alas I was on my own with the cat too. Hope you find happy times very soon.Happy new year p.s you have been a fantastic teacher to us all over the years Andreas here's to many more.
Great informative video! Is the lab-cat at the end a reference to the "Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer" lion ;-)?
Nice idea! She seem to have a lot of fans, so she sometimes appears on stage...
Just noticed the TTGO T-display aliexpress link is for a seller who isnt Liligo, who I think designs and manufactures the device and has it for a lower price.
I usually post the links I used. But Liligo is also a good source. Sometimes I buy also from them.
@Andreas. Thanks for your table. I have one question (sorry, I am totally new to this): Is the 3.3V Pin on the boards only input or also output (if powered over usb or lipo), and if yes, how much current does it supply? I am especially interested in the TTGO T7 V1.5. Thanks for an answer.
It is also Output for a few mA
Thanks for a very useful video. Unfortunately the Lolin D32 v1v0v0 is no longer available. I wonder where they all went?! I have tried another variant of the board and hope it will have the same low Iq. The product I purchased is the "LOLIN32 Wifi Bluetooth Development Board Antenna ESP32 ESP-32 REV1 CH340 CH340G MicroPython Micro USB Lithium Battery". I will see how this performs when it arrives!
TTGO has many product revisions... Let's hope!
Thanx a lot for this review of boards.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks Andreas this will greatly help users to save their tons of time, I don't know how i missed the previous comparison video or may be i forgot, can you please share the link in the description, thanks
You find them easily with the numbers given in the video.
Great stuff ! I wonder though what are the two (4-pin and 2-pin) external connectors on TTGO T7 V1.5, for example. Failed to find this information on google.
Lilygo has a pretty good documentation (including a schematic) on Github (one is battery and one is I2C)
@@AndreasSpiess Thanks! So battery pins can basically be used also for regular power supply if one does not want to deal with USB power?
@@1yyymmmddd No
Your Keyestudio board looks exactly like my DOIT boards. I found that I often have to press the EN button to get a sketch to load, but a capacitor from the EN pin to ground sorts out most of them. Some boards are said to need 10uF, I have 0.33uF on mine and it's fine, yet I also have one board that never gives a problem at all. It seems to be worse on my new MSI motherboard than on my previous Gigabyte board (vintage 2009!).
Try it, you never know, it might work.
You are right. Adding a 10uF cap does the job. Thank you!
You are the BEST!!! Thank you!
You're welcome!
have you thought about designing some of the boards, ordering them and soldering yourself? most of these boards have just basic components like ldo regulator, some leds, usb-to-serial chip and a battery controller. The shield is easy to solder and bypasses hard challenges in wiring it in correctly. If you need more than 10 of these devboards I would definitely go with this. The most expensive part of course is the esp32 shield and you can get it as cheap as 2.2$ per piece on lcsc and the pcbs are almost free on jlcpcb. As to make it easier to solder, just using through hole and dip chips should do the trick.
As mentioned in the video I started the "Superpower" project for my viewers...
Thanks for your effort! What's your favorite out of the whole list then?
I think I mentioned it in the video.
Great video. The TTGO 1.5 link took me to 1.4 and I had to cancel the order. Sorry you may have missed out on that one. Try and fix that.
I got a V1.5 with this link.
Last picture is the famous CAT display after CRT are no more :) Happy holidays Andreas
Happy Holidays, too. I thought she should be present in the last video of the year. We never know if she is still alive next year...
@@AndreasSpiess Absolutely - I'm sure you give her an extra cookie and she won't decline it :)
on the boards with pins too close to fit over middle of sigle breadboard... connect two breadbards side to side with 2 rows of the thin power trace blocks between the big blocks, the dev board then stradles the two boards and now you have 3 open holes for each slot... EVEN BETTER than the wide one that fits a single breadboard in my opinion.
I order all my stuff from digikey to avoid fakes..
Also a good possibility to use two breadboards. And digikey of course is the "gold standard"...
@@AndreasSpiess th-cam.com/video/fYFskPTEyos/w-d-xo.html
Happy New Year, Andreas :)
Happy new year to you, too!
Shipping prices: check the price for shipping to Germany. If you live near the border you can get a PO box in Germany for cheap and mostly no customs charges. BTW count yourself lucky, for Serbia for anything over $5 shipping is $30+. Had to resort to shipping orders to Germany then waiting for friends in Switzerland to pick those up and ship it my way.
I assume the prices from China are similar. In addition, orders below 65$ are duty free in Switzerland. In Germany this amount seems to be only 20Euro. But I order a lot of European stuff to Germany and fetch it there...
TTGO T7 v1.5 do they come with the external antenna connector soldered on? or is that something that needs to be ordered separately and installed?
Great video, thanks!
