451 Which Processor can kill the ESP32? 

Beautiful coverage. Thanks for mentioning the RISC-V versions of the ESP32 as well. There's more models coming for sure so thanks for covering those too such as the C6 and P4!

Thanks! You have been one of my main guides into the world of the ESP32!

I have to say at this point the toolchain is also a huge reason for ESP32. Arduino compatile, FreeRTOS based with easy multitasking.

I'm excited to see the introduction of more RISC-V based parts from Expressif. I've been playing around with implementing a RISC-V CPU in an FPGA and am learning quite a bit about the instruction set architecture. It looks very well thought out, with a degree of elegance that I can appreciate. Having Expressif wrap that up with their WiFi, Bluetooth and Zigbee/Thread radios and their other SoC peripherals is a welcome development!

Very useful updates about upcoming ESP versions. As always, very well done. Thank you, Andreas.

As always, a great, structured and informative video. Thanks for doing that for free here

Another difference that might be worth pointing out: on the S3 you can use the whole 8MB of PSRAM for heap allocation, while on the ESP32 you were restricted to 4MB because of limitations in the MMU

Thanks - I was waiting for that video for a long time!

Thanks for explaining all the differences. I bought some color changing light bulbs with esp32 c3 in it thinking it was much better chip. The bulbs were only $5 each and I reflashed them to Tasmota so still a good deal.

Andreas thank-you for this esp32 overview. Your engineering focused, informative , refined instruction videos are my go to.

We just started using the ESP32-S3-DevKitC-1 boards for projects at work. We got the variant of the board with the most PSRAM and Flash and that has been useful in our projects to have more external RAM and Flash than the older ESP32 boards. The other thing that we liked about the S3 is that the USB port also supports JTAG so we are able to run VS code with Platform IO with full source code debugging without needing to have an external JTAG board. Also in the S3, besides more GPIOs, you don't have to worry about SPI bus sharing as the PSRAM and SPI flash are on their own busses separate from the two SPI busses for use to the actual pins. Thanks for publishing the spreadsheet, that is quite helpful.

Another great video mate! Your knowledge and sense of humor is refreshing :)

thanks for all the important info we get on the channel,

Thank you! I wouldn't have discovered the ESP32-S3 without your video! :D

Great information Andreas, just like you always provide!

Thanks again for super helpful content . All the best from Croatia.

Thanks for all the updated information, your channel is such a fantastic resource for people learning embedded on their own like me.

Thank you for this video! Nice work and a good comparison of options :) I hope Expressif will fix their buggy ADC in the future, it's very annoying!

Great video as always 👍 Great tour of the new processors on the way. Thanks for sharing your experience with All of us 👍😃

Although esp32 will remain my "darling", the biggest issue for me has always been battery powered projects where the Bluetooth always sucked battery at ludicrous levels. Recently I've been playing with the nrf52840, a bit pricier, but lovely long connected battery life

Great overview, thanks!

You are the best RU-vidr I have ever seen. I enjoy every video you post. Your channel is one of the few that I have subscribed. Thank you for your great work.

What a great Sunday. Thank you Andreas.

Great overview and interesting details. I know I keep repeating myself... but this is really wonderfull Sunday morning entertainment and an appetiser to spend the whole afternoon in my workshop.

Don't write off the C3, I've been using them recently and they are really nice to work with. For something that doesn't need lots of pins and horsepower they work very nicely. Native USB for programming too so no need for a USB UART and you can make very minimal boards from them.

Ive made a video about the P4 a few months ago. The only announcement from Espressif I am really excited for. 400MHz dual core with lots of pins? Hell YEAH!!!

Thanks for the update! Zigbee could be a game changer. Until then I will remain using the 8266 which is in my opinion still suitable for 98% of all situations/projects.

I so much like your style Very analytical and straight to the point

Thanks for the information!

I got started using the esp32 in the last two years. I use them to wifi enable sensors around the house and drive led strips. I did use a raspberry pi for some of those things but pi s got extensive and hard to come by (and it is overkill). I also have some pi picos and the w version of those but prefer the esp32 because it is easier to setup the webserver part. There is still a lot of mileage left for the esp32 for me. No need to switch yet.

Great video as always sir!

