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OLIMEX ESP32-DevKit-LiPo
Low-profile ESP32 board with LiPo charger - great for portable and battery-powered devices.
48 × 28 mm
ESP32
MCU
240MHz
clock
4MB
flash
520KB
SRAM
24· 16 ADC
GPIO
BLE 4.2+ WiFi
radio
Pinout
24 pins · 2.54 mm pitch
| Pin | GPIO | Labels | Status | Capabilities | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | A11T1 | strapping | adc · touch | |
| 2 | 1 | TXPWM | uart | uart | |
| 3 | 2 | A12T2PWM | strapping | adc · touch | |
| 4 | 3 | RXPWM | uart | uart | |
| 5 | 4 | A10T0PWM | strapping | adc · touch | |
| 6 | 5 | SSPWM | strapping | spi | |
| 7 | 12 | A15T5PWM | strapping | adc · touch | |
| 8 | 13 | A14T4PWM | strapping | adc · touch | |
| 9 | 14 | A16T6PWM | strapping | adc · touch | |
| 10 | 15 | A13T3PWM | strapping | adc · touch | |
| 11 | 18 | SCKPWM | safe | spi | |
| 12 | 19 | MISOPWM | safe | spi | |
| 13 | 21 | SDAPWM | safe | i2c | |
| 14 | 22 | SCLPWM | safe | i2c | |
| 15 | 23 | MOSIPWM | safe | spi | |
| 16 | 25 | A18DAC1PWM | safe | adc · dac | |
| 17 | 26 | A19DAC2PWM | safe | adc · dac | |
| 18 | 27 | A17T7PWM | safe | adc · touch | |
| 19 | 32 | A4T9PWM | safe | adc · touch | |
| 20 | 33 | A5T8PWM | safe | adc · touch | |
| 21 | 34 | A6 | strapping | adc | |
| 22 | 35 | A7 | strapping | adc | |
| 23 | 36 | A0 | strapping | adc | |
| 24 | 39 | A3 | strapping | adc |
Start with these
10 pins with no boot or system involvementSCKPWMMISOPWMSDAPWMSCLPWMMOSIPWMA18DAC1A19DAC2A17T7A4T9A5T8
Freely assignable - no strapping, flash, USB or JTAG duties. Ideal first picks for buttons, sensors and LEDs.
Fine - with a little care
sampled at boot or shared with debug/serial| Pin | Label | What to know | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| A11 | GPIO0 | Must be HIGH during boot for normal startup; if held LOW on reset, forces flash programming mode. | Strapping |
| A12 | GPIO2 | If driven HIGH on reset (while IO0 is LOW), selects an unsupported SDIO boot mode, causing boot failure. | Strapping |
| A10 | GPIO4 | Sampled at reset for boot config; should not be driven at boot (affects boot mode timing). | Strapping |
| SS | GPIO5 | Must be HIGH during boot; if pulled LOW at reset, alters SDIO slave timing and may prevent normal boot. | Strapping |
| A15 | MTDI (GPIO12) | Keep LOW during boot (internal PD); pulling HIGH at reset selects 1.8V flash mode, causing flash brownout if 3.3V flash is used. | Strapping |
| A14 | MTCK (GPIO13) | Used for JTAG debugging (TCK); avoid using as GPIO if JTAG is needed. | Other |
| A16 | MTMS (GPIO14) | Used for JTAG debugging (TMS); driving it as GPIO may interfere with JTAG or produce spurious signals at boot. | Other |
| A13 | MTDO (GPIO15) | Keep HIGH during boot (internal PU); if LOW on reset, bootloader log is silenced and boot mode may change. | Strapping |
| A6 | GPIO34 | Cannot be used as output (no drive capability); only suitable for analog/digital input. | Other |
| A7 | GPIO35 | Cannot be used as output; only suitable for input. | Other |
| A0 | GPIO36 (SENSOR_VP) | Cannot be used as output; only suitable for input (e.g., analog read). | Other |
| A3 | GPIO39 (SENSOR_VN) | Cannot be used as output; only suitable for input. | Other |
Only if you know the tricks
wired to flash or USB - expect a fight| Pin | Label | What to know | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| TX | U0TXD (GPIO1) | Connected to on-board USB-UART for uploading and logs; drives serial output at boot, so using as GPIO can disrupt programming or console. | USB |
| RX | U0RXD (GPIO3) | Used for receiving data from USB-UART (programming); also pulled HIGH at boot for console communication, so using as GPIO can disrupt uploads. | USB |
These are recommendations, not hard rules - with the right pull-ups, timing and boot-state awareness most pins can be made to work. When in doubt, start green.
