OSOYOONodeMCU Module USB-C WiFi Development Board for Arduino IDE/Micropython Includes Tutorial

The media could not be loaded. If you like to tinker with electronics, NodeMCU boards are surprisingly powerful and can be used for all kinds of automation/smart control projects. I enjoy working with addressable RGB LED lights and put this Osoyoo ESP8266 to use with a piece of software called WLED to create a ping-pong ball lamp which is then controlled via my iPhone and has scheduled on/off times and can display a huge range of light patterns.The board itself looks really well made and I would 100% recommend. Have a search on the Internet for some clever projects you can do with one or two of these clever little boards!

This board from OSOYOO arrives in a plain cardboard box that’s appropriately sized, it’s got a branded label stuck onto the front that’s got a short-link to the tutorial for the board inside the box. Tucked inside the box itself you get a small ESD pouch that contains the board itself with the pins from the 2.54mm headers pressed into a foam block to protect them and stop them from piercing the ESD pouch.My only real comment on the build quality is that the flux from the headers being soldered to the boards has been left behind, so I assume they’re hand-soldered. It would’ve been nice if the excess flux was removed. It’s not exactly a massive issue or a dealbreaker, it’s just something I noticed while checking out the build quality that isn’t typical on the boards with pre-soldered headers. Otherwise, the build quality is excellent and I didn’t notice any other quirks with the assembly of the components. The board has no issues getting picked up by my computer and the Arduino IDE, the only consideration is that you need the CH340 driver software for it to be recognised, but that’s expected with these dev boards and the tutorial covers it if you’re unfamiliar. I haven’t put it into an active project just yet but I have no complaints, it took a test flash and was running my usual sample neopixel code without any hiccups.The price is where this product fails for me, £9.90 for a single board feels more than a little excessive when they’re selling the same thing as many others, sure the tutorial is a nice inclusion but most board sellers have online tutorials or e-books supplied with their products these days. I'm not expecting it to be competitive against the £2.20 import price I’d normally pay, but there are many cheaper options out there from many different brands on Amazon. You can literally buy a three pack of the exact same boards for £10.99 at the time of writing on Amazon, so why would anyone go for this particular board/brand? The product itself is perfectly fine, but unless the pricing comes down to a competitive and reasonable level I couldn’t see myself repurchasing or recommending this over the alternatives.