The PCBs have arrived! ukposts.info/have/v-deo/spWEoIiteppn1Zs.html

Note: You cannot reliably connect EN to the VCC without the resistor and capacitor, as the ESP32 can fail to boot/program if EN rises before the voltage is stable (the reason for the resistor and cap is to delay EN going high). I've tried this shortcut on PCB designs and it /may/ work for you, or may not. For a couple of pence in parts, it's not worth the risk.

It's surprisingly useful to know the bare-bones setup if you run into trouble when designing your own dev board :). Speaking from experience here....

It still boggles my mind that these chips are basically used as toys now days and yet when I was a kid desktop computers weren't that powerful. Even more mind boggling is how little energy it takes to run them.

The capacitors on the USB lines are not used for noisy signals but as ESD protection. There should be at least a nF range cap on every pin to protect it against transients.

Can I just say, you have absolutely saved my arse! Brilliant video, very easy to understand especially for a beginner and knowing how to setup a barebones no-nonsense esp has came in so much handy for me. I scoured everywhere and as of this moment, have not found a single tutorial better than this one. It gets straight to the point and explains beautifully exactly what you need to do. Not only have you earned my immense respect and thanks, but a sub. Thank you so much.

Great video! But may I offer a suggestion? I used to teach a solder-certification course for missiles,and in watching your soldering, I see your main difficulty is not using an external flux. The solder on your iron and components becomes oxidized leading to globing and lack of heat-conduction. I realize that many people forego flux because of the necessity for cleanup, but you would have a much easier time if you would add some. If you ‘flood-the-field’, you can use your existing iron tin, otherwise, with minimal flux, use new solder each time but added flux is still recommended. Anyway, appreciate your video and all your commenters. 😊

I was just mulling over this selfsame question when contemplating the use of the ESP32-C3-WROOM for a bluetooth badge project. And this video provides all the answers. So, very many thanks for posting !!

You make a clever demonstration of how robust the ESP-32 is. We will be running out of IP addresses again if we put them in toys. Some wire wrap wire would make your task much easier. A search on `Manhatten type prototyping` and 'dead bug prototypes` should give you some ideas to make building things like this easier. You are putting a great deal of faith in the quality of power of the USB port the ESP-32 -plugs onto. Many years of experience have shown me that filters and bypass capacitors on B+ are needed. I've also learned to put a bleeder resistor across the B+ on computer boards others are going to install. A slow sagging B+ voltage can cause problems with some SRAM and EPROM. There is no way to tell how others will use the thing you make.

Oh hey! This video came up in my recommendations again!

OMG! Just what I have been looking for (not that I put a lot of effort into searching)! I have some bare-bones ESP32s, but didn't know what to do with them. Thanks for the video!

I remember datasheet says you should keep components away from antenna on both sides

An advantage to this is that deep sleep will probably work a lot better compared to a standard dev board. The components on a dev board usualy keep using power during deep sleep or prevent it. I'm going to try this.

Definitely needed, how often I find myself wanting so solder a small circuit in air! Thank you!

You can also try the ESP32-S3 Mini Module and ESP32-C3 Mini Module, which are more tiny. I have tried the ESP32-C3 Mini Module for a tiny space project, i just has the same thought of your, just ignore the unncessary caps, and just connect D+ D- to PIN 18 & PIN 19. The S2,C3,S3 support USB-CDC,which make it possible, i really like this.

If you feel like giving it another go, I suggest you scratch away the solder mask in opportune places and use the copper ground plane for ground connections - that should also give you enough rigidity to actually mount the USB connector straight to the module. Decoupling capacitors are not optional though. Under less than perfect conditions that suggestion will certainly get someone in trouble - eventually :)

i like to use 30 gauge kynar wire wrapping wire for soldering up like this. it's just the right size. thanks for doing this, as is being said it's very handy for quickly insuring what components and connections are necessary

Interesting. About the USB connections, perhaps you could try soldering the wires first, and then crazy gluing the connector to the board.