Pinout notes All 24 pins on the OLIMEX ESP32-DevKit-LiPo are usable GPIO, spaced at the standard 2.54 mm pitch. Peripheral wiring is straightforward: I²C is mapped to SDA…
All 24 pins on the OLIMEX ESP32-DevKit-LiPo are usable GPIO, spaced at the standard 2.54 mm pitch.
Peripheral wiring is straightforward: I²C is mapped to SDA on GPIO21 and SCL on GPIO22; the SPI bus (MOSI, MISO, SCK, SS) is broken out in full; TX/RX on GPIO1 and GPIO3 cover serial logging and flashing.
Beyond plain digital I/O you get 16 ADC-capable pins for sensors and battery monitoring, 10 capacitive-touch inputs and 2 true DAC outputs.
12 of the exposed pins carry boot-time or system duties on the ESP32 (A11, A12, A10 and 9 more) - check the guidance above before wiring anything to them. SCK, MISO, SDA, SCL and 6 more are free of any such role - the safest first picks.
Getting started
flash your first firmware in ~2 minutes1
Connect over USB
Serial chip: CH340T. Not detected? Hold BOOT while plugging in.
2
Flash with your tool
Arduino IDE, PlatformIO, ESPHome or esptool - copy the settings on the right.
3
Verify it runs
The blink example uses GPIO18 - swap for your board's LED pin if different.
Board: Esp32 Devkit Lipo
Flash Size: 4MB · DIO
Upload Speed: 921600
// blink
pinMode(18, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(18, LOW); // on (often inverted)[env:esp32-DevKitLipo]
platform = espressif32
board = esp32dev
framework = arduino
monitor_speed = 115200
upload_speed = 921600esp32:
board: esp32dev
variant: esp32-devkit-lipo
framework:
type: esp-idf
# blink - GPIO18
output:
- platform: gpio
pin: 18
id: led_out
light:
- platform: binary
name: "LED"
output: led_outesptool.py --chip esp32 --port /dev/ttyACM0 \
write_flash 0x0 firmware.binBuild details: sketch space 1310720 B · data 327680 B · DIO
Specifications
ESP32 · 48 × 28 mmCompute
MCU
ESP32
Clock
240 MHz
SRAM · Flash
520 KB · 4MB
Radio
Wi-Fi
802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth
4.2 LE
Antenna
PCB
I/O
GPIO · ADC
24 · 16
UART · I²C · SPI
3 · 2 · 4
PWM
16 channels
Power
USB
Micro-USB
Serial
CH340T
Boot address
0x1000
Flashing
Upload · OTA
esptool_py · esp_ota
Flash · Boot mode
DIO · DIO
Sketch · Data
1.25 MB · 320 KB
48 × 28 mm · pin pitch 2.54 mm
The OLIMEX ESP32-DevKit-LiPo uses esptool_py for firmware uploads, esp_ota for over-the-air (OTA) updates. Flash mode is DIO with DIO boot mode. The maximum sketch size is 1.25 MB with 320 KB available for data.
About this board
Inside sits the ESP32 - a dual-core Xtensa with both Bluetooth Classic and BLE.
At $8.82 it's cheaper than most ESP32 boards, which usually run around $20.
Around the module: battery charging (BL4054B) via JST-PH 2.0, status LEDs (Power, Charge) and Reset buttons.
- Pin-to-pin compatible with Espressif ESP32-DevKitC
- EA variant adds a u.FL connector and external 3dB antenna (ESP32-WROOM-32UE)
- WROVER variant adds 8MB PSRAM (ESP32-WROVER-E-N4R8)
- Auto-programming circuit - no manual bootloader entry needed
Where to buy
prices are typical street pricesOLIMEX ESP32-DevKit-LiPo
$8.82per unit, typical
Resources
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