Spent most of my post-St. Patricks day writing code for the ESP-DSC. The big question was always does the ESP-12E have enough horsepower to handle both the encoders as well as doing all the WiFi/communications. So far, I’ve bench tested a pair of 2.5k CPR encoders which translate into 10K encoders after quadrature decoding.

The good news is that everything worked great! No obvious dropped “clicks”, even when I rotated both encoders by hand. I glued a toothpick to each encoder shaft and things seemed to align just fine. Obviously, the real test will be with the 10K CPR/40K quadrature encoders mounted to my scope.

The prototype v1.0 board also seems to have proven most of my decisions as correct. There are a few small changes I’ll make for a v2.0 board in order to reduce the footprint and make programming more reliable.

The one thing I’ve learned is that while you can program the ESP-12 while powered via the FTDI board, it will crash when you try bringing up the WiFi because there’s not enough power available. Powering via USB and the onboard 3.3V power regulator is therefore necessary.