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ESP32-S - The esp32-cam board was based on esp32-s.

I purchased a few of these together with some PCB adapter boards. I have a few hours to spare last weekend and used them to do some soldering works. The esp32-s module is tiny and the output connectors are close together.

I have five modules to be soldered to the PCB adapter boards. I would be very happy if mange to have three in working order when I am done.

The first thing I did is to change the tip of my soldering iron. I changed to a knife-edge tip. The temperature was set to 500℃. The idea is, to solder the contact points by dragging the knife-edge tip of the soldering iron, in one go. I will try to use a minimum amount of tin on the knife-edge. It helps a lot to apply soldering flux to the contacts points first.

The esp32-s and the PCB adapter board securely held together using the crocodile clip of a third arm tool. I took the time to adjust the alignment of the contacts points before starting to apply soldering tin. With one clean drag, I solder the bottom contact points. Then the two sides contacts. I used a multimeter to check for any contact bridge and use the wick wire to remove the excess tin.


The result is not to bad. The ultimate test was to flash micropython firmware to the PCB adapter mounted esp32-s module.

I managed to flash the MicroPython v1.11-328 to all the five boards. You can download the firmware from my GitHub firmware repository if you are not able to compile the firmware yourself.

 The was a hundred present success. The mount your own esp32 modules to PCB adapters are not that difficult provided that you have the necessary tools and some practice.



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