They come with a u.fl connector. But as usual, you have to change a connection (soldering)
@@AndreasSpiess Thanks. I contacted TTGO and they are going to do it for me (i think) before shipping. fingers crossed :)
at 11:15 you have "without" spelled "withoud" and it's still that way in the google spreadsheet, just FYI
Thank you. Corrected.
please check the esp32-s2 boards, would be nice to see pro/cons vs esp32 boads. Also circuit python is supporting ESP32-S2 now
I already did a video about the features. We will see how to use it. So far USB seems not to be supported by the Arduino IDE.
oh yeah hot titles ! I love comparisons. especially in microcontrollers, it tell me what I can do with a certain board and compare that with another board
my suggested next comparison, is the speed between arm and esp microcontrollers, should be interesting. who agree with me ?
edit:
this comment is before going through the video
Maybe you watch also earlier videos on this channel?
@@AndreasSpiess I've watched several. Yes, your channel is interesting.
I'm working on esp32 and just want to do a complete web control UI. I've got some html and css and just to get a grasp on javascript ..
If I'm not mistaken, the PSRAM and flash is powered via VDD_SDIO and completely off during main chip sleep. So sleep current must be not affected by it.
Thank you for the info. The measurements seem to support your finding.
Hi Andreas,
i really wonder why the power consumption is so different across the boards...
If the battery input is passing a voltage regulator for the boards with the higer consumption, and the "winners" are cheating by just passing the 3.7v to the Processor directly, i would consider that as a bit unfair (maybe the other boards would be able to perform the same if you connect the battery to the 3.3v Pin?!?)
For my plans i learned (from other Videos / Articles) that the best options for long running battery powered projects is two Lithium AA Cell which stay at 1.5V for a pretty long time... Here the Li-Ion Battery seems to be a real option, at least if the two winner boards to regulate the battery in.
Did you investigate why these extreme differences exist?
By the way ... thanks for the video - reaaally useful information on your channel!!
1. I did not investigate
2. LiFePo batteries are also a good solution because it stays below 3.6 volts which is the ESP's specification.
Just for fun, I'll be ordering some modules from Europe before Christmas, spreading some cheer.
POE looks interesting for the not-very-remote devices without susceptibility to wireless noise or the need for battery. Just a UPS supply to the POE switch to survive power outages. ... Would be interesting to see how much of the POE can be siphoned off for active sensors. i.e. how marginal the power converter has been dimensioned.
I use POE also for my Access points. So I connected a bigger power supply to the switch.
If you source "European" I would be glad if you can share your experience. I plan to create a spreadsheet where we can share our "supplier experience"
I just placed orders in the US and in Australia...
Great video as always. Question though why the wemos mini has no deep sleep measurement?
Because it has no battery and for USB a few uA more or less are not important for me.
Espressif Development Boards
Maybe I missed it, but I didn't seen any reference to the Espressif development boards. I got one from Amazon for $10 and free shipping from Amazon. I've been using it for a month in my hydronics/greenhouse to monitor temps, humidity, control fans and circulator pumps, etc. It has worked flawlessly so far. I have it configured for OTA and it's a breeze to flash remotely.
Do they have a battery connector? Otherwise they are nearly the same as #35.
thanks, very clear comparation.
You are welcome!
Thanks Andreas, I did not know about the ME6211 regulator, might use that in place of the AP2112. It is slightly cheaper with a bit more power. Still using the AMS1117 when it is running a few sensors as well as the ESP32.
The AMS1117 has a very high quiescent current :-(
@@AndreasSpiess Yeah, it is not good for battery power but i am running a vs1053, 2.1W amp, CP2104, IR, RF, LDR, buzzer, WS2812s, a fingerprint sensor, and a nextion on the same board so running with a battery is distant dream :-)
Thank you, this isvery helpful. I still plan to build a Wifi-Weather-Station soon. Most probably I will not use solar but charge the battery, when needed. This would be acceptable for me, if the batteries run for more than a month. I was close to buy a Adafruit HUZZAH32, but after some research this board seems not to be the right choice. I guess the Lolin D32 will be the board of choice.
Have a nice holiday season and stay healthy
Micha
You should be able to reach one month if you do not transmit often and chose the right battery size.
@@AndreasSpiess Thanks, my plan is to transfer every 10 or 15 minutes (if there was a significant change in temp/humidity/air pressure/rain). There will be a short connection to write data to my NAS.
My experience with digi-key CH is that some days or weeks after the UPS package arrives, a customs bill with a 20-30 CHF fee will arrive. Only if the order is fairly large this extra cost is negligible...
I have to check if this happens here, too. I would dispute it, of course.
Maybe you could produce a video about the light sensor project. I'm highly interested! Sounds great that the small solar cell can charge the battery during the winter time. In video #155 it seemed to be a bit complicated and without success. Thanks!
Maybe I will share my experience about solar charging with this sensor...
Andreas Spiess Which MPPT-charger do you use in the light sensor project? This info would be usefull ... Thanks
@@SatsumaTree MPPT Chargers are not needed for such small power. I made a video about solar chargers.
It is indeed a strange world we live in, when an American product is cheaper than a Chinese one in Switzerland. 🤷♂️ In any case, I'll be glad to see your take on some of the Adafruit products!
I think they do a good job for the community, too.
5:00 Most of the boards out there with an ESP32 module DON'T have 100nF between EN and GND. Haven't seen schematics for this Keystudio board, but my guess is it is the same as DOIT and DOIT doesn't have this cap.
