What is ESP8266?
The Chips
The ESP8266 series, or family, of Wi-Fi chips is produced by Espressif Systems, a
fabless semiconductor company operating out of Shanghai, China. The ESP8266 series
presently includes the ESP8266EX and ESP8285 chips.
ESP8266EX (simply referred to as ESP8266) is a system-on-chip (SoC) which
integrates a 32-bit Tensilica microcontroller, standard digital peripheral interfaces,
antenna switches, RF balun, power amplifier, low noise receive amplifier, filters and
power management modules into a small package. It provides capabilities for 2.4 GHz
Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n, supporting WPA/WPA2), general-purpose input/output (16 GPIO),
Inter-Integrated Circuit (I²C), analog-to-digital conversion (10-bit ADC), Serial Peripheral
Interface (SPI), I²S interfaces with DMA (sharing pins with GPIO), UART (on dedicated
pins, plus a transmit-only UART can be enabled on GPIO2), and pulse-width modulation
(PWM). The processor core, called "L106" by Espressif, is based on Tensilica's
Diamond Standard 106Micro 32-bit processor controller core and runs at 80 MHz (or
overclocked to 160 MHz). It has a 64 KB boot ROM, 64 KB instruction RAM and 96 KB
data RAM. External flash memory can be accessed through SPI. The silicon chip itself
is housed within a 5 mm × 5 mm Quad Flat No-Leads package with 33 connection pads
— 8 pads along each side and one large thermal/ground pad in the center.
ESP8266EX Overview
ESP8266EX Datasheet
ESP8266 Technical Reference
ESP8285 is a variation of ESP8266 with 1 MiB of embedded flash memory.
ESP8285 Datasheet
Now, if you're looking for something a bit more capable, check out ESP32 — it has
more memory, more GPIO, hardware encryption, Bluetooth, and all sorts of other
additional bells and whistles.
The Modules
Vendors have consequently created a multitude of compact printed circuit board
modules based around the ESP8266 chip. Some of these modules have specific
identifiers, including monikers such as "ESP-WROOM-02" and and "ESP-01" through
"ESP-14"; while other modules might be ill-labeled and merely referred to by a general
description — e.g., "ESP8266 Wireless Transceiver." ESP8266-based modules have
demonstrated themselves as a capable, low-cost, networkable foundation for facilitating
end-point IoT developments. Espressif's official modules are presently ESP-WROOM-
02 and ESP-WROOM-S2. The Ai-Thinker modules are succinctly labeled ESP-01
through ESP-14. (Note: many people refer to the Ai-Thinker modules with the unofficial
monikers of "ESP8266-01" through "ESP8266-14" for clarity.) See the ESP8266 article
on Wikipedia for more information about popular ESP8266 modules.
Espressif Systems
Current models:
Model Flash memory Antenna Size (mm)
ESP-WROOM-02 2 MiB PCB trace 20 × 18 × 3
ESP-WROOM-02D 2 MiB PCB trace 20 × 18 × 3.2
ESP-WROOM-02U 2 MiB I-PEX 18 × 14.3 × 3.2
ESP-WROOM-S2 2 MiB PCB trace 23 × 16 × 3
ESP-WROOM-02D is simply a small revision of ESP-WROOM-02 with
compatibility for both 150-mil and 208-mil flash memory chips. ESP-WROOM-
02U has an I-PEX/U.FL antenna connector in lieu of a PCB trace inverted
meandered-F antenna.
Additional resources:
o ESP-WROOM-02 overview / product page
o ESP-WROOM-02 PCB design & module placement guide
o ESP-WROOM-02 reference design (ZIP)
o ESP-WROOM-S2 reference design (ZIP)
Ai-Thinker
Current models:
Model Flash memory Antenna Size (mm)
ESP-01S 1 MiB PCB trace 24.7 × 14.4 × 11
ESP-01M 1 MiB PCB trace 18 × 18 × 2.8
ESP-07S 4 MiB I-PEX 17 × 16 × 3
ESP-08S 4 MiB (None) 17.6 × 16.2 × 3
ESP-12F 4 MiB PCB trace 24 × 16 × 3
ESP-12S 4 MiB PCB trace 24 × 16 × 3
Older models: ESP-01, ESP-7, ESP-08, ESP-09, ESP-10, ESP-11, ESP-12,
ESP-12E, and ESP-13.
Discontinued models: ESP-02, ESP-03, ESP-04, ESP-05, ESP-06, and ESP-14.
Ai-Thinker wiki: ESP8266 section
DOIT
Current models:
Model Flash memory Antenna Size (mm)
ESP-1 1 MiB Ceramic & I-PEX 24.5 × 14 × 3
ESP-F 4 MiB PCB trace 24 × 16 × 3
ESP-M1 1 MiB I-PEX 15 × 12.3 × 3
ESP-M2 1 MiB PCB trace 20 × 12.3 × 3
ESP-M3 1 MiB PCB trace 26.8 × 16
ESP-S 4 MiB PCB trace 24 × 16 × 3
ESP8285 is used in ESP-1, ESP-M1, ESP-M2, and ESP-M3.
Discontinued model: ESP-E.
Wireless-Tag Technology
Current models:
Model Flash memory Antenna Size (mm)
WT8266-S1 2 MiB PCB trace 18.64 × 15 × 3.13
WT8266-S2 2 MiB Ceramic & I-PEX 18.6 × 15 × 3.05
Additional resources:
o WT8266-S1 datasheet
o WT8266-S1 schematic
o WT8266-S1 PCB design & module placement guide
o WT8266-S2 datasheet
The Development Boards/Modules
ESP8266 based development boards/modules often incorporate a surface-mount PCB
module, a on-board USB-to-serial bridge, and breakout to 0.1 inch pitch connections.
For example, the NodeMCU Development Kits use Ai-Thinker modules, the Adafruit
Feather HUZZAH uses an Ai-Thinker ESP-12S module with a SiLabs CP2104 USB-to-
serial bridge chip, and the WEMOS D1 Miniversion 2.3 uses an Ai-Thinker ESP-12S
module with a WinChipHead CH340G USB-to-serial bridge chip. Other development
boards don't use an intermediary module and instead directly incorporate the chip itself
on-board — for example, WEMOS D1 Mini Pro uses ESP8266EX and WEMOS D1 Mini
Lite uses ESP8285.
