Jadu
a ESP32-S3-WROOM-1U-N8R2 based micro-controller board. Primary purpose of the board was to use it as a wifi adapter in public event & for fimware uploading projects that I want to do. Such as make the esp32s3 act like as a SWD probe, firmware implementation on SWD protocol, Basic DP/AP access, Flash algorithm for nRF52. By this ESP32 will be enabled to talk to host over USB CDC & custom protocol
Created by
Shades
Tier 5
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0 followers
CAN ⚡🚀
requested changes for Jadu ago
Your journal needs to show the step-by-step process you took in making this project. Please break your larger journal entires into multiple smaller ones, show the steps you took, and explain it better.
Shades
submitted Jadu for ship review ago
Shades
added to the journal ago
Expanding Journal
Ahh! May be I will write about some component that I used and why I used. I am not good explainer so please bare with me.
First of all I used two USB-C port. One is for USB TO UART Chip and the other one is for USB to Direct ESP chip. That means If I have to upload my firmware, I can do that with .uf2 file format and via USB. No need for SWD probe for firmware uploading. Main problem is you cannot access two usb's at the same time. Also there is no protection for double usage.
Having a UART chip controller helps a lot. You can use this as a firmware uploader for other devices with some tweaking.
On also this chip has two push buttons. One push button is for Booting and another one is for emergency reset.
There is a 3V3 converter which feeds the whole board actually.
The core of the board is ESP32-S3-WROOM-1U-N8R2 which has an external antenna and I used an after market antenna for it. Because my main purpose was to use it as a wifi adapter.
koeg 🚀
requested changes for Jadu ago
Hi, your project looks good!! You just need to improve/expand your journal, you should add more detail.
Shades
submitted Jadu for ship review ago
CAN ⚡🚀
requested changes for Jadu ago
Please add all of the PCB files, you can check out the submission requirements.
Shades
submitted Jadu for ship review ago
Shades
added to the journal ago
Pretty Much that I worked on
I had pretty much an Idea what I wanted to achieve but I want that compact in size. That is why instead of working on schematic first, I started my project with my PCB design and uploading components and finding track space. So finally I set on a reasonable dimension and started work on the schematics. I followed the ESP32S3 devkit schematics officially released by ESPRESSIF. And probably finished the board wholely in 1 and a half hours.
After that I made some couple revision writing some silkscreen to identify USB, switch button and pads. Then started to work on the BOM where I looked in my previous project to see if I have some parts or no. SO i didn't really needed much passives to buy more.
Sad fact is that the price of some components has gone up for my previous project. if you have some project long in the que, there is a high chance the price has gone up in a week. So make sure to follow up your prices and order fast. If you are intending to save money in shipping, there will be some money which will go from you pocket if you delay your order.
After finishin the BOM, I was doing some research on the firmware tweaking but for now I will use the wifi adapter one and may be will work on the firmware uploading project once I get it in my hand. I also got an external antenna but it is needed with the specific module.
Yeah you can think it is a boring project. But one of this as a devkit costs around 40$(the lowest I could find) in my country.
Yeah in amazon it is probably the same price with shipping.
Was it a good project from me? I mean I made it small. If I had the passives in my storage maybe I could utilize the extra money cost. Also I have type-C that literally doesnot make any difference.
For flashing use the ESP32S3 example project from ESP-IDF. The tusbncm. Purpose of tusbncm is that your computer will see the board as USB etthernet class. But there are some changes that you need to do.
You have go to your projects SDK editor
You have to enable the tiny usb CDC feature because I want to work with serial devices.
Then you have to select the tiny-usb network device _ ncm. It is the fastest and work with cross platform.
Change the console routing because you want to flash the firmware with usb-c.
Disable the serial JTAG support. Otherwise it will clash with your output cause they use the same usb controller and fights with tiny usb.
After that the board will work like this
PC <—USB NCM—> ESP32-S3 <—Wi-Fi STA—> Router/AP
ESP will assume This PC is just another client on my Wi-Fi network.