I made a bunch of projects based on ESP32 (any) and never had to push the BOOT button. I always put this cap on EN.
You are right. With this cap it works fine!
Hello Andrea thanks with this wonderful review. Please do some project or review of ttgo esp32 sim800l.
I decided long time ago to leave 3G modules because the networks are switched off in the next time.
@@AndreasSpiess Yeah you're right Sir. Thanks a lot.
This is REALLY helpful 👍
Glad you like it!
@@AndreasSpiess Andreas, I'm one of the unfortunate ones who can't program esp32 using their Mac with OS 11.x . If anyone is going to know it is yourself, have you ever come across a solution to this?
I thought the Arduino IDE is MAC compatible. But I do not own one.
@@AndreasSpiess it is - the problem is to do with communication with the usb-serial bridge. And I admire people who refuse to buy anything
Great Overview, Thank you! If I build a solar-powered project, as described in #154 (Solar -> TP4056->Battery) should I connect the battery via an LDO (+cappacitors) to the 3.3 v pin of the board, or should I connect the battery to the battery connector if the board has one (LoLin D32 V1.0.0)? or Maybe the TP4056 to the battery connector to benefit of battery protection?
The TP4056 charges the battery, so it has to be connected to the battery. If you use a module with protection, you have to connect it according to its data sheet ( www.aliexpress.com/item/32930640893.html )
@@AndreasSpiess Thank you, Andreas, I really appreciate you take the time to answer!
Well maybe the "LIVE D1 mini ESP32" is my favorite because it is small enought for my needs and still big enought to handle. The sd card is still a nice touch for logger/website functionality i think
For the same reasons, most of my projects use a D1 mini or a similar TTGO board with battery interface...
Is it possible to add the physical dimensions to the comparison doc?
Done
Yep 8 boards - with about a 12.5% margin of error
Thanks Andreas!
I du not understand :-(
0:27 and 0:47 - There are 9 boards on show!!!
You are right! I have to correct the titles then. I am getting old ;-)
@@AndreasSpiess
I too am getting old Andreas
However, I think the title's still just fine (Your viewers just get a 12.5% 'bonus')
The external antenna of the TTgo esp32 is only for wifi or also for bluetooth? I haven't found any info
It is for both because BLE uses the same radio
Great video as always 👍
Happy holidays to you and your family 👍💖😀
Thank you! Happy holidays to you, too!
Link to the light sensor project?
There is no video about this project.
@@AndreasSpiess make one :P it looks like something really cool. I've actually tried to create a lux meter using a photo resistor but could not get the math to work.
You get Lux sensors for Arduinos etc.
Hey Andreas, thanks for the informative video and happy new year. I'm not sure what you mean with "board definition" at 5:15, however I usually put 2.2uF Cap between EN and GND, maybe that fixes your problem? You could just tinker a small "Cap-Jumper" for that adapter board.
You are right with the cap. I got the hint last week and I added it to all my boards.
TTGO documentation is not more than ok, but they have some pretty good features on some boards.
For example the TTGO display has a beautiful color ips display.. which is dimmable via pwm, and normally pulled down, so you can deepsleep without holding pins down and the backlight is auto off. Or if you read the battery voltage, you need to close the path to the voltage divider via a mosfet or transistor, so it is not wasting energy thru the divider all the time if you’re not reading it. On the other hand, you can only charge the battery via usb - not the 5v pin. And it is usb c ...
I did not know you cannot charge the battery via 5V pin...
Please do a video on part shopping strategies for makers. For example, I haven't used Digikey for years because of the "overhead" costs involved with small orders. Now, based on your report, I need to include them in my shopping. But, the situation is changing rapidly. Aliexpress is an interesting case. Summer 2020, shipping times to the US increased by 2-3X. Now, as you point out, their shipping costs have increased drastically for small parts. But it seems that they air ship to a US based re-shipment point for delivery by US mail. Net result is that Aliexpress shipping times beat Amazon "standard" shipping (free over $25).
Banggood already has stock locations in various countries and also on AliExpress I can sometimes can chose European warehouses... I think, things keep being interesting...
how do you add the solar panel? directly connecte to the battery or do you use some mppt?
As shown in one of my videos, MPPT is not needed for such small devices.
Thank you for sharing your experiances. I really like the swiss dialect as well - in english as well as in german. :-)
As I always had very good experiances with the D1 mini with ESP8266, the D1 mini version of the ESP32 looks interresting to me.
Greetings from the rhine-main-region, germany
Alex
You are welcome!
In my recent video I added a few more boards to the list...
I especially appreciate the info on power usage in deep sleep - - accurate data is hard to find. I'm delighted to know that Lilygo improved that issue in their new v1. 5 of the T7 TTGO (after desoldering the LED). However, the link you provide currently offers the v1. 3 board instead, probably because the 3rd-party vendor changed the product at that link. I almost ordered it before I noticed. Perhaps you should link directly to the LilyGo store on Aliexpress instead?
Sorry for the wrong link. It should be corrected by now. I usually use the links I purchased my boards and I got a 1.5 version from that supplier. Maybe you contact him before. Or buy where they promise the 1.5 version.