It is always cool to see where things are headed. Other ideas could be looking at the form factors, and comparing what they delivered at the time and what would be possible today, or in the future. Kind of like this video but further down the pipeline

When we used the esp8266 it had a different sdk and different libraries compared to the esp32, which was a major PITA. The esp32-C3 kind of fixes that, you can use the same toolchain and libraries for both small and bigger projects - which is great.

Nice video with nice accent as always! I wanted to ask you another question since I don't recall seeing you talking about IMUs and about Xiao Modules other than the Seeduino. What to do you think about Xiao Sense? I'm thinking of using those for a project to calculate the amplitude and the angulation of arm movement. The XIAO BLE nRF52840 Sense includes LSM6DS3TR-C. This alternative is easier and cheaper for me than using other IMU like the BNO055 modules or the MPU6050 or MPU9250 but how does it compare?

Very interesting , thank you Andreas!

Would be interested in the Excel sheet you made, but can't find the link. Thanks, Andreas, for this video!

Very useful Andreas, thank you!

Major drawback of S3 which you did not mention is lack of classic bluetooth support. Stick to esp32 for projects requiring classic bluetooth.

Thanks, great comparison!

Superb info. Thanks.

I finally settled on RPI Pico rp2040(and /w) in the Arduino 2.x environment due to cost despite the initial learning curve frustration. Works just fine with LoraWan ttn, Oled, GPS, SD cards, memory size, etc. ESP32's are back in my parts box and my hair is finally growing back. LOL. Thank you for the new video. Keep them coming.

I recently made a project with a ESP32-WROOM-32U on a custom PCB, it was super handy. I only had to make sure it had proper power, and then a little enable delay circuit, a pull up on gpio0, and then it was ready to go. :) Compared to the pi pico, the pico is a lot harder to put onto a custom pcb, and requires a lot more extra components.

Good morning. As always a precise and correct explanation. What do you think instead of the new Arduino Giga compared to the ESP 32?

Thanks, great to learn things even for we old farts! I very much enjoy your videos and the way you explain these new boards in a way that can be grasped by all, not just he engineers who subscribe. I have been playing with the newer Uno and Nano's as well as the new Xioa or what ever the hell that is board from Seeed, it makes for a cool camera that seems much more stable even with it's diminutive size then the esp32 cam board.

I always try all the new modules, so far I go back to ESP32 a lot for things more than classic Arduino and less than Pi0, so thanks for review ! I am a C/C++ person, so that is important to me.

Like always, nice vlog. The three features that are game changer for S3, C3 and C2 are: 1. Direct connection with USB, no need for CP2102 or any other USB to UART Bridge. 2. Bluetooth 5.0 support 3. In built support for debugging, no need for external JTAG adapter and extra wiring / cable to connect JTAG to ESP32-C3/C2/S3 You missed to mention last feature in your vlog.

Thanks so much for this video and the pin reference! A great resource! Would you mind please explaining what the glitch with all those analog pins is?

Two gripes I had. No input with a schmitt trigger caused variations with quickly timed interrupt tasks. Also if you had a time dependant task that was locked to the free arduino core and all other tasks locked to the core that handles wifi the free core still had interruptions/delays from things happening on the os/wifi core. I ended up having to use a second microchip to handle time sensitive tasks. I've also seen issues with static electricity lockup/reboot the esp. Not direct hits but a static discharge several feet away or someone with high static carpet walking near the device. Not sure if the antenna picks it up or what.

Thanks for this video. Thanks for subtitles in Portuguese

Hello Andreas, thx for your thorough work very helpful, keep going ! One question though: Espressif is a Chinese company will they suffer from the US ban on chips that is coming up ? do you have info on this topic ?

Nice breakdown. I am looking forward to the C6.

For me as a DIY keyboard nerd, the USB interface is what makes the S3 chip interesting. The community has discarded the ESP32 chips for years because it didn't have any

I’ve been developing in the ESP-IDF with the S3 and it is lovely

What a coincidence, just yesterday my PCB arrived for a little esp-s3 board which I will solder today. Let's see if I made a good decision with going S3. War wohl die richtige Entscheidung. Danke fürs super Video :)

Thank you, I've come to the same conclusion. I am still quite satisfied with the old ESP32, mainly due to library support and price. When I do nee designs, I try to use the S3

Great video! One question, you didn't come back to the quality of the ADC in the esp32-S3, can we expect the same (low) quality as in the esp32? Thanks!

