ESP32 board

Introduction

The ESP32 is a microcontroller produced by Espressif Systems, a Chinese company specializing in wireless connectivity solutions. The ESP32 is the successor to the ESP8266, another popular microcontroller.
The ESP32 integrates advanced features including Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, making it suitable for a wide range of IoT applications.

Pros

  1. Versatility: Thanks to its dual Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, the ESP32 is capable of managing a wide range of IoT applications, ranging from home automation to wearable devices.
  2. Processing power: With its two processor cores and 240 MHz frequency, the ESP32 can handle complex tasks, including real-time signal processing.
  3. Low power consumption: The ESP32 has several power saving modes, making it suitable for battery-powered projects.
  4. Support and Community: The ESP32 is supported by a large community of developers, making it easy to access libraries, tutorials, and online help.
  5. Ease of use: Compatible with the Arduino IDE and other development environments, the ESP32 is relatively easy to program, even for beginners.

Cons

  1. Complexity: Although the ESP32 is powerful, its versatility can also make it complex to master, especially for beginners.
  2. Power Sensitivity: The ESP32 is sensitive to voltage variations and may require a stable power supply to function properly.
  3. Library Size: Some libraries for the ESP32 can be large and take up a significant portion of the available memory.

Technical Characteristics

The ESP32 has the following technical characteristics:

  1. Processor: Two Tensilica LX6 cores clocked up to 240 MHz.
    RAM memory: 520 KB SRAM.
  2. Flash memory: Generally 4 MB or 16 MB depending on the model.
    Connectivity:
  3. Wi-Fi: 802.11 b/g/n.
  4. Bluetooth: Bluetooth 4.2 and BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy).
  5. Inputs/Outputs:
    Up to 34 GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output).
    UART, SPI, I2C, I2S, CAN, PWM, ADC, DAC interfaces.
  6. Others :
    Capacitive touch sensors.
    Integrated temperature sensor.
    Cryptography module for communications security.

First start

To use our ESP32 card, you will need to install the driver to recognize it on Arduino IDE. Indeed, the chip used on ESP32 is either the CH340 or CP210x and the drivers are not installed by default on Arduino IDE.

 

 

By connecting our ESP32, we realize that it is not recognized on Arduino IDE. It actually says NO PORTS DISCOVERED:

By typing Device Manager in the Windows 11 search bar, we can see the different components connected via USB to our computer.

In the Other Devices category, we see our ESP32 detected but with an exclamation point. This is because the driver is not properly installed:

You must now download the driver so that your ESP32 card is recognized. If in Other Devices it says CP2102 you must download the following driver: CP2102

If in Other Devices you have written CH340, then this is the driver that you will need to download.

 

 

Once the .zip driver has been downloaded, you will need to right-click on our ESP32 and Update driver.

By clicking on search my computer, you must select the previously downloaded driver:

You get a message telling you that the driver has been installed successfully:

Once the driver is installed you no longer have an exclamation point on our ESP32 board:

The next step is to install the ESP32 board on Arduino IDE so that it can be recognized. To do this you must go to Boards Manager then install esp32 by Espressif Systems:
By clicking on the choice of electronic cards, you must choose ESP32 DEV Module and the correct COM port: 
You can now program your ESP32 board: