RESEARCH: ESP8266 & ESP32

Node MCU Project

Nov 12

For the maker community as of 2019, ESP8266 and ESP32 are most commonly used in place of the Arduino. The main reason for the popularity includes small form factor, cheaper price point, support for Arduino IDE for programming, and built in Wifi. These models are produced by the Espressif Systems in Shanghai, China.

ESP8266 - Released in 2014 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP8266
- CPU: 80 MHz (default) or 160 MHz (single core 32-bit) processor
- Memory: 32 KiB (80 KiB user data)
- Input: 16 GPIO pins
- Comm: 802.11 wifi
- CONS - One of the major drawback is the lack of security - details WIP
ESP32 - Released in 2016 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ESP32
- CPU: 160 or 240 MHz (dual core 32-bit) processor
- Memory: 520KiB SRAM
- Input: TBD (need to confirm)
- Comm: 802.11 b/g/n Wifi; Bluetooth v4.2
- CONS - Some of the older codes written for 8266 may not run on the ESP32. However, I would initiate new projects based on the ESP32.