ESP8266 WiFi Serial Module Costs Just $5

Wi-Fi is great because it’s ubiquitous, and rather fast for a wireless standard. However, it drains batteries fast, and Wi-Fi modules are usually much more expensive than Bluetooth modules for instance. There’s not much that can be done with regards to power consumption, but thanks to ESP8266 module, it’s now feasible to add Wi-Fi to your Arduino board, or others, for just $5 including shipping on Aliexpress, but SeeedStudio also have it for $6.95. If you buy 1,000 pieces, it goes down to about $3 per unit.

ESP8266_Wi-Fi_Module
As reported by Hackaday, this module embeds ESP8266 SoC which takes care off all IP stacks, a bit like Texas Instruments CC3000 SoC, but it’s just much cheaper.

Here are some of the specifications of the module (and processor):

  • SoC – Espressif Systems ESP8266 32-bit RISC processor with 802.11 b/g/n support(32-pin QFN package), Interfaces: SDIO 2.0, SPI, UART, I2S
  • Wi-Fi – 802.112 b/g/n with WEP, TKIP, AES, and WAPI engines, Wi-Fi direct (P2P), and soft-AP
  • Header – 8-pin header with GND, VCC (3.3V), Rx and RX, and 4 NC pins.
  • Standby power consumption – < 1.0mW (DTIM3)
  • Dimensions – 21 x 11 mm
  • Weight – 3 grams

SeeedStudio has provided documentation for the module including the AT Instruction Set and ESP8266 Specifications both in Chinese only, but there’s also a translation of the datasheet in English. There;s also a “IoT SDK” available for the board that includes tools, scripts, binary libraries, and an IoT demo programmed in C language.

Schematics with ESP8622 Wi-Fi SoC
Schematics with ESP8622 Wi-Fi SoC

There are very few references to ESP8266 on the net for now, so even if it’s feasible to use it with Arduino boards for example, somebody (YOU!) still have to write the AT command set to control the module, and it won’t be as easy as using an already supported Wi-Fi shield, until a library makes it to the Arduino IDE. One developer plans to interface it with TI MSP430 MCU.

Thanks to Freire!

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15 Comments
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Georg
Georg
9 years ago

Having a look at the Linkerfile (of the IOT SDK) – probably reveals the following specs:

MEMORY
{
dport0_0_seg : org = 0x3FF00000, len = 0x10
dram0_0_seg : org = 0x3FFE8000, len = 0x14000
iram1_0_seg : org = 0x40100000, len = 0x8000
irom0_0_seg : org = 0x40240000, len = 0x32000
}

32KB SRAM
80KB DRAM
200KB ROM

deets
deets
9 years ago

Interesting to compare to QCA400x products which also I think use Xtensa core. Nice to have lots of competition in this area!

Jon Smirl
9 years ago

Can you compile SDK with free tools or is SDK from Tensilica needed?

Jon Smirl
9 years ago

Some info on tool chains here. I’m building myadk currently.
http://wiki.linux-xtensa.org/index.php/Toolchain_and_Embedded_Distributions

Jon Smirl
9 years ago

Discussion about getting this chip working are here: http://esp8266.com/

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