Getting Started with the ESP32 Development Board

First, to get started, what is an ESP32? The ESP32 is a series of chip microcontrollers developed by Espressif.

Why are they so popular? Mainly because of the following features:

• Low-cost: you can get an ESP32 starting at $6, which makes it easily accessible to the general public;

• Low-power: the ESP32 consumes very little power compared with other microcontrollers, and it supports low-power mode states like deep sleep to save power;

• Wi-Fi capabilities: the ESP32 can easily connect to a Wi-Fi network to connect to the internet (station mode), or create its own Wi-Fi wireless network (access point mode) so other devices can connect to it—this is essential for IoT and Home Automation projects—you can have multiple devices communicating with each other using their Wi-Fi capabilities;

• Bluetooth: the ESP32 supports Bluetooth classic and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE)—which is useful for a wide variety of IoT applications.

• Dual-core: most ESP32 are dual-core— they come with 2 Xtensa 32-bit LX6 microprocessors: core 0 and core 1.

• Rich peripheral input/output interface—the ESP32 supports a wide variety of input (read data from the outside world) and output (to send commands/signals to the outside world) peripherals like capacitive touch, ADCs, DACs, UART, SPI, I2C, PWM, and much more.

• Compatible with the Arduino “programming language”: those that are already familiar with programming the Arduino board, you’ll be happy to know that they can program the ESP32 in the Arduino style.

• Compatible with MicroPython: you can program the ESP32 with MicroPython firmware, which is a re-implementation of Python 3 targeted for microcontrollers and embedded systems.

ESP32 Specifications

• Wireless connectivity WiFi: 150.0 Mbps data rate with HT40
  • Bluetooth: BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) and Bluetooth Classic
• Processor: Tensilica Xtensa Dual-Core 32-bit LX6 microprocessor, running at 160 or 240 MHz

Memory:

• ROM: 448 KB (for booting and core functions)
• SRAM: 520 KB (for data and instructions)
• RTC fast SRAM: 8 KB (for data storage and main CPU during RTC Boot from the deep-sleep mode)
• RTC slow SRAM: 8KB (for co-processor accessing during deep-sleep mode)
• eFuse: 1 Kbit (of which 256 bits are used for the system (MAC address and chip configuration) and the remaining 768 bits are reserved for customer applications, including Flash-Encryption and Chip-ID)
• Embedded flash: flash connected internally via IO16, IO17, SD_CMD, SD_CLK, SD_DATA_0 and SD_DATA_1 on ESP32-D2WD and ESP32-PICO-D4.
  • 0 MiB (ESP32-D0WDQ6, ESP32-D0WD, and ESP32-S0WD chips)
  • 2 MiB (ESP32-D2WD chip)
  • 4 MiB (ESP32-PICO-D4 SiP module)

• Low Power: ensures that you can still use ADC conversions, for example, during deep sleep.

• Peripheral Input/Output: 
  • peripheral interface with DMA that includes capacitive touch
  • ADCs (Analog-to-Digital Converter)
  • DACs (Digital-to-Analog Converter)
  • I²C (Inter-Integrated Circuit)
  • UART (Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter)
  • SPI (Serial Peripheral Interface)
  • I²S (Integrated Interchip Sound)
  • RMII (Reduced Media-Independent Interface)
  • PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation)

• Security: hardware accelerators for AES and SSL/TLS

Pinout