In theory you could develop a pin package for it and socket it. Perhaps if we used 2 processors in concert. Use an identical processor a sub processor for the expansion bus, this allows for redundancy and a fall back system.
Thank you
If the total cost goes down, replacing just one board instead of having two is still a win.
by different chip, I’m saying that if we need an expansion chip on the ESP32 for basic functionality, then we shouldn’t use the ESP32, we should pick something else (there are so many to choose from today)
the value in going to the ESP32 is the increased capability and decreased cost, if we don’t get that decreased cost because we need to add other things in to make it functional, we should probably go with something else.
Yes, it does surprise me that the huzzah board (which is part of a family setup for much lower end chips) brings out all usable pins
This is far too complex for this project.
This has been a great discussion! The conclusion seems to be that the ESP32 could work in a pinch, but not without tradeoffs.
- The ESP32 does has enough pins to drive motors and maybe a few aux ports, but that’s about it. There are some workarounds like using a second MCU as an I/O expander or letting the SD card share SPI lines with the internal flash (my idea), but as @dlang pointed out it may not be a battle worth fighting.
- @blurfl has expressed concerns about the difficulty of porting to the ESP32 vs a more common board like the Teensy.
- @bee feels that the ESP32 is too unreliable to be the main processor.
- @jetrock mentioned in another thread that his CNC spindle creates wifi interference. Hopefully that’s not a universal problem but I wouldn’t want to have that be the only connection mechanism.
With that in mind I’ll also be leaning towards the Teensy, while keeping an ESP32 footprint on the board for anyone who wants to play with wireless capability.
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