The SparkFun ESP8266 Thing is a breakout and development board for the ESP8266 WiFi SoC – a leading platform for Internet of Things (IoT) or WiFi-related projects. The Thing is low-cost and easy to use, and Arduino IDE integration can be achieved in just a few steps. We’ve made the ESP8266 easy to use by breaking out all of the module’s pins, adding a LiPo charger, power supply, and all of the other supporting circuitry it requires.

Why the name? We lovingly call it the “Thing” due to it being the perfect foundation for your Internet of Things project. The Thing does everything from turning on an LED to posting data with datastream, and can be programmed just like any microcontroller. You can even program the Thing through the Arduino IDE by installing the ESP8266 Arduino addon.

The SparkFun ESP8266 Thing is a relatively simple board. The pins are broken out to two parallel, breadboard-compatible rows. USB and LiPo connectors at the top of the board provide power – controlled by the nearby ON/OFF switch. LEDs towards the inside of the board indicate power, charge, and status of the IC. The ESP8266’s maximum voltage is 3.6V, so the Thing has an onboard 3.3V regulator to deliver a safe, consistent voltage to the IC. That means the ESP8266’s I/O pins also run at 3.3V, you’ll need to level shift any 5V signals running into the IC. A 3.3V FTDI Basic is required to program the SparkFun ESP8266 Thing, but other serial converters with 3.3V I/O levels should work just fine as well. The converter does need a DTR line in addition to the RX and TX pins.

Get Started with the ESP8266 Thing Guide

Features

All module pins broken out

On-board LiPo charger/power supply

802.11 b/g/n

Wi-Fi Direct (P2P), soft-AP

Integrated TCP/IP protocol stack

Integrated TR switch, balun, LNA, power amplifier and matching network

Integrated PLLs, regulators, DCXO and power management units

Integrated low power 32-bit CPU could be used as application processor

+19.5dBm output power in 802.11b mode

Add Internet to your next project with an adorable, bite-sized WiFi microcontroller, at a price you like! The ESP8266 processor from Espressif is an 80 MHz microcontroller with a full WiFi front-end (both as client and access point) and TCP/IP stack with DNS support as well. While this chip has been very popular, its also been very difficult to use. Most of the low cost modules are not breadboard friendly, don't have an onboard 500mA 3.3V regulator or level shifting, and aren't CE or FCC emitter certified....UNTIL NOW!

The Adafruit HUZZAH ESP8266 breakout is what we designed to make working with this chip super easy and a lot of fun. We took a certified module with an onboard antenna, and plenty of pins, and soldered it onto our designed breakout PCBs. We added in:

Reset button,

User button that can also put the chip into bootloading mode,

Red LED you can blink,

Level shifting on the UART and reset pin,

3.3V out, 500mA regulator (you'll want to assume the ESP8266 can draw up to 250mA so budget accordingly)

Two diode-protected power inputs (one for a USB cable, another for a battery)

Two parallel, breadboard-friendly breakouts on either side give you access to:

1 x Analog input (1.0V max)

9 x GPIO (3.3V logic), which can also be used for I2C or SPI

2 x UART pins

2 x 3-6V power inputs, reset, enable, LDO-disable, 3.3V output

One breakout at the end has an "FTDI" pinout so you can plug in an FTDI or console cable to upload software and read/write debugging information via the UART. When you're done with your coding, remove the cable, and this little module can be embeded into your project box.

Each module comes pre-loaded with NodeMCU's Lua interpreter (NodeMCU 0.9.5 build 20150318 / Lua 5.1.4 to be specific), you can run commands, and 'save' Lua programs directly to the module's Flash using a USB-Serial converter cable. But, if you'd like, you can skip Lua and go direct to using the Arduino IDE. Once you download the ESP8266 core, you can treat it just like a microcontroller+WiFi board, no other processors needed!

Each order comes with one assembled and tested HUZZAH ESP8266 breakout board, and a stick of 0.1" header that you can solder on and plug the breakout into a breadboard. A soldering iron and solder are required for that, and aren't included. Solderless breadboard also not included. You'll really want a USB-serial cable such as a USB console cable (good for Windows, not suggested for MacOSX users),  FTDI Friend (great for any OS), or FTDI cable (great for any OS)  to upload software to the HUZZAH ESP8266! Our essential tutorial has wiring, pinouts, assembly, downloads, and more!