#08 Comparison of ESP32-s2mini boards: "brand" vs. clones

We compare various boards that have been flashed with ESP-IDF 5.0 under Linux, and provide some possible fixes if they don't work as expected

[@SnowLynxPreparedness]

Very informative - good job

[@PostalPete]

I have a question about these little guys. How do the pinouts work on a breadboard, since there are two rows of pinouts on both sides of the pcb?

[@artezmia1920]

Well, you can't use them on a breadboard, at least not directly. You have to use Dupont wires connected to the ESP and the other end to your breadboard to what ever spot you need. That's how I do it.

[@vacob6494]

GPIO0 has weak pull up. Some clone board voltage not go to 3.3 and float around 0.9v. This make board stuck in flash mode and not run. I connect1k resistor to 3.3v pin and GPIO0 to fix boot problem. Wifi is hard to connect I lower down tx power. If it can't found network during scan but touch on LC pcb antenna make it work I will connect EN pin with GPIO1 to fix the problem.

[@artezmia1920]

Thanks for your comment. I'll check it out.

[@MrEdwardhartmann]

Nice video - just wondering, all the points that ground wires were added to are already connected to the ground plane. Do you know what the additional wire is fixing? Also, I purchased 8 of these boards from Amazon in two different orders, and all the boards seem to work fine as far as loading them and running code. I have used both the Arduino IDE and the Adafruit circuit python for coding and have not had any problems. But, I have not tried the WIFI, so there could be problems there.

[@artezmia1920]

In many cheap boards C14 is not connected to the ground plane. Instead of running a wire one author advises to scratch to top plane at the base of the capacitor and add a blob of solder. I thought it was less invasive and with a lower risk of permanently damaging the board to run a wire. I've been really disappointed with the s2 boards, I had high expectations to replace my 8266, but no.

[@mdeeen]

thanks

[@plutonianfairy]

So, you have to manually reset them even on the brand ones?

[@artezmia1920]

yes

[@plutonianfairy]

@@artezmia1920 oh, ok. I thought mine was buggy 😅

[@tarsamsingh1299]

Thanks for the informative information

[@ponciusz]

man Thanks for that you saved me hours :D I was I keep reinstalling drivers all over again

[@willdirschka3376]

not one of the clones I bought had functioning Wi-Fi.

[@artezmia1920]

Actually they mostly do but disconnect instantly. Try shorting C14 to ground, or solder a capacitor across the reset button. I forgot about the value, it's in the video.I got more than half my clones working this way.

[@AviatorXD]

I think you should use a bit of flux when soldering and maybe use a bit of higher temperature, those solder joints look cold.

[@artezmia1920]

Thank you for your comment. I'm just using the leftovers of a solder of terrible quality, now matter what the temperature it doesn't look shiny. Thanks for your comment anyway.

[@AviatorXD]

@@artezmia1920 Ah that makes sense.

[@AviatorXD]

@@artezmia1920 I think im kind of having the issues you are pointing out in the video, some times the board wont get recognized and other times the wifi just stops working.

[@artezmia1920]

@@AviatorXD I didn't emphasize enough the power issue. It seems to be better to power the board through the usb port, be it with a phone charger, but with at least 2 amps, although I didn't get "proof" of it. It won't resurrect my two boards that won't flash either, I'll do some more digging when I get the time.