ESP32 dev kit power options

In this lesson, you will learn how to power your ESP32 dev kit.

You can watch the video, or if you are the “reading” type, you can read the text below.

Option 1: USB

The easiest way to power your ESP32 dev kit is to use the USB port. The dev kit includes a micro USB port through which you can both supply power to the board, and implement serial communication with the host computer for uploading a sketch.

Just plug one end of the cable into your computer’s USB port or to a USB compatible power, the other end to the USB port of the ESP32 dev kit, and you’re good to go.

Option 2: Unregulated power to GND and 5V pins

The second option is to connect an external unregulated power supply to the 5V pin and ground pins. Anything between around 5 and 12 Volts should work.

But it is best to keep the input voltage to around 6 or 7 Volts to avoid losing too much power as heat on the voltage regulator.

I did some experimentation using my bench power supply. I supplied voltage between 5V and 10V and observed the current draw. The ESP32 was running a sketch with an empty loop.

At 10V input voltage, the current draw was 0.099 A (or 99.9mA).

At 5V, the current draw was a little higher, at 0.128 A (or 128mA).

Option 3: Regulated power to GND and 3.3V pins

Another option that you have is to power your ESP32 is to use a 3.3V regulated power supply. For this, you will use the 3.3 Volt and GND pins.

The 3.3 volts pin is at the top left of the board right next to the antenna.

You have to be very careful when you do that. If you power your ESP32 this way, you’re bypassing the on-board voltage regulator that is on board the dev kit, and therefore your module has no protection against over-voltage.

Again: Be very careful to make sure that your input voltage on the 3.3V pin is regulated and safe.

Power: conclusion

To power your ESP32 dev kit, you have three options:

1. Via the USB port.
2. Using unregulated voltage between 5V and 12V, connected to the 5V and GND pins. This voltage is regulated on-board.
3. Using regulated 3.3V voltage, connected to the 3.3V and GND pins. Be very careful with that: do not exceed the 3.3V limit, or your ESP32 module will be damaged.

Attention: be very, very careful to only use one of those options at the same time.

For example, do not power your ESP32 dev kit via the 5V pin using a 10V input while at the same time you have the module connected to your computer via USB. This will surely damage your module, and perhaps even your computer.

With this, you should have a good understanding of what the ESP32 is, and you must be eager to get hands-on with it. I totally understand :-). Let’s proceed with the next lesson, where I’ll show you how to set up the ESP32-Arduino Core on the Arduino IDE.