ESP8266 Bread Board Testing

This instructables show how to test ESP board on bread board without soldering, especially for ESP-07 and ESP-12(E) and may be ESP-03.

ESP board most require 2 mm pitch connector but most bread board are 2.54 mm pitch, It need some tricks on connect between ESP board and bread board.

Step 1: Preparation

• 2 mm pitch male pin connector with 14 or more positions, e.g. http://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/3m/951240...
• ESP board, ESP-07 and ESP-12(E) preferred because they have pin hole on the connector
• 2 resistors for pull up and pull down resistor, it can be 1 - 12 k Ohms depends what you have in hand

Step 2: Cut and Bend the Connector

cut the connector, cut 7 positions each for ESP-03 and 8 positions each for ESP-07 and ESP-12(E).

Bend and adjust the long side of connector to fit for 2.54 pitch.

Step 3: Install Connector to ESP Board

Put the short side of connector to the ESP board pin holes.

Step 4: Install Pull Up and Pull Down Resistor

• Install pull up resistor between EN pin and Vcc pin
• Install pull down resistor between GPIO15 pin and GND pin

You may hide the resistors under the ESP board

Step 5: Install the ESP Board

Align the connector pin headers with the bread board hole and use some mild force push into it.

Step 6: Label ESP Pins

Stick masking tape on both side of the bread board and label the ESP pins for easy access.

Step 7: Flashing Firmware

For flashing the ESP firmware, temperately connect GPIO0 pin to GND pin. After flashing, remove it and reset.

Step 8: Happy Testing!

If you play with NodeMCU and OLED display, you may try my testing init.lua

Comments

[MitosXCIX]

Hi there, im having issues with flashing the ESP, i've never anything like this and don't know exactly how to flash and reset it

[陳亮]

Do you have program experience on other ESP8266 dev board?

[MitosXCIX]

Okay, got it to work now, im only a bit confused about the reset part.
i was able to flash it now but how exactly should i reset it ?

[MitosXCIX]

No not at all, i've read quite a lot now and found a way to flash it. Currently i got the problem that the NodeMCU Flasher won't find my ESP

[santa1234]

nice tutorial. you could also add how to connect the OLED display to the esp8266

[陳亮]

thx, actually step 8 already show the wire how to connect the i2c OLED on the bread board.

[Eric Brouwer]

Thanks for sharing. I have not used these modules, but now I know why they also sell the separate mounting PC Boards.