SparkFun ESP8266 Shield Chip getting hot

Wireless & IoT Wifi
1

Hello,

I’ve bought SparkFun ESP8266 Shield (WRL-13287 ROHS) https://www.sparkfun.com/products/13287#reviews to use it in my DCC based project. I started off with testing board with provided in tutorial basic code - ESP8266-Shield-Demo. First tries resulted in lightning up red led and the chip overheating. I’ve tried it in four setups stacking up boards:

  1. Using arduino mega as base and adding your wifi shield

  2. Using arduino mega as base then motor shield rev3 and wifi shield on top of that

  3. Using arduino uno as base and adding your wifi shield

  4. Using arduino uno as base then motor shield rev3 and wifi shield on top of that

Overheating occured in 2,3,4 setups. First setup didnt overheat but was throwing error 0 and made blue led blinking. Didn’t connect to my hotspot but access point was made. (look images)

Scenarios above are usually how it looks. Sometimes while restacking setup i manage to get stabile supply and even get the ESP8266 connect to my hotspot. I’ve noticed that many users had problems like that earlier and was wondering if solution was made for that.

sparkfun.rar (802 KB)

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2

Sounds like an overcurrent fault. Have you been able to solve the issue?

3

Unfortunately i didn’t

4

Hmmm, not sure exactly what the issue is here. I do recall seeing these shield having issues during the first revision and I believe we had fixed the issue or perhaps the manufacturer of the ESP8266 module we use fixed it. The problem has tapered off so when I see cases like this I think it just might be a bad board.

We can try sending you a replacement shield and see if that works out better. Just fill out a return ticket and we can get working on it: https://www.sparkfun.com/returns