Nodes
Community-voiced board data and quotes are lifted from the canonical pin: discussion #2334 — Boards: what works, what’s flaky, what to avoid. If a board you’ve run isn’t listed, comment on that thread and we’ll fold it in.
Chip families
Section titled “Chip families”Pick a chip first, then a board within it.
| Chip | Supported | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| ESP32-S3 | yes — recommended for new deployments | 8 MB flash typical, BT 5.0 LE coded PHY, USB-CDC |
| ESP32-C3 | yes — recommended for cost-sensitive deployments | RISC-V, 4 MB flash typical |
| ESP32-C6 | yes — bleeding edge | Newer RISC-V part with BT 5.3; firmware build available |
| Original ESP32 | yes, for now | Older silicon with less CPU and RAM than the S3/C3/C6 parts. Still supported, but expect it to age out of new firmware features eventually — prefer a newer chip for new deployments. |
| ESP32-S2 | no | No Bluetooth radio |
| ESP8266 | no | No Bluetooth radio |
Recommended boards
Section titled “Recommended boards”The boards in bold are the picks if you don’t want to think about it — M5 Atom S3 Lite as the default, M5Stack NanoC6 for kitting out a whole house (tiny, enclosed, very capable, ~$6), M5 Stamp C3 Mate as a cost-conscious alternative.
All branded boards listed here flash with the browser installer, which picks the right firmware flavour automatically.
ESP32-S3
Section titled “ESP32-S3”| Board | Stores | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| M5 Atom S3 Lite | m5stack ali ali2 amz/us | Enclosed, USB-C. 8 MB flash, 3D antenna, IR emitter, RGB LED, button, GROVE 1 |
| M5 Atom S3U | m5stack ali amz/us | Enclosed, USB-A. 8 MB flash, 3D antenna, IR emitter, PDM mic, RGB LED, button, GROVE 1 |
| M5 Stamp S3 | ali amz/us | Stamp form. 8 MB flash, 3D antenna, RGB LED 1 |
| Seeed XIAO ESP32-S3 | ali amz/us | Tiny module, USB-C. 8 MB flash + 8 MB PSRAM, U.FL connector with external antenna. Listing also sells the C3 and S3 Sense — pick the S3 option. Amazon sells a 3-pack 1 |
ESP32-C3
Section titled “ESP32-C3”| Board | Stores | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| M5 Stamp C3 Mate | m5stack ali amz/us | Stamp form. 4 MB flash, 3D antenna, RGB LED, button |
| M5 Stamp C3U Mate | m5stack ali amz/us | Stamp form, USB-A. 4 MB flash, 3D antenna, RGB LED, button 1 |
| ESP32-C3-DevKitM-1U | ali | Espressif’s dev board with ESP32-C3-MINI-1U module and U.FL connector. 4 MB flash, 160 MHz |
ESP32-C6
Section titled “ESP32-C6”C6 support is bleeding edge — expect rougher edges than S3/C3.
| Board | Stores | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| M5Stack NanoC6 | m5stack ali amz/us | Very small and enclosed, USB-C. 4 MB flash, ceramic antenna, IR emitter, RGB LED, button, GROVE |
| Seeed XIAO ESP32-C6 | ali amz/us | Tiny module, USB-C. 4 MB flash, onboard ceramic antenna + U.FL connector. Amazon sells a 3-pack |
Original ESP32
Section titled “Original ESP32”Still supported, but don’t buy one new — the silicon is old and the newer S3/C3/C6 boards above are better and cost about the same. These are listed for people who already own one.
| Board | Notes |
|---|---|
| M5 Atom (Lite / Echo / Matrix) | Enclosed. The 3D antenna is much better than generic clones |
| M5 Stamp Pico | Stamp form. Small, still has a 3D antenna |
| Adafruit Huzzah32 | Dev board. Branded, quality control unlike generic ESP32 dev boards |
Works, with caveats
Section titled “Works, with caveats”These boards run ESPresense, but antenna and module QC vary — RSSI from one of these often won’t agree with a branded board at the same distance, which makes fleet calibration harder and is a real problem for Companion’s room solver. Use one you already own rather than buying a new one. If a “with caveats” board misbehaves, reproduce on a tier-1 board before opening a firmware issue — RF problems on a marginal clone look identical to firmware bugs and burn a lot of triage time.