Good video. Would you consider a guiding video for "making your own esp32 pcb"?

I migrated to the Xiao esp32C3 for all my sensors. I don't need many pins and the battery management on board is ideal (and charges with a small solar panel). The deep sleep model the esp32 wake modes is ideal. My typical sensor has the resistor bridge on D0 for battery monitoring (one short coming not having it on board), day sensor on D1, D2 and D3 are available for interrupts and sda, scl for the i2c sensors. With a 18350 900ma lion battery I have several running in just window light for solar and haven't touched them in over a year. They use espnow for hourly idle updates and on-demand sensor updates, typically 10-12 per day. I tried the S2 and determined life is too short, what a pain! For my wearables I like the Xiao Nrf52480 sense. I've used the rp2040 both as the rpi board and Xiao form factors and I find them to be useless. I have a handful of these if anyone wants them LOL Thanks Andreas for your videos. You are always informative.

Great video, very useful.... still waiting for the 5.8 WiFi as some of the AP's do not allow 2.4 WiFi connections. Bummer

Holy shit! Günther! Is that you? Times are hard in HAAS F1 Team but damn... going from F1 to Electronics's a steep move eh? :D Great content! Grüetzi from another Swiss :)

I never tried the newer chips. My latest was the WROOM. The WROOM was a powerful chip. It is a wide chip, though, so it doesn't fit well on a breadboard. I was lukewarm on their SDK, although I guess it was good enough. Having to download a separate Xtensa compiler and some monkeying around with the install was tedious. My go-to chips have been the Pico RP2040 and the STM32F411. I think the RP2040 has the edge, although the development environment for the STMs is pretty good. I tend to flop-flop around a little but I mostly end up using the RP2040. The RP2040 is VERY popular with the Maker community, and when it comes to really cool projects, the RP2040 seems to outshine STMs. It doesn't help that STMs are difficult and absurdly expensive to get hold of right now.

Thanks Andreas. Has “our new board” you mentioned been documented and RU-vidd? I may have missed it.

majority of my projects are on S2, is so much faster than than original! Yes, in few places I had to go to ESP32 due to the lack of memory on S2, but processor wise S2 is much faster than the original. Ok, original ESP32 is 4uA during hibernation while S2, C3, S3 are all around 20uA. ADC on S2 is also much better than ESP32. And all pins are configurable (unlike ESP32). And the most nice is: S2 does not need USB->UART Actually nothing today is as huge jump as between ESP8266 -> ESP32

Teensy 4.0 and 4.1 are what have turned my head the last few years. They have absolutely unbelievable computing power!

Greutzi Andreas, thank you for this video. You helped me on my Reflections project x 100! The pin spreadsheet should come with the ESP32-S3's. Danke vilmal -Frank

Apart from the Ethernet there is yet another “small thing” we loose: the legacy Bluetooth, this impacts if your project plans to use A2DP or HFP.

The S3 is an interesting chip. As well as the standard ULP it has a RiscV ULP. In video #252 you mentioned that you would like to see a C compiler for the ULP. The S3's RiscV ULP can be programmed in C. It would make a great future video.

Just bought a few C6 engineering boards for the zigbee support. Very excited and can't wait to receive them.

Thanks, Andreas!

Thanks for keeping us updated! I have to admit, that I stick to the 8266 for most of my projects. I am looking forward to the next generations including Zigbee, Matter etc.

Excellent overview, saves me trawling datasheets. Shame about the sleep behaviour, when will some manufacturers ever learn? Maintaining any RF-based connection is always going to be a killer, as far as average current in sleep mode is concerned.

Nice comparison, thanks. I could redo those projects that rely on longer deep sleep cycles, I guess. But is it worth it just for a few microAmps? I guess, not ...

I work with the Raspberry Pi Pico at work so at the moment it's my goto Microcontroller. But I already filled up all 264k of RAM with a mix of c/c++ without arduino but Pico-sdk.

Yes, very useful. Thanks !

Sir, I got some Pico d4 chips recently. Can you make a video on that chip. My target to use the built-in usb. Bty, Your TP4056 upgrading video halped me a lot on my project. I made a PCB with that as a module. Everyone liked it.