Neat! Appreciate the ESP info and ideas!

I loved how you edited the "schematics" on top of the real life footage at 6:55. Sometimes is just those small edits that tangle the whole video together and makes it way simpler to understand what was your endgoal

perfect, thanks sir glad to have bumped on this video, since i have limited electronics knowledge specially with the composition of components this will definitely help me bigtime for some small project to be fabricated, again thanks

Work of art! was thinking if you started with four strands of ribbon cable and soldered those to the naked USB micro pins while everything was straight and aligned then you could route those wires easily without needing the additional break out board. 20/20 hindsight and all.

For wire connections in quick and dirty tasks that are not to be used next day I use cores from solid utp cable cat5 or 6. Also u can strip it twist 2 cores, wrap it couple of times around soldering cylinder and use twisted wires end as new soldering tip. Last one is old hack from my grandpa when nothing was available (apparently they had abundance of stripped wires and some source of heating, not always electrical)

this was very entertaining (and meaningfully informative). thank you!

I've read the comments. This is what I'm looking for. I think it's a brilliant project. Thanks for uploading. I have a jtag board, I would upload an OTA program and you can do away with the Jtag and USB.

Love this video. Looks like this is a perfect fun way to get started with couple Wroom modules someone gave me

wire wrap wire is nice to work with, get different colors to color code. Beware insulation melts very easy and can cross connect if not careful due to soldering and crossed wires. Have tried the magnet wire, that can work nice, it's typically a little too thin(hard to see, work with), am going to try a slightly larger from a different scrap solenoid with thicker wire. And it's free with some scrap parts. For glue try sprinkling some baking soda on with super glue and it sticks to anything, dries instantly, and produces rock hard results. A little strange to work with as you have to sprinkle baking soda, but it works and you can build up amazing rock hard structure. Interesting the newer esp32's you can do USB direct and get rid of the USB-uart chip, that just seemed silly to have on every dev board.

Very neat project. Good of you to share. I'm sorry to pick nits, but watching the soldering bit gives me anxiety. Turn the heat up on your iron, and keep a nice clean tip. Always remember when soldering that (within reason) heat does not destroy components; exposure time destroys components.

Dude you rule- this is another project that was exactly what i needed!

Thank you sir for granting my request to make this video

That kapton tape job looked like a DIY flex PCB assembly.

Really awesome ! Can you still use all the gpios? I was just thinking about a tiny ESP-based polytuner for the guitar - strum all strings at once, and see which needs to tune up or down.. At minimum we'd need - a tiny mic connected, running fft onboard, either 6 tiny rgb leds or a thumbnail sized screen, tiny battery with charging over usb, & a power button/capacitive touch. After all string are in tune, flash all leds as a success signal, and shutdown. I'd enable raw data transfer over BT so an app on the phone can see all the signals and frequencies together in detail in real time. Also through the app you can set/change tunings and instruments. Honestly I don't have any experience designing a board, and lack in electrical engineering. But I'll happily write the code :) Hope you're a musician haha Let me know if you like the idea and if you'd consider helping. Thanks a lot and all the best !

Very, very, very good and clever tricks. Thanks.

THANK YOU omg i've been struggling for so long trying to do just that

It is quite fun to watch... Thank you

I ended up designing a dev board with just the ESP32 C3 WROOM module. I needed access to all the pins for development at work. Surprisingly didn’t find much out there that breaks out all the pins.

