HiLetgo ESP-WROOM-32 ESP32 ESP-32S Development Board 2.4GHz Dual-Mode WiFi + Bluetooth Dual Cores Microcontroller Processor Integrated with Antenna RF AMP Filter AP STA for Arduino IDE

There are a number of ESP-32 dev boards, and I was completely new to these (last board I used was an Arduino AT-Mega 2650). I had tried to use an ESP8266 for my current project, but discovered there were not enough usable GPIO pins on the 8266 boards. I chose these HiLetgo boards for three reasons: (1) I had good experience with several HiLetgo modules in the past, (2) These are smaller than many of the other boards; as a result they can be used on a single breadboard and still expose a socket on each side, and (3) They have more Gnd and Vcc pins than some of the other boards. Upon receiving the boards (in 24 hours with Prime), I used instructions published by Random Nerd Tutorials (an excellent source of detailed information) to install these on my MacOS/Arduino 1.8.8 IDE. I had both modules up and running the demo software within 10 minutes, without any problem. They upload at full speed (921,600 Baud); I am told that many of the other boards will only do 115,200. The only slight inconvenience is that there are no pin labels on the top of the board (there was no room to print them, since the board is smaller than many of the others). They are labeled on the bottom, however, and accompanied by a large diagram of the pin-out from the top view. These have plenty of GPIO pins, and I am very satisfied with them so far. No struggles, mysteries, or obscure instructions, and no peculiarities or non-standard features. This appears to be a solid platform for our development.

I've purchased one of the HiLetgo ESP-WROOM-32 ESP32 ESP-32S Development Boards. The board works great and it looks well built. I liked the readable schematics too. However, when I use an external 3.3V power supply to power the board, my code won't run. The 5V red led turns on and the IO2 blue led keeps blinking. When I disconnect the external power supply and use the USB cable, everything works fine. If you don't plan on using an external power, it seems to work fine. In my case, I may have to look for another manufacturer. I've submit a support request w/ HiLetgo and will update this review if there's a solution to this issue. Updated on 6/11/23 It turned out there was a cold solder joint on my own board (not HiLetgo's) that was causing the issue. I was able to identify the problem on my own but HiLetgo did respond to my inquiries. I'm changing the rating to 5 stars and will be buying more boards!

I purchased this HiLetgo ESP-WROOM-32 ESP32 Development Board for a custom haptics project, and overall, it performed really well. Setup with the Arduino IDE was smooth, and the onboard WiFi + Bluetooth functionality made it easy to handle both data transmission and peripheral control. The dual-core processor gave me the performance I needed for real-time feedback and signal processing. The board was reliable throughout development—no flaky connections, and it powered all my components without any issues. It's compact and affordable, making it a solid choice for prototyping. The only limitation I encountered was running out of storage space for my code. That’s more of a code management issue on my end, and I may need to refactor to optimize memory usage. Just a heads-up if your project has a large codebase or uses a lot of libraries. All in all, this board met my expectations and worked well for my needs. Would definitely consider using it again for similar projects! ⚠️ Disclaimer: This review is based on my personal experience and is provided for informational purposes only. I am not liable for how others use the product or interpret this review. Always test and evaluate hardware suitability for your specific application.

I've bought about a dozen of these now from HiLetgo and they all have been well made and reliable. This is the 38 pin version (beware, some variants have fewer pins- unless that's what you want). The board is just narrow enough to leave a row of sockets exposed on either side on a typical solderless protoboard. ESP32 offers a lot in a small package. With vendors price gouging for anything RaspberryPi and to a large extent most MCU/SBC boards during this time of chip shortages, the ESP32 remains reasonably priced. Only complaint is that HiLetgo uses a linear voltage regulator, which is not that efficient, so unless you can supply the board with stable, regulated 3.3v from an external source, you won't get the super low µA sleep currents that the ESP32 is capable of. Can't really fault HiLetgo on this, since it's really hard to find boards with high efficiency regulators. If you know what to look for and the product pictures are accurate, you easily spot the boards with the inefficient regulator (hint: it's the package with the 3 pins on the left and large pin/bar on the right- the third largest component on the board after the ESP32 and USB modules). I now see that HiLetgo sells the more efficient board for almost the same price (ASIN B077KJNVFP)- or look for WeMos/LoLin.

Worked perfectly for reviving a long-dead Honeywell Vista 20 alarm system that we didn't have service for. Connected this to the Vista alarm board and flashed with ESPHome-VistaECP (look for Dilbert66 on github: esphome-vistaECP). Then could see all the alarm states in HomeAssistant.

