ESP8266 Community Forum

QuickFix wrote:

• Always and only supply a stable 3.3V (at least around 500mA) to the ESP (and any of its pins)
• If you need to connect pins to 5V logic, use a level-shifter
• Never pull an ESP-port up to 5V, only pull up to 3.3V
• Did I already say that the ESP only accepts a stable 3.3V power supply of at least 500mA?

Right, so when using a voltage regulator on the mounting board the issue is I don't have a 3.3v rail to connect to. I guess that's an issue with using this type of regulator that is mounted. I guess my question was about how people who use the mounted regulator solve this problem.

Right, so when using a voltage regulator on the mounting board the issue is I don't have a 3.3v rail to connect to. I guess that's an issue with using this type of regulator that is mounted. I guess my question was about how people who use the mounted regulator solve this problem.

This is what I have done when I used those cheap mounting boards. Sorry about the poor picture quality. My macro lens is at work so this was a crop of a small portion of the original images.

I bend a longer pin so that it ends up on a 0.1" grid from the other pins. The next row/column. Sometimes I connect to the top of the soldered in pin as well. The pad is after the regulator, the VCC connection. (3.3v)

Yes, if you use the on board regulator then the breadboard obviously supplies +5V. The on board regulator supplies the +3.3V to the Vd pin of the esp-12 but there is no direct external connection to the +3.3V.

The easiest way round this is to solder a wire from the on board 3.3V to a flying lead to go back to the breadboard.

Personally I gave up on the adapter plate as too inconvenient and it is not particularly breadboard friendly in covering up a lot of holes . I now use a home made pogo pin adapter which allows me to develop and swap around esp-12 modules for programming without any soldering https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2147460. For the 3.3V supply during development I use a serial board but bypass the internal 3.3V regulator (which can't supply enough power) by cutting the track to the 3.3V output pin and putting on a 3.3V regulator to feed it instead. Plugging the serial board into a breadboard then gives +5V, +3.3V and the RX, TX pins.