| Board | Caveat | Source |
|---|---|---|
| AZDelivery ESP32 NodeMCU (WROOM-32 module on a generic dev board) | Works but no brand QC | #2334 / #1567, #1577 |
| Generic D1 Mini ESP32 (Micro-B and USB-C) | Multiple users report working in practice; same no-brand → no-QC caveat on the RF front-end | #2334 / #162 |
| LOLIN D32 ESP32 | Works; unbranded RF caveat | #2334 |
| M5StickC Plus | Built-in battery is a liability for a fixed-in-place node | #2334 |
| SEEEDSTUDIO XIAO ESP32-C3 (amz/us, 3-pack) | Runs on the esp32C3 flavour. One report of a board overheating (#1364); use a known-good USB-C cable and a real power supply | #2334 / #1364 |
Steer away
Section titled “Steer away”Each of these comes up often enough that it’s worth saying plainly:
- Unbranded “ESP32 dev board” listings (Amazon / AliExpress). ESPresense uses RSSI as its primary input — every distance estimate and every Companion room solve assumes the fleet’s readings agree with each other. Unbranded clones don’t have consistent antenna designs even within a single product listing; two boards from the same batch routinely differ by several dB at the same distance, which translates to feet of error in the Companion floor plan. None of that matters for sensor/relay/presence projects like ESPHome, which is why “these same cheap boards never drop with ESPHome” is a common (and accurate, but irrelevant) objection — ESPHome isn’t doing RSSI distance estimation across a calibrated fleet. The failure mode here is also silent: the board flashes, joins WiFi, reports to MQTT, but its RSSI numbers don’t line up with the rest of the fleet and you can’t tell whether bad tracking is firmware, calibration, or a bad RF front-end. @maxi1134 separately reports a 40-50% WiFi-retry rate on generic ESP32 dev boards (#1364, summarised in #2334). For any node you intend to calibrate against the fleet — and especially for Companion — spend the extra few dollars on a branded board.
- ESP32-CAM. Not officially supported. Camera owns most of the GPIOs, tighter RAM, no maintained firmware variant. One community member keeps a fork working with source-side modifications (#1347); we don’t build for it.
- ESP32-S2 / ESP8266. No Bluetooth radio — physically can’t run ESPresense.
- NSPanel as a base station. Open question. The chip is an ESP32, but no one has reported flashing ESPresense over the stock NSPanel firmware and getting both the touch UI and BT scanning working (#1335).
- GL-S10 Bluetooth IoT Gateway. Not an ESP32 — MediaTek MT7621 with a separate BLE module — so the ESPresense firmware doesn’t apply (#1263).
Power and cabling
Section titled “Power and cabling”USB-C chargers
Section titled “USB-C chargers”- 20W USB-C Wall Charger — small fast charger with foldable plug
- 20W USB-C Wall Charger (3-pack)
- USB-C Charger (AliExpress) — listed as 40W; a node only draws a watt or two, so any working charger is plenty
USB-C to C cables
Section titled “USB-C to C cables”USB-A chargers
Section titled “USB-A chargers”- Dual USB-A 3-pack — compact cube design
USB-A to C cables
Section titled “USB-A to C cables”- 10 ft flat, 2-pack
- 1 ft braided, 3-pack
- 6 inch, 5-pack
- Straight adapter 4-pack
- Right-angle adapter 4-pack
USB-A to Micro-B cables
Section titled “USB-A to Micro-B cables”See also
Section titled “See also”- Canonical pin #2334 — community discussion, raw quotes, source threads
- Install Firmware — browser-based installer
- Discord — faster human turnaround on board questions