There are cheaper ESP32 boards out there, but this one is worth the extra cost. The WiFi receiver in this little board is awesome. I get good connectivity throughout my entire house (I tested it as some reviews for other ESP32 boards complained about bad WiFi reception). This is a good one! Using it with an LD2410 for presence detection. Quick and easy setup in Home Assistant & ESPHome. Got a great project box for this and it looks so cool sitting on the desk! There are so many fun projects for ESP32. If you are considering a board, get one from Hiletgo. It’s great.

The Short Version: Do not think that you will attach this ESP32 board (perhaps all ESP32 in general) to your Arduino IDE, and be happily along your way writing code like you did with your ESP8266 boards. That isn't going to happen. Many ESP32 gurus will already know this, but if you are a poor little Arduino or ESP8266 programmer, you are in for some headaches. Consider this a kind warning. The Long Version: I am an experienced developer (C,C++,C#) of several decades and I thought I would share my thoughts. I am using this ESP32 board on the Arduino 1.8.8 IDE. For my minimal IoT work I use the Arduino IDE, is works fine for me (though I do miss Intellisense so I may look at VisualMicro for VisualStudio). I have used most standard Arduino boards but only use them now to test components. I do lots of NodeMCU/ESP8266 development, I have a nice flexible framework (heavy OOP), and in the Arduino IDE, I will say that the NodeMCU stuff works just great. Rarely do I have issues, the stuff works - after you discover the differences with stock Arduino (.i.e analogWriteRange, 10-bit vs 8-bit, the stuff that few blog about). This particular Hiletgo ESP32 board seems fine overall with a few exceptions. My gripe with with (this) ESP32 board (and perhaps all) is that 99% of HelloWorld-type apps and discussions out on the blogs totally gloss over the unavoidable pain-points. On this board (and perhaps others) you will have to hold the (IO0 on the right) button down, to download your code. This is completely unacceptable - no busy developer is going to do that. If I build stuff like that, I lose my job. Yes, there are work-arounds (solder a 2.2uF cap on pin EN to ground, etc.), but this is just not right. I have no idea if all ESP32 dev boards suffer from this, but this is still inexcusable. Most buyers are going to (at first) tinker with this board on the Arduino IDE, not ESP IDF, or other toolchain, and the stuff should just work - period. The method of simply installing the ESP32 board support via the Arduino Board Manager (in IDE 1.8.8) doesn't work (at least not for me). Sure, a HelloWorld app will be fine, they always are, but wait until you add #include <WiFi.h>. WiFi.h doesn't exist. You will have to uninstall the ESP32 via the Board Manager and you will then have to use the GIT or manual method of loading the source to support ESP32. Perhaps this will be fixed by the time you read this, I can only convey my experience. After you get that done, things will work better, but you are still in for some headaches (and I am sure I am seeing only the tip of the iceberg). The adding of this board will act as a mild C++ Lint Tool on your existing ESP8266 code - this is actually good (but still unexpected). For example, I have never had to add #include <Arduino.h>, ever. But now you will be including it everywhere, for ESP32 apps. OK, my bad, I got away without Arduino,h for a while - lucky me. I can't say why the ESP32 board behaves differently in this regard, but just be prepared for it. Now what the 99% of ESP32 blather on the Internet doesn't get around to mentioning is that analogWrite() is gone. I do understand why this is the case, but again, you will be broadsided by this, because 99% of the look-what-I-can-do ESP32 blogs and example don't touch on this topic. So be prepared for this pain-point. Yes, we can also create wrapped methods to create this backward compatibility, but, ummm, what was Arduino Core supposed to so for us. We can all handle these difference, but a heads-up would surely be nice. I read 10-20 ESP8266 vs ESP32 articles before trying this board, and I saw nothing pointing out these kinds of differences, while under the Arduino IDE. So consider this one of those simple warnings that you won't easily stumble upon. None of this is terrible, but just be prepared that if you are coming from a heavy NodeMCU/ESP8266 background, you are not simply going to be up and running with this. You will be spending a lot of time fighting with incorrect docs, buggy board installation issues, API differences and overall headaches. It is all doable. Just be warned in advance. I will wait until I genuinely need to use ESP32. For now it is a puzzle to be worked on over time. Those of you just starting with MCUs, might very well be fine with this, not having to unlearn anything. Good luck

Works just as expected.