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GeneralRe: Ode to the Bluetooth selfie-stick Pin
trønderen27-Feb-21 8:17
trønderen27-Feb-21 8:17 
GeneralRe: Ode to the Bluetooth selfie-stick Pin
RickZeeland27-Feb-21 8:34
mveRickZeeland27-Feb-21 8:34 
GeneralRe: Ode to the Bluetooth selfie-stick Pin
Greg Utas27-Feb-21 9:03
professionalGreg Utas27-Feb-21 9:03 
GeneralRe: Ode to the Bluetooth selfie-stick Pin
Greg Utas28-Feb-21 9:05
professionalGreg Utas28-Feb-21 9:05 
GeneralRe: Ode to the Bluetooth selfie-stick Pin
trønderen28-Feb-21 15:53
trønderen28-Feb-21 15:53 
GeneralRe: Ode to the Bluetooth selfie-stick Pin
trønderen27-Feb-21 7:50
trønderen27-Feb-21 7:50 
GeneralRe: Ode to the Bluetooth selfie-stick Pin
Kornfeld Eliyahu Peter27-Feb-21 7:17
professionalKornfeld Eliyahu Peter27-Feb-21 7:17 
GeneralOde to the awkward and strange little ESP32 Pin
honey the codewitch26-Feb-21 6:35
mvahoney the codewitch26-Feb-21 6:35 
I love this widget. It's a system-on-a-chip powered by a Tensilica Xtensa LX6 processor, with integrated WiFi, Bluetooth, BLE, and "ESP-NOW" radio protocols, a hardware TCP/IP stack, a generous array of I/O options including ADCs, DACs, UARTS, I2S, SPI, I2C and digital inputs and outputs, all on an array of about 36 remappable (software multiplexable) pins.

All for like $5-$10 for one already on a development board you can use.

That's the great part.

Why is it awkward?

It has about 320kB of usable RAM, and about 4MB of flash storage. The RAM is a bit on the generous side. I rarely use even half of it. The flash program storage (once you account for on-flash system files, over the air updates, "eeprom" and library code) is utterly anemic. The bluetooth stack alone is huge. Then you add in the WiFi support so you're using all the major radio comms features and you're looking at like 40% of your program space being used before we even talk about the code you've written that uses it. It is basically not possible to use all the major features of this device with the small amount of program storage space you are given.


Furthermore, things look bad once you start using most of the space, since no toolchain i've used supports incremental patching of the uploaded firmware - i don't think it's possible.

You're stuck uploading 4MB over UART at max 921600 baud every time you make a change in the code.

If you're lucky enough to have a not-so-common WROVER-dev-kit you have onboard JTAG via USB but you can't upload with JTAG, only debug with it.

Because the dev cycles are so long and it's slow or not possible to step through debug it, it means you probably aren't going to use both of its dual cores unless you're very brave and very patient. The second core is just going to run the network stack and spend most of the time idling.

So it's a curious choice of technology.

If it were me i would have
1. Increased the flash size to 8MB
2. Allowed for upload via JTAG
3. Cut the 2nd core

You can get single core ESP32s variants but they're not very common.

You can get Espressif to make you variants but it's not cheap. They also have some variants they sell on custom order like the WROVER.

One of these days a chinese company like Espressif is going to figure out that they'd make a mint doing end to end manufacture-to-order of the SoCs all the way to building custom PCBs protos that use their SoCs as well and then they are going to dominate the industry until everyone starts doing it too because any amateur will be able to proto like a pro using those services.
Real programmers use butterflies

AnswerRe: Ode to the awkward and strange little ESP32 Pin
Eddy Vluggen26-Feb-21 12:31
professionalEddy Vluggen26-Feb-21 12:31 
GeneralRe: Ode to the awkward and strange little ESP32 Pin
honey the codewitch26-Feb-21 13:13
mvahoney the codewitch26-Feb-21 13:13 
AnswerRe: Ode to the awkward and strange little ESP32 Pin
Eddy Vluggen26-Feb-21 13:43
professionalEddy Vluggen26-Feb-21 13:43 
GeneralMusings: Contrast the Consequence Pin
W Balboos, GHB26-Feb-21 4:48
W Balboos, GHB26-Feb-21 4:48 
GeneralRe: Musings: Contrast the Consequence Pin
theoldfool26-Feb-21 5:28
professionaltheoldfool26-Feb-21 5:28 
GeneralRe: Musings: Contrast the Consequence Pin
W Balboos, GHB26-Feb-21 5:48
W Balboos, GHB26-Feb-21 5:48 
GeneralRe: Musings: Contrast the Consequence Pin
Greg Utas26-Feb-21 6:10
professionalGreg Utas26-Feb-21 6:10 
GeneralRe: Musings: Contrast the Consequence Pin
W Balboos, GHB26-Feb-21 6:16
W Balboos, GHB26-Feb-21 6:16 
GeneralRe: Musings: Contrast the Consequence Pin
theoldfool26-Feb-21 6:27
professionaltheoldfool26-Feb-21 6:27 
GeneralRe: Musings: Contrast the Consequence Pin
PIEBALDconsult26-Feb-21 5:37
mvePIEBALDconsult26-Feb-21 5:37 
GeneralRe: Musings: Contrast the Consequence Pin
Eddy Vluggen26-Feb-21 12:34
professionalEddy Vluggen26-Feb-21 12:34 
GeneralRe: Musings: Contrast the Consequence Pin
Sander Rossel27-Feb-21 0:20
professionalSander Rossel27-Feb-21 0:20 
GeneralThought of the Day Pin
OriginalGriff26-Feb-21 4:33
mveOriginalGriff26-Feb-21 4:33 
GeneralRe: Thought of the Day Pin
PIEBALDconsult26-Feb-21 4:41
mvePIEBALDconsult26-Feb-21 4:41 
GeneralRe: Thought of the Day Pin
obermd26-Feb-21 6:21
obermd26-Feb-21 6:21 
GeneralRe: Thought of the Day Pin
W Balboos, GHB26-Feb-21 5:02
W Balboos, GHB26-Feb-21 5:02 
GeneralRe: Thought of the Day Pin
jeron126-Feb-21 5:17
jeron126-Feb-21 5:17 

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