You might want to look at the new Pine 0x64. It's very new, so little support. It's a hybrid MCU / CPU. It can boot into Linux or run RTOS. Looks promising.

It also removed the built-in DACs and doesn't offer Bluetooth Classic which offers Bluetooth Serial functionality, which was neat when doing really quick and dirty bluetooths versions to the code (you could develop something using normal serial communication, and than replace the Serial with BTSerial) :( I think with it it also looses Bluetooth Audio Streaming capabilities, because A2DP was part of Bluetooth Classic (just as a point of reference everything after the normal ESP32 dropped Bluetooth Classic Support). For some reason BLE on the C3&S3 are kind of broken for me, I can't use them for BLE Keyboards library that worked without a problem on the ESP32 (old one) it just doesn't connect with either S3 and C3. Not mention that they still suck up way more power, calling it a low power mcu (especially when using wireless connectivity) is like calling AMS1117 an ultra low dropout voltageregulator! Each version sucks up more power or creates bigger power spikes it feels like. It feels like they designed the radio module in the mcu in 2016 or so and since then just updated everything around it. As a comparison for other Bluetooth or wireless mcus: NRF51 or so use like µA when staying connected via Bluetooth. Even other wireless point to point communication sucks up way less on it and other chips. NRF52 uses a bit less than the NRF51. The stark difference between these and the esp32 has nothing to do with the fabbing, the NRF51 is fabbed at a gigantic 155nm or so, the NRF52 is 55nm and the ESP32 uses 40nm tech. So it should consume way less on the esp32. The CYW43439 found in the Pico W also consumes less power than the esp32/s3/c3 wifi module, especially when staying connected and transmitting data.

Hi, overall I enjoyed this overview, but I'm curious to know how you came up with the RF 6dB RF link performance improvement figure for BT, nominally the specifications indicates an +11 dB increace in outout power, all things being equal I'm not sure where you have lost 5 dB? Now as far as range goes I agree it should be very close to 4 times the range, (11dB is close enough IMHO)

Great video.. I think this video misses a very crucial point. S3 has inbuild jtag, which uses only 2 pin without any external debug adapter for debugging. This is a big plus as we donot need any external adapter like esp-prog for esp32. One more thing, it has the hardware acceleration for crypto, much need for secure applications.

How about Buffalo Lab BL616? RISC-V architecture (future-proof), WiFi 6, BL 5.2, Native USB. I've been eyeing those Sipeed M0S modules. Looks like a nice alternative.

I am also intested in the Ethernet you mentioned as others are. I could not find the other video. Can you do a video on it. I like doing smart home stuff and use POE cams and WLED. I use it to power my ESP boards. DIG Uno uses a board. I would like to use it more. I also like the Zigbee for its low power and would like more videos on low power setups. I now have have a Unifi Access point that supports Bluetooth. I would like to learn if I can use that.

S2 has native USB, so it’s a cheaper option for diy keyboards and such. The C6 looks really neat, not very available yet though. The RP2040 is seeing a lot of use in MCU communities other than the arduino and micro python ones. Like for using as the driver of a 3D printer mainboard. They have two cores that are always usable (not having one used up by wireless driving). It’s a conventional ARM architecture, so its a lot nicer to work with bare metal than an ESP, hence why it seems quite attractive for more advanced users. That said, the ESP32C series are RISC-V, which is also gaining traction among hobbyists for its open standard.

Thank you for an other great ESP video! However, I think it would have benefited from not dismissing and "red crossing" S2 with very little comments. S2 is a great module for low power applications not needing BT or dual core. It is for me the most direct upgrade from an ESP12 module (8266). Then the other ESP32 modules come with added features - at the cost of increased power consumption.

As usual another great video with swiss accent 🙏

Is the Wi-Fi transmit power adjustable programmatically? That additional 9 dB of output could be a power saving opportunity when using Wi-Fi, if you don't need that extra power.

Searching for a dual core chip with +233mhz + native CAN-Bus should also have wifi + bluetooth. And more memory.. Btw. the nrf could also be interesting has ble + wifi if the nrf7002 is added to the package. It’s quite interesting to use. Sadly no boards for it out. yet.