After that just go to the ESP-IDF explorer. Click on the Full clean first and then click on build project. It will build the project for you.
Then connect the board to you computer and the device should pop up down below. Once you see the board and click on flash the firmware. YOu are done. Now you have a usb wifi adapter.
I will make some firmware project with the board like uploading cross platform firmware with it specifically I will start with my keyboard firmware uploading(using esp32 to upload firmware through swo pins). It has some good flash memory and is capable carrying big files.
Shades
started Jadu ago
2/2/2026 - Pretty Much that I worked on
I had pretty much an Idea what I wanted to achieve but I want that compact in size. That is why instead of working on schematic first, I started my project with my PCB design and uploading components and finding track space. So finally I set on a reasonable dimension and started work on the schematics. I followed the ESP32S3 devkit schematics officially released by ESPRESSIF. And probably finished the board wholely in 1 and a half hours.
After that I made some couple revision writing some silkscreen to identify USB, switch button and pads. Then started to work on the BOM where I looked in my previous project to see if I have some parts or no. SO i didn't really needed much passives to buy more.
Sad fact is that the price of some components has gone up for my previous project. if you have some project long in the que, there is a high chance the price has gone up in a week. So make sure to follow up your prices and order fast. If you are intending to save money in shipping, there will be some money which will go from you pocket if you delay your order.
After finishin the BOM, I was doing some research on the firmware tweaking but for now I will use the wifi adapter one and may be will work on the firmware uploading project once I get it in my hand. I also got an external antenna but it is needed with the specific module.
Yeah you can think it is a boring project. But one of this as a devkit costs around 40$(the lowest I could find) in my country.
Yeah in amazon it is probably the same price with shipping.
Was it a good project from me? I mean I made it small. If I had the passives in my storage maybe I could utilize the extra money cost. Also I have type-C that literally doesnot make any difference.
For flashing use the ESP32S3 example project from ESP-IDF. The tusbncm. Purpose of tusbncm is that your computer will see the board as USB etthernet class. But there are some changes that you need to do.
You have go to your projects SDK editor
You have to enable the tiny usb CDC feature because I want to work with serial devices.
Then you have to select the tiny-usb network device _ ncm. It is the fastest and work with cross platform.
Change the console routing because you want to flash the firmware with usb-c.
Disable the serial JTAG support. Otherwise it will clash with your output cause they use the same usb controller and fights with tiny usb.
After that the board will work like this
PC <—USB NCM—> ESP32-S3 <—Wi-Fi STA—> Router/AP
ESP will assume This PC is just another client on my Wi-Fi network.
After that just go to the ESP-IDF explorer. Click on the Full clean first and then click on build project. It will build the project for you.
Then connect the board to you computer and the device should pop up down below. Once you see the board and click on flash the firmware. YOu are done. Now you have a usb wifi adapter.
I will make some firmware project with the board like uploading cross platform firmware with it specifically I will start with my keyboard firmware uploading(using esp32 to upload firmware through swo pins). It has some good flash memory and is capable carrying big files.
3/8/2026 - Expanding Journal
Ahh! May be I will write about some component that I used and why I used. I am not good explainer so please bare with me.
First of all I used two USB-C port. One is for USB TO UART Chip and the other one is for USB to Direct ESP chip. That means If I have to upload my firmware, I can do that with .uf2 file format and via USB. No need for SWD probe for firmware uploading. Main problem is you cannot access two usb's at the same time. Also there is no protection for double usage.
Having a UART chip controller helps a lot. You can use this as a firmware uploader for other devices with some tweaking.
On also this chip has two push buttons. One push button is for Booting and another one is for emergency reset.
There is a 3V3 converter which feeds the whole board actually.
The core of the board is ESP32-S3-WROOM-1U-N8R2 which has an external antenna and I used an after market antenna for it. Because my main purpose was to use it as a wifi adapter.