The ESP-01 ESP8266 WiFi Module Serial-to-WiFi adapter created by Espress if has seen a wide adoption as a cost-effective solution for IoT and WiFi-capable devices. This tiny-sized System On a Chip (SoC) includes an 80 MHz microcontroller with a full WiFi front-end (both as client and access point) as well as a full TCP/IP stack with DNS. Because the ESP8266 comes only in a Surface-Mount package, a few different vendors have developed modules labeled ESP-NN where NN are numbers ranging from 01 to 13 (at the time of this writing).

Although most ESP-NN modules are intended to be mounted on a PCB via castellated pins, the ESP-01 includes a set of 0.1in-spaced female pins that can be used to easily connect it to a solderless breadboard! Please note that because the ESP8266 doesn’t have a native USB interface, all ESP-NN modules need an external USB to Serial adapter (e.g., FTDI FT232 USB to Serial UART adapter) to receive data from a computer’s USB connection.

ESP-01 ESP8266 WiFi Module

The ESP8266 ESP-01 is a Wi-Fi module that allows microcontrollers access to a Wi-Fi network. This module is a self-contained SOC (System On a Chip) that doesn’t necessarily need a microcontroller to manipulate inputs and outputs as you would normally do with an Arduino, for example, because the ESP-01 acts as a small computer. Depending on the version of the ESP8266, it is possible to have up to 9 GPIOs (General Purpose Input Output). Thus, we can give a microcontroller internet access like the Wi-Fi shield does to the Arduino, or we can simply program the ESP8266 to not only have access to a Wi-Fi network, but to act as a microcontroller as well. This makes the ESP8266 very versatile, and it can save you some money and space in your projects.

• 6 GPIO (save for D0, every GPIO can be PWM, I2C (software), 1-wire)
• ESP-01 Wi-Fi module containing the ESP8266 IC
• PCB-mounted antenna
• Integrated TCP/IP protocol stack
• 8-pin female header socket

Specifications:

• Supported protocols: 802.11 b/g/n
• Serial/UART baud rate: 115200bps
• Input voltage: 3.3V
• Max I/O voltage: 3.6V
• Regular operation current draw: ~70mA
• Current draw (peak): ~300mA
• Power-down leakage current: <10µA
• Output power: +19.5dBm (802.11b)
• Flash Memory Size: 1MB (8Mbit) en.wikipedia.org
• WiFi security modes: WPA, WPA2
• Module’s dimensions: 24.75mm x 14.5mm (0.974″ x 0.571″)