- The Arduino FastLED/Neopixel library for ESPHome needs a patch to work. - The vendor/board LoRaWAN library that I was using with ESP32 wasnt supported on their new boards with ESP32S3 (they switch to a different LoRa Radio chip).

I would implore more people to look into using teensy of the teensy offerings. They are pretty amazing bits of kit

For me, any device that is dependent on WiFi is a no go making most of the newer models just downgrades. If I'm making my own custom stuff it either needs Ethernet (ideally PoE) or to be able to work 100% via a non-WiFi wireless. LoRa is definitely getting interesting. Worst case I can always fall back to 433, but that's obviously not ideal for anything I want two way communication on and/or missing a heartbeat would cause major issues. Custom ZigBee and Zwave look to be a pita so I've not tried that yet. Ones supporting ZigBee natively will be a great improvement.

Hi Andreas, I've been watching your videos to try to clear up my doubts. You see, I have a peculiarity in my work, I am a border policeman in my country and 85% of the time I am, in a primitive way, scanning frequencies used by organized crime to intercept contraband, drugs and weapons that enter the country. Nowadays I mostly use a handheld radio to scan frequencies between 138,000 to 170,000, I've used a Uniden with close call (works, but CLOSE call 😅) and I also have RTL-SDR (the silver one), which I'm in constant trouble with. battle to make it work. Anyway, my question for you. Is there a more efficient way for you to find their frequencies? Or any tip that might facilitate my search for frequencies. Thanks in advance! PS. I know this video is not about it, just trying to reach you.

Great overview of ESP32 variants. For me Wifi+Ethernet support is a must, so sticking with ESP32. I just completed Ethernet integration on my project. One hardware change I would love to see is using a different pin for the MAC_CLK 50Mhz input. GPIO 0 is also used for bootloader. Having Ethernet on during a reboot causes the ESP32 to get stuck in bootloader download mode.

You should make a video about Pine64 Ox64 board. It has an extremely fast T-head RISC-V processor and has Zigbee (802.15.4) support, as well as the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. I am not sure about the software support, but I will be getting one to play around.

Hey, a bit off topic, why do you mention 5.7gbz wifi? I have long thought that the wifi frequencies are 2.4 and 5. But then the other day I saw some ac thing listing a 5.2 ghz instead. Are these specific freqs for different regions? Are they different standards? Is the 5ghz ac/wifi6 is on different than the 5ghz a was on?

Now that the C6 is available I would love to hear your opinions on that. While not as big a jump as the C3 and H2, it still appears to be a great improvement.

great video. I could not find link to updated pin excel sheet, was it included ?

Recently got an ESP32-C6, there are only Sample V0.0 chips currently, which don´t have their ADC calibrated.. Otherwise it´s quite nice! It has - 802.11ax WiFi (way less power consumption due to target wake time) - Bluetooth 5 (BLE as well) - up to 16MB of Flash - an integrated 802.15.4 radio for ZigBee and Thread -> They have nice libraries in ESP-IDF for both.. Thread is quite nice as you can do IP via it, in a very low power fashion. I already connected it to my network via 802.15.4 via my Nest Hubs integrated Thread Border Router.

Excellent presentation, however the newer ESP32's at least so far are pretty underwhelming tweaks on the original. Hoping we get some additional vendors in the mix with competitive products. Last time I checked the ESP32 had an undocumented machine machine instruction set. That's a security as well as a support and engineering concern and showstopper for using ESP32 for any serious commercial or industrial projects for me. Has this changed?

There are few nice, cheap display boards with ESP32-S3 chip such as Sunton, SC01 Plus. Maybe you could make video about LVGL, openHASP, etc. It is good option for home automation as controller, much better to deploy and modify than soldering push butons and leds on PCB.

For high processing, Espressif have got an S3 to sell you. FPU and features galore. For low power, they have a C3. No CH340 / CP210X needed, saves that $1 bom cost, still has Wifi & bluetooth. Beats the pants off an arduino if you don't need 5V. Sometimes your project wants to do camera processing, sometimes it is just a bunch of glue logic that barely needs the power of any modern processor. So I think bifurcating for use cases makes a lot of sense here. I have to give it to their marketing strategy, they've done quite nicely in market segmentation for their designs IMHO.

looks cool thx!