Hi everyone,

I’ve been working through an ESP32 project using ESP-IDF in VS Code, starting with a simple LED blink application on GPIO18.

While exploring embedded development and PCB design resources from PCBCool, I started wondering at what point it makes sense to move an ESP32 project from a breadboard to a custom PCB.

For a basic prototype, the development board is convenient, but once you start adding sensors, communication interfaces, and other peripherals, wiring can get messy.

For those who have developed ESP32-based products, what usually determines when you design a custom PCB? Is it mainly the number of peripherals, reliability, noise considerations, or the need to reduce the overall size?

Would be interested to hear how you approach this in your own projects.