ESP8266 module setting up with FT232 USB to serail module and power

Hi,

I was trying to test Wifi module, I connected it with USB to Serial converter (FT232) and set 3.3v on USB converter. power led lit on my wifi module, when i sent At command, a blue led also blinked on wifi module, but no response from wifi module received in serial port communication software. When i searched with my laptop's built in Wifi, ESP8266 was available as AP.

After about 6 hours of working i got success, but i noticed that by mistake i connected it with 5v settings on FT232 (while trying to connect through different USB to Serial converters), I checked it with many other USB converters available at home, and even other version of Wifi modules like V-01 and V-11 both were working good with 5.0v. I checked voltage with multimeter it was 5v

I wanted to know what is the reason behind the voltage confusion. later i have to use it with MCU, does it mean if I can use it with 5v MCU also? please share your experience.

Thanks.

The ESP8266 is a 3.3v device so you have to use an appropriate power supply. If you want to get the supply from the the FT232 module then note that the 3.3v line can't provide enough current so you have to use an external 3.3v regulator connected to the 5v USB supply.

In order to use the device with 5v signals (like an mcu operating with a Vcc of 5v) you have to use some kind of level translator.
Feeding 3.3v outputs from ESP to AVR is not a problem but feeding 5V to the ESP inputs can potentially damage the chip.
What I have used to pair the ESP8266 with Arduino is a 1K resistor between the AVR Tx and ESP Rx, and a direct connection between the ESP Tx and AVR Rx.

hi,
I used the esp8266 directly with the arduino IDE, you don't need any mcu
except if you need a lot of I/O
but with a esp8266-07 or -12 model you have already some 8 I/O to use...
far more simple than connect a mcu, specially if you have a 5v mcu and a 3v esp8266 !
you will also have some sensors I presume, are they 3v or 5v ? you have to be carefull about that too/.