Awesome video please do more

Why not use an ESP32-S3 chip direct and build the Flash, controllers, and full setup, instead of the Wroom Module? You can likely make it smaller as you dont need all that there too... if you build the use case to be specific, can squeeze as small as you want if you dont need all PIN outs/ins, only the ones you need for that project. But this is a cool idea with the capcom tape and just soldering it on, lol. I've been designing my projects to not use the Wroom module, but use the ESP32 SOC and building Flash, ant connector, etc... I've been going through the datasheets and building my circuit based on the info there and the final product looks freaking professional! I have not ordered yet to test... but its a LOT cheaper as the same board (125mm x 98mm) through JLC fully assembled with the flash/ESP32/Ant conn/crystal/all the resistors, capacitors, inductors, relays, screw terminals, fuse, etc. is about $8 a board. on a 20 board order. That is using their supplies and such. This is just the esimate when uploading all the files and board info, not final. and the quote for the wroom32 module (I didnt want to go with S3 because of some library short comings in the ESPHOME echosystem this board is used for, and I am patiently waiting for C6 as I want the Zigbee on Chip!!!!) for everything, but swap all the items instide the WROOM32 with one, was around $18 for a 20 board order. So I am very carefully going thru my design and check and double and double check about 15 more times before I push the purchase thru for my first test board. I have watched Phil's Lab on this very item he has up and an excellent walk thru, after I did my first draft. I'm not an electrical engineer, so this is my home hobby projects, and doing this as a puzzle for myself to perfect it and then just take that module block and put it on all my projects going fwd. Maybe save some money in the long run. Going to see about having them non-build it and get the parts myself and since its just me and not a full production, hand build all mine to save a few more bucks. But the pricees they offer for fully assembled with parts included is so freaking CHEAP, its hard not to..

Great Tutorial! Is there something similiar for the ESP32-C3 Modules? Does this also work with them?

Great video! Maybe buy some thin wire wrap wires; they're more suitable for this type of solder work.

Great project for the less adventurous take a look at the seeed xiao esp32 modules

this is a great setup for a one-off, but you might start getting weird brownouts or random errors without all the noise-cancelling cap's if you put this circuit in the field.

Amazing content!

He has accomplished SO much, for SO long, with SO little, he'll next attempt to accomplish the infinite with the infinitesimal. I I think he'll do it.

very nice!!!

The bare bones idea excellent, the soldering seems to need some help and maybe better flux and smaller diameter solder for the tight spots. Quite the challenge without very good solder equipment, I could feel your pain. :(

Great tutorial! The only remark from my side: You put a lot of stuff in the 'keep out area' (WiFi Antenna). I'd rather use the other side of the PCB for the USB connector. Thanks!

Is it possible to power down the wireless devices, or better yet get a non-wireless version? I see a lot of new platforms coming out with built-in wireless, which is great.. but sometimes you do not want the RF environment of a wifi/BT device, and just want the microcontroller.

Where did you get the schematic? Also, no need to do the "hold boot and hit the reset" for uploading? Which is what I'm doing on an original ESP32 module and also a C3

So I guess, power usage should be minimal. Many devboards have problem with battery because of uart, usb and voltage converters. So it's what I looking for. Thanks!

In fact, in many cases we overpay for devboards. Sure, it is worth having one, but mounting a working system with its use is a waste of. The only thing we need is the 3.3V regulator and the socket for convenient connection of the USB-UART board (For comfortable ones - for programming ESP -01. For hardcorers - an old laptop with a COM port). In all this confusion, the most pissed part is the part that the leaders are not 2.5 mm in the raster and you need to solve how to lead them to a standard protoyping plate. BTW: in your solution is bad - you cover anthena by usb port. (look to datashet, for recommended module placing) Best way is use more capton tape, and move it to bottom (if antena is on top) (or even move all elemnts to ESP cover.

At 6:18 you mention a decoupling capacitor. Would you mind sharing which ones you used? 22uF, 10v?

I would like to combine a max7219 based 32x8 led matrix board with an esp32. This really shows how minimal I could get it. Thanks.

how did you manage those solderings? i am soldering and making so many prototypes but i have so many dead boards afterwards... could you explain me ho do you do it? i have tried high temp, low temp, quick and dirty, fast and clean, slow /../. anything...

You can do JTAG debugging directly with the USB port. No need to use the pins on the ESP32

Suggest soldering the wires to the difficult component first i.e. the USB socket then gluing down?

I think you could upgrade the "free hand" version with a flex PCB, that way it would be less difficult to solder the micro USB and have anything in place. Maybe I try it out, at least in theory.

