ESP8266 Community Forum

Hi guys,

unless you want to hack your esp8266-01, you can just buy a more expensive version of the ESP8266: ESP8266-201 (4$ on Banggood and AliExpress) http://www.banggood.com/it/ESP8266-ESP-201-Remote-Serial-Port-WIFI-Transceiver-Wireless-Module-p-964288.html?p=PU22124098863201603C.
It has the same chipset, but a more developer-friendly board.
Indeed with this version is much easier to make the deepsleep working: the XPD pin (GPIO16) you have to connect to RST to boot the ESP after sleep has its own pin so soldering is not needed any more.

I know there are other solution with ESP12E but their chips and memories are wasted for a such simple application and power comsuption may be higher.

The suggested ESP201 is certainly 'breadboard friendly' but look where the pins are in relation to the trace antenna - that will seriously affect the antenna's radiation pattern and, consequently, the WiFi performance...

You didn't add a 3.3V voltage regulator?

No, the device works no problem with the 4.09 volts from the battery. I tested 4 esp chips including esp01 with hand-soldered deep sleep wire.