What is it?

The board is a small (5x5cm) breakout board for the popular ESP8266. The boards supports the ESP-01, ESP-07, ESP-12 and the ESP-12E module. It got an onboard 5V and 3.3V regulator, and all usable pins are broken out for easy prototyping (ESP module NOT included). Programming is done by using an FTDI adapter (or any USB to serial adapter). The programming header is 5V tolerant, so there's no need to get a 3.3v serial adapter. On the left side there is a micro USB connector. This can not be used for programming, only for powering the board. There is also an additional unpopulated header where you can feed everything between 6.5 and 15V.

Why did I make it?

I've been searching the internet, but I haven't found any ESP8266 compatible board that got a prototyping area. I wanted a board that was small enough to put in an enclosure and use as an Internet of Things device, but I also wanted a board that got all the usable IO's broken out and labeled. The solution was to design my own board; A tiny prototype board that supports the most popular ESP8266 modules!

How to use the board with Arduino IDE

Since the ESP8266 first was released, a lot has happened. In the beginning the only way to communicate with the ESP was using AT-commands over serial. You needed a micro controller to sends and receive data to the ESP. After Espressif (the makers of the ESP8266) released the SDK, a lot of effort was put to program the ESP8266 using Arduino IDE. Now we got full ESP8266 support in the Arduino IDE! (More information and source code can be found on the ESP8266 community Github page)

Installation:

1. Start Arduino IDE 1.6.5 and open the preferences window
2. Paste the following link in the Additional Boards Manager URLs: http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json
3. Open the Boards Manager from the Tools menu, select and install the latest version of esp8266 by ESP8266 Community

Uploading the program:

1. Select Generic ESP8266 Module in the Boards menu. in the Tools menu, choose the flash size of your ESP module (or just leave it if you don't know). Choose your preferred baud rate (115200 works EVERY time).
2. Press and hold the FLASH and the RESET button. Now release the RESET button while holding the FLASH button. If this is the first time you use this ESP module with the Arduino IDE, you still need to keep holding the FLASH button. If not, you can release the FLASH button now.
3. Hit the Upload button in the Arduino IDE
4. Your program is now running (and you can release the FLASH button)!