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https://esphome.io ESP32 boards: surprisingly fast/powerful little SOC with wifi ESP8266: cheaper+slower. I like the Wemos D1 mini board: smaller and has enough horsepower for most things. Sourcing: a ton on options on AliExpress. Buy a few extras so if you fry one you aren't waiting for replacements. They are super cheap ($3-$6). Options to consider for board: memory, CPU speed (ESP32 vs ESP8266), size/form factor,…
I'd recommend staying away from the 8266s at this point. The chip is EoL and the ESP32 offers double the speed, more than double the IO pins, and bluetooth. The 8266 is limiting with its single ADC pin, and single hardware serial and inability to define other pins for I2C/SPI. I started with the 8266s thinking I wouldn't need the extra features, and most of my applications don't need it, but the few times I needed to…
But I love how tiiiiny they are :)