ESP32 C3

Im writing all of this before fab really starts nailing me to a cross, and dont plan on doing any updates to these boards on this page, rather linking to this one to give context

Ignore all this rambling

Ive always been interested in building my own esp series board. Im a firm believer in espressif supremacy, 1 dollar for a fast chip with wifi, bluetooth, built in flash is just insane to me. The only thing that comes close is the rp2040, but it doesnt have wireless built in so its like comparing moldy apples to apples.
I also have been interested in being able to have a project with a specific demand of a board, and make that board myself.
Due to the fact that I was doing this at the same time as my high school's eletrical engineering class where we were learning kicad, I feel like I can say I am capiable of making a PCB, although not a good one.
The next iteration of this will probably be me trying for making it with the chip itself, instead of the module that I have right now. I dont know if it will save cost as the modules are made in bulk, but it will definitly save space.
I made these in the months leading up to fab, just because I needed something to work on, but plan on adapting the latest design, the 4th one, that is kinda l shaped.

Dont ignore this rambling

So the boards themselves, what can they do? They feature a esp32-c3 chip, which means bluetooth, wifi, and all the exotic protocols like esp-now, thread, zigbee. If you look at any common esp32-c3 board made by actual board makers, this can probably do the same. The big selling point with this is that it fits well on a breadboard, while oversized as some areas, it was kind of made to have the half near the usb C port be very breadboard compatible. it also is pretty easy to understand if you look at the design files in the bottom of this page, and rewire to make it project specific

Iterations

4th

if these traces seem bad, which they are, I dont blame myself, as I didnt make them, as I was designing these boards, I found a plugin called freerouter, and it just made everything so much easier, that I used it and then fixed its splotchy jobs to the best of my ability

This is my magnum opus or however it goes, it is very similar in terms of component used to the previous one, with the exception of the two usb signal filtering capacitors. They were not that nesisary, and I saved space by removing them. The other big fix I did was to make the spacing actually mean it fit on the breadboard. While small, im actually proud of this as most commercial esp32s just don't fit on a breadboard, or have one side take up the whole row and the other leave one space. Using this method, it left ample room on the breadboard for any required componoet.

3rd

This one was also really good, I just spaced my pads in such a way that it wasnt breadboard compatible, and also was still learning rules about using usb such as where to place the CC resistors, all in all a good board that I still have since why throw away a good one.

2nd

This one was my second attempt, and the first that I actually got working. It was kind of a test bed, as I realized some things I needed to change. Notable things I dropped from this version to version 3 (above) were the button, I changed it to have a built in usbc port, and I changed the voltage regulator (the little 5 pin ic on the top left) to have double the max current, from .3 AMP to .6 AMP. while the ESP32 series are known for many positive traits, their power consumption is horrible, which is why im interested in modifying these boards for the more recent esp32-c61 which has less power consumption, or the esp32-h2. the c61 is a continuation of the c series with optimzations, while the h2 is a new series dedicated to lower power consumption. From what I saw on the datasheet, it cut power consumption while using wireless to about 1/5, and powered on state to around 1/3, so all around good improvements while keeping the same abilities.

1st

While this one probably would of worked, I didnt end up fully making it as I had designed it to use only componets that my Fablab had, and I just realized that having a giant button wasnt worth it, and paying 5 dollars for the componet deliver from digikey was a better option. The other reason I never finished it was that micro usb needs to die already, the only thing that it has going for it is that it only has 5 pins out, vs usb c's 12 pins for the 2.0 standard, and its cheap. While im a self admited cheapscape, even im not stooping as low as to use grubby microusb on a project in 2025

Design files

all design files wont be found here, but the most recent version will be. I just didn't back them up when working on them, and now a reinstalled windows has wiped them all away. heres the version 4 design I did make some custom libraries for these, specifically modifying the esp32-wroom module to not include some pins I didnt use, like the thermal pad pins on the bottom. I dont think anybody would want it, as I basically just took the standard library and removed some stuff, so go make that on your own, also I lost the library