DIYmall ESP8266 ESP-01 Breakout Board ESP-01S Breadboard Adapter PCB Board Pack of 5pcs - Serial WiFi Transceiver Module Review

After skipping the comments on the arrow printed on it and how it should be interpreted for module orientation, I chose the wrong one. Right after turning it on, the new Pi 4b immediately froze and never booted again! Sure, now I see the image hidden in the image stack with the correct orientation, but it really never occurred to me that the S-shape, effectively doubling the canvas, was the intended orientation. Wouldn't a cleverly placed tab eliminate such a likely (and apparently costly)…

While none of my ESP8266s worked whether they were attached to this board or not, all pins in all devices were soldered correctly and securely. Using a multimeter, I made sure the pins in the socket were only connected to the output pins that were connected to the breadboard. Due to issues with the ESP8266 I had to make sure the breakout board wasn't the problem. These are fully functional boards that get the job done.

I liked this little board. There is no line level conversion (TTL voltage level shifting) so you still need a voltage divider circuit or TTL voltage shifting IC that you connect to the Arduino's 5V. They put a good diode in there in case you hook the board upside down. But there's also an arrow next to the connector that shows where the long side of the ESP-01 goes.

I use these boards for ESP8266 modules but ALSO for nRF24L01 radios. They come with a built-in capacitor for ESP8266 modules, which is great! But I can easily (permanently) remove this capacitor with a screwdriver and then it can also be used with nRF24 modules. The nRF24's Vcc and Gnd pins are in different places, so this capacitor needs to be removed for it to work. If I still need a capacitor for it, I can always add an external one.

If you play with breadboards a lot and try to build the latest coolest IoT device, this is a big help for the weird 8-pin ESP8266-01 - the one I do had my fair share of cheap and mislabeled Chinese connectors - it makes it SO easy to hook things up to the breadboard. I've even used it on a raw programmer for identical modules soldered together. It's easy to figure out which way things need to be plugged in, and debugging is just as easy thanks to labels.

Ordered a few sets of these. I like them because of the alignment of the ESP-01 in relation to this board and breadboard. On some other breakout boards, the ESP-01 is rotated 90 degrees. The silkscreen is easy to read and there is an arrow on the circuit board to indicate which direction the ESP-01 should be pointing.