Powering esp32 via 5V pin - help please

Hi guys, I'm after some help with regards to powering my esp32.

It will power up using USB no problem, if I try to power it up via the 5v pin (which can take anywhere between 7-12v) it won't start. The lights come on etc but the WiFi wont start. I'm using a 9v 1A stepdown buck converter being powered by a 12v 1A power supply. I can't figure out what's going on. I can't see any debugging messages because if I plug in the USB it works fine.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

This is the board I'm using

and this is the buck converter I'm using

Seems to be a very common problem. Strange thing is I have another project running using a similar set up but the buck converter is something like this https://amzn.eu/d/gESVlzn
and it works fine.

I'm going to try the solution in this thread which suggests using a 470uf16v capacitor. Seems massive but I'm done in with this now.

Sometimes I found when powering a ESP32 with a 5V switching regulator to get good operations I hand a 470uF Tant. cap on the 3V3 line.

I will take a SWAG and say the power is not coming up properly. Try holding it in reset until the power has stabilized. If you can use a scope to see what it looks like.

So, I seemed to have solved it. My understanding of the solution is more or less non existant though.

I compared my current project to my old project to see what differences there were as they use the same board from the same supplier etc.

What I noticed is that I was using different ground pins. On my old project I was using the gnd pin up by pin 23 (top right pin), my current project was using the gnd pin between pins 12 & 13 (bottom left). So I swapped the ground on my latest project to the top right gnd pin and hey presto, it powers up and is absolutely fine. Swap it back and it no longer works. Very weird. Its reproducable on all the boards I have which are 'AzDelivery esp32 Devkit c'
There was nothing wrong with the gnd connection in its original location as the project ran fine off usb. Just something about that pin and using VIN/5v pin to power the board it doesn't like.

This is all without installing the capacitor I mentioned above. Happy that it works now but I was at my wits end trying to figure it out, it was driving me nuts.

[Edit - picture to show the pins I'm refering to]

This topic was automatically closed 180 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.