Bought the ESP23 Qwiic Pro Mini on a whim... now have a question about programming.

Qwiic System
1

So as the title says, I bought the ESP32 Pro Mini on a whim to fill the last $9 to free shipping. Smart, no… but I was interested in trying the ESP32 for a weather station project I had intended on doing sooner or later. Fast forward to now, opened it up and started looking at the hardware hookup guide and the guide says “To follow along with this tutorial, you will need the following materials. You may not need everything though depending on what you have. Add it to your cart, read through the guide, and adjust the cart as necessary.” That guide shows the “SparkFun Serial Basic Breakout - CH340C and USB-C” and an accompanying USB-C cable. Is the CH340 necessary for the programming or can I utilize a GPIO wiring method?

The guide seems to allude that there might be an alternative, so it got me searching on the forum before posting and I cannot find anything that specifies an alternative. So with that I’ll guess that I do actually need a CH340 breakout to get this “working” and then disconnect it when I finish programming to utilize in the project while powering from GPIO. Correct?

2

Yes, you need the serial basic breakout. (or another USB to ttl serial adapter)

There isn’t any other (practical) way to get your code onto the board.

3

I appreciate the reply! I do have a random USB to Serial, I’ll just have to make an RJ-11 adapter for it to work on the ESP without cutting off the connector. If all else fails, I’ll spring the extra $10 for the one specified, I suppose. So am I correct that once this particular ESP is programmed, it no longer needs the serial interface? I had an Arduino Nano that I configured with an HC-05 bluetooth serial interface, I’m surprised that there is not an equivalent on this pro mini (built-in) for serial over bluetooth. In theory, I should be able to use the HC-05 to take the place of the CH340.

4

Just make sure your usb to serial adapter is TTL logic and not RS-232 and it’s operating at 3.3 volt logic levels. If it’s not, it won’t work and could damage your pro mini.

Programming over bluetooth has been tried before, it’s not very reliable even if you can get it to work at all.