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what are the values of the capacitors on the regulator please? Input and output respectively. Thank you for the video.

You seem to really know your stuff. Very nice.

in all my projects I use bare-bone modules of ESP32 and its variants (Only prototyping I do sometimes on the dev boards). For many reasons: starting with power consumption of dev boards (too high), ending on customisations and money. However, SMD does NOT mean... flying components ;-) That is why you were not happy and successful

Nice video! Is it possible to do the same in a esp 12E module as well? Thanks in advance!

Exactly what capacitors you used?

Nice!

for what the build flags mean: -DARDUINO_USB_MODE probably enables usb support for arduino-adjacent microcontrollers -DARDUINO_USB_CDC_ON_BOOT is what tells the microcontroller to enable "USB Communication Device Class", which is the spec for sending plain serial over USB. and because of the "on boot" part, i assume there is some way to do this in code.

Does that connection work on esp32-c3-wroom-02 as well?

Are the boot or reset buttons needed? To upload code I need the boot button.

You can cherry pick an LED with a 1.7 Volt voltage drop. I think there are tools that allow you to search for which LED with which color has the highest probability to be EXACLTY 1.7 V. I have seen professional projects in the past abusing an LED for that.

Can I use esp32 devkit v1? or do you have to use esp32 s3?. Thanks full

I have several old WROOMs just collecting dust - does this work only with S3 or with any ESP32 module?

Next time,if ever, use thin enameled 'magnet wire'. As these are very thin, you hardly have to fight with other wires, and soldering is much faster as the wires are so thin.

I didn't even know you could program the esp32 with the USB otg port, is there a documentation talking about it?

Did we need to flashing firmware to esp32 in first time ? Or it can be use after we buy it?

8:14 wobbbly! didn't you super glue that down too?

Will this configuration work with esp32-wroom-32d?

I am new here think D+, D- from USB is 5V and esp32 s3 can support only 3.3v

you look like steve wozniak and steve jobs' faces fused together xD anyways nice vid! making it rn.

So I'm completely new to esp32 boards. I don't really understand most of this but I find it fascinating. I am however very familiar with Drone flight controllers, and the similarities between them is surprising.

Haha love it!

does it work for regular esp32 (not s3)?

Where does a person buy a ams1117 33 d203 voltage regulator?

I also have products of such low quality, but I was ashamed to spread about it.

Guau... It's pretty.

well if I test your viode on a new ESP32 S3 module (not replaced another ESP32 Board) it is NOT working. If I replaced another board esp32 s3 now working. SO i thing this this design needs a BOOT buton also. Otherwise this Error message appear on serial monitor : invalid header: 0xffffffff

Why you don’t use a PCB for this work? The PCB with VDO and USB-Connector will not be much larger as the processor board.

use wire wrap 30 ga wire

dont remove extra decoupling whatever u do.

Sad that I made an S3 board instead, because it hasn’t functioned properly yet. Got it to load in Windows, but it’s listed as “unknown” or similar. Guess that is logical because I designed the board. Would maybe try again, but it’s the f’ing cny festival now. Sigh…many chinese started vacation early and shipping from JLC was sadly EXTREMELY overpriced during cny. So maybe 10 or so days of no PCB orders. Sigh…

OMG, What a Mess.

always avoid mouting components on the antenna area

if you remove the chip itself, since you can't program it anyway without the jtag, there you have it, back to nothing. Like the way I like it. Nice cause I started with nothing to do and ended up here

Oh. Its an S3...

I’m to lazy for this I just order tiny Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C3 boards.

Nice. Did you measure the power consumption while having the "dev board" in deep sleep? Would love to learn about your DMM readings.

Nice

3:29 pentim

Why most ESP32 modules contain a usb-serial chip if it was not required?

It was a great challenge. A rabbit 🐇 came out of the hat.

5v on a usb data pin? wouldn't that fry it?

7:27 What have men got to do with it?