iLabs ESP210 – ESP8266 Module

The iLabs ESP210 is an ESP8266 based module with a USB transceiver, 3.3V voltage regulator (you can run it from 5v or the USB port) and a 4 MByte FLASH memory.

Unlike many other ESP8266 based modules this one comes prepared for anyone that wants to tinker and play around with it without having to connect external adapters and power supplies. In fact, to start playing with it you only need to plug it into your computer’s USB port with a Micro-USB cable! The device will take all of its power from the USB port.

The ESP210 also has a user-definable LED on the board so you can start off by running your first blink test!

A pair of male pin headers are provided with the board.

On-Board USB transceiver

The ESP210 includes a Silabs CP2104 USB to serial transceiver with TX and RX connected to the ESP8266 device.

The outputs of the CP2104 are defined as open collector and have an internal weak pull-up. This allows you to use the RX/TX signals of the ESP8266 freely in your application. The CP2104 will not interfere when not used. The same applies to the RTS and DTR signals which are connected to the ESP reset and GPIO0 respectively. Actually, when the device is not connected to a USB host it is not even powered on, making it possible to run the unit in very low power applications.

The CP2104 allows you to load firmware into the ESP8266 with speeds up to 921600 baud. This drastically reduces the time it takes to flash the ESP210 and when doing heavy development work this is a really nice to have feature.

Power

The ESP210 can be powered in a few different ways, here’s a list of the different options:

• USB, when powered by USB the internal voltage regulator generates the required 3.3Volts.
• Pin 17 (5V), This pin can be used to supply the ESP210 with +5V. This pin is also connected to the VUSB (through a zero ohm resistor) so be careful not to exceed 5V when having it connected to a USB port at the same time. If the ESP210 never gets connected to a USB port this pin can handle up to +7.5Volts.
• Pin 16 (3.3V), When the ESP210 is powered by a USB cable or by pin 16 this is an output containing +3.3Volts. This pin can also be used to supply the ESP210 with +3.3Volts. The supply must be +3.3Volts ±5% and the on board voltage regulator must be disabled by pulling the PD# pin low.

When the ESP210 is powered through USB or Pin 17 it will get slightly warm. This is as it should be and comes from the on board linear voltage regulator.

GPIO

GPIO16 and GPIO2 both have a 4.7 Kohm pull up resistor connected to them allowing you to use them directly to connect DS18B20 temperature sensors. Keep in mind though that the I/O’s are still 3.3V only.

The board has an onboard blue LED that is connected to GPIO5. The LED is controlled using normal logic, i.e. setting the port to 1 (HIGH) will light the LED and setting it to 0 (LOW) will turn the LED off.

Module Connectors

The module is shipped with 2 9-pin connectors that need to be soldered to the PCB. These connectors are designed to enable the stacking of NodeIT-modules on top of each other.

Specifications

• 32-bit 80mhz microprocessor
• 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi radio built-in
• 4MB of Flash, 80 KB RAM (~40 KB available for user code)
• 11 Digital I/O Pins (interrupts on 10 digital pins)
• 1 Analog Pin (Analog input 0 – 1Volt)
• PWM on all Digital Pins (up to 6 active at a time)
• Sleep and Deep Sleep modes for low power usage
• Ability to read the voltage of its power source (for battery monitoring)
• Board dimensions: 27.5mm) x 17.5mm
• Serial Speeds up to 921600 Baud
• Internal Voltage Regulator: 3.3V max 800mA
• Onboard full-speed USB transceiver

Pinout

Resources

• Design Files
• Schematic

Arduino

The ESP210 is natively supported by the official Arduino board support package from Espressif. Instruction on how to download and install is available here.

PlatformIO

You can also use PlatformIO as your development platform for the ESP210. You can read more about PlatformIO and how to install and deploy it here.

Package Contents

• 1x iLabs ESP210 Module
• 2x Pin headers