ESP8266 Community Forum

Personally I had problem with the FTDI power supply, I was not able to successfully flash the esp from the Arduino IDE.
Now for debug/test I use this power conversion board (1$!!) with a 12V wall adapter, out 3.3v or 5v, 700mA max :
http://www.ebay.com/itm/171907055454
In the final project I usually use this power converter, also 1$, input 4.5-28V, max 3A out with adjustable output voltage:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/381374427427

I've found that I could program the ESP using the power from an FTDI converter but when I tried to run it it would quickly reset half way through the first interaction with it.

FTDI converter

You'll soon find you don't have a FTDI converter no more the esp8266 can burn one up in a sec . It draws way to much power.

My FTDI converter has a "+5v" output pin, wired to the 5v line on the USB. I have been using a DC-DC converter to 3.3v from that pin, both to program and execute code with a ESP8266-01 without issues.