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I'm always fascinated to see these projects on ESP8266. The board is great, but the ESP32 is a lot better - bluetooth LE, WiFi and dual-core at 240mhz, vs the W

I'm always fascinated to see these projects on ESP8266. The board is great, but the ESP32 is a lot better - bluetooth LE, WiFi and dual-core at 240mhz, vs the WiFi and 80mhz available on the 8266. The firmware wasn't as robust until recently, but these days I use it constantly for little projects.

jes5199 7y ago
I’ve got projects on both, but honestly the extra power of the ESP32 is sort of overwhelming. If I want to use DMA SPC on the 8266, there’s only one pin I can use. On the 32, I can choose between most of the pins, but certain choices will prevent me from using certain other features, not that I necessarily need other features right now but maybe later, and also it affects my circuit layout. So the mental overhead is a lot higher!
- StavrosK 7y ago
  I'm in the same boat, plus the ESP8266 (and the ESP8285, there are some very nice bare packages of it) is only $1.8, so I can toss it into whatever throwaway thing and not care.
sjwright 7y ago
The ESP32 is a lot better in many ways, but it suffers a bit from version 2 syndrome. The decision to go dual-core in particular. Personally I'm looking forward to the ESP32-S2 coming in quantity.
- leggomylibro 7y ago
  The S2 lacks Bluetooth though, doesn't it? The second core is meant to handle the network stack, leaving the first core to focus on program logic. With ESP8266s, it can be hard to write complex applications while keeping heavy WiFi usage stable. Although, I'll bet the 8266 firmwares and libraries have improved a lot since I was using them.
  - sjwright 7y ago
    The ESP32-S2 is best thought of as a spiritual successor to the ESP8266. If you need Bluetooth, I’m pretty sure the ESP32 is still being produced.
- Narkov 7y ago
  What's wrong with having dual core?
  - sjwright 7y ago
    Because it’s simply too slow for dual core to be useful. Few people will bother investing programming resources to extract maximal benefit out of those dual cores when faster single cores are dirt cheap.
londons_explore 7y ago
The $1 cost of the ESP8266 makes it usable for throw-away devices. Want a device to sit in the bottom of every coffee cup and notify you when the coffee is cold...? ESP8266 might be doable, the ESP32 won't be unless your coffee is very expensive...
- ASalazarMX 7y ago
  No more electronic waste please. I doubt a termochromic paint strip costs more than $1 USD.

jes5199 7y ago

I’ve got projects on both, but honestly the extra power of the ESP32 is sort of overwhelming. If I want to use DMA SPC on the 8266, there’s only one pin I can use. On the 32, I can choose between most of the pins, but certain choices will prevent me from using certain other features, not that I necessarily need other features right now but maybe later, and also it affects my circuit layout. So the mental overhead is a lot higher!

StavrosK 7y ago
I'm in the same boat, plus the ESP8266 (and the ESP8285, there are some very nice bare packages of it) is only $1.8, so I can toss it into whatever throwaway thing and not care.

sjwright 7y ago

The ESP32 is a lot better in many ways, but it suffers a bit from version 2 syndrome. The decision to go dual-core in particular. Personally I'm looking forward to the ESP32-S2 coming in quantity.

leggomylibro 7y ago
The S2 lacks Bluetooth though, doesn't it? The second core is meant to handle the network stack, leaving the first core to focus on program logic. With ESP8266s, it can be hard to write complex applications while keeping heavy WiFi usage stable. Although, I'll bet the 8266 firmwares and libraries have improved a lot since I was using them.
- sjwright 7y ago
  The ESP32-S2 is best thought of as a spiritual successor to the ESP8266. If you need Bluetooth, I’m pretty sure the ESP32 is still being produced.
Narkov 7y ago
What's wrong with having dual core?
- sjwright 7y ago
  Because it’s simply too slow for dual core to be useful. Few people will bother investing programming resources to extract maximal benefit out of those dual cores when faster single cores are dirt cheap.

londons_explore 7y ago

The $1 cost of the ESP8266 makes it usable for throw-away devices. Want a device to sit in the bottom of every coffee cup and notify you when the coffee is cold...? ESP8266 might be doable, the ESP32 won't be unless your coffee is very expensive...

ASalazarMX 7y ago
No more electronic waste please. I doubt a termochromic paint strip costs more than $1 USD.