Supplying 3.3V power to ESP8266 Huzzah Breakout.

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kingfishernw
 
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Supplying 3.3V power to ESP8266 Huzzah Breakout.

Post by kingfishernw »

[Apologies if I missed it... I looked for some time on the forum and found lots of power discussions, but not the answer to this.]

I have been successfully using the ESP8266 Huzzah Feather for over a year, powering it directly from my PC's USB. Now I want to port my project over to the ESP8266 Huzzah Breakout. Because, eventually, the primary power source will be a 12V boat battery, I built a small 3.3V power regulation circuit. Now, however, as I look to attach it to the Breakout board, I see only places to input between 3.4V and 6V and a place to get an OUTPUT of 3.3v. It seems like I could remove the V+ header pin that goes to the serial cable and then remove the onboard power regulator if I can successfully sneak my soldering iron in there without destroying something. Unfortunately, that looks easier said than done. If I was successful, however, I believe I could then use the 3.3V output from the breakout board as a power input instead of as a power output, as it was originally intended. I do understand that I could switch to using an external 5V regulator (instead of my 3.3V) and I will if I absolutely must. However, I do think it highly non-optimal to step down to 5V and then step down again to 3.3V. My hope is that I'm being dumb and that there is an easier way to supply 3.3V to the board. But, is there really?

Thank you very much!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Supplying 3.3V power to ESP8266 Huzzah Breakout.

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

If you have a regulated 3.3v source, you can supply power via the 3.3v pin.

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kingfishernw
 
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Re: Supplying 3.3V power to ESP8266 Huzzah Breakout.

Post by kingfishernw »

Thank you very much, Bill... that is great news. Just to be clear... I wouldn't need to make ANY modifications to the board and I can leave all 6 pins of the serial connector as is?

Thank you again!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Supplying 3.3V power to ESP8266 Huzzah Breakout.

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

No need to remove the on-board regulator as long as you are not supplying power to the input side of it.

If the V+ line is not connected to a power source at the other end your serial cable, then you don't need to disconnect it.

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kingfishernw
 
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Re: Supplying 3.3V power to ESP8266 Huzzah Breakout.

Post by kingfishernw »

Wow, um...

I've got Adafruit's serial cable ("FTDI Serial TTL-232 USB Cable PID: 70" on your invoice). My intention was to *sometimes* connect it to a USB port on my Windows PC and then (at the other end) the six header pins I've soldered into appropriate end of the ESP 8266 Huzzah Breakout. One of those 6 header pins is labeled "V+" and my assumption was that that cable would therefore run power to that little regulator. That was why I thought I might have to remove that one header pin in order to input 3.3V to the 3.3V pin. (Please confirm.)

Thank you again!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
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Re: Supplying 3.3V power to ESP8266 Huzzah Breakout.

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

That is correct. You should only have one power source for the board, so if you will be connecting with the FTDI cable, you should remove the V+ pin.

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