The bare ESP8266 chip is cheap, but has non standard pin spacing,

Electronics
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The bare ESP8266 chip is cheap, but has non standard pin spacing, and isn’t easy to work with. There is a “Bread Board Friendly” breakout for it, but it has a couple of quirks. http://arduinotronics.blogspot.com/2018/06/esp8266-breakout-board.html

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Here’s an easy way to flash your ESP-12 module: https://plus.google.com/u/0/103762327575413926840/posts/Eqtih7ziAdG

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I made a couple of projects with bare ESP-07 modules, but its just too much hassle, i now use wemos/lolin d1 mini boards instead, they are not much more expensive to begin with, and especially not after you take into account all the work needed to get bare modules to be usable.

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At $6 each, these are fun and easy - https://amzn.to/2KrrJJj

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@Justin_Mitchell IMHO you are completely right in doing so, with one exception: Battery / solar powered projects. You need to go bare-bone there.