What the shield does
A socket for the ESP32-S3, every one of its pins brought out twice at the edge, an LED beside every GPIO that cannot disturb I²C or SPI, and the standard display plug. Here is which part is which.
A board for the board
The ESP32-S3 Gold Edition arrives with forty-four pins and nowhere convenient to put them. The shield is where they go: the board drops into two black 22-way sockets in the middle, and every one of its pins comes back out at the edges.
Six parts, one job each
Read from the outside in. The outer row on each edge is male pins, for the female end of a jumper wire. The yellow row beside it is female sockets, for the male end. Each socket is wired to the pin next to it, so the two rows are one set of signals offered twice.
Outside the pins is a column of LEDs, one beside every GPIO. Between the two black sockets, under where the board sits, are six inverter chips. They are what turns a pin's voltage into a lit LED without loading the pin, which is why they cannot disturb an I²C or SPI bus (the lights never touch your bus).
At the top is the display plug, a fifteen-way ribbon socket in the order every Lonely Binary screen takes (the display plug), and at each corner a 4.7 mm mounting hole.
What the numbers mean
The number printed beside each row is the GPIO number — the one you type in
pinMode() and digitalWrite(). The shield uses the same order as the
ESP32-S3's own pins, so a GPIO sits at the same height on the shield as it does
on the board.
The rows with no LED are the ones that are not GPIOs: 3V3, 5V, RST and GND.
When it earns its place
When you want to see a pin rather than measure it. A sketch that toggles GPIO 5 shows a light on row 5 with no LED, no resistor and no wire. A serial port flickers while it talks. A pin you forgot to configure glows when you put a finger near it. Everything else — the pins, the sockets, the display port — is what any base does.
When it does not work
Each edge has two rows: male pins on the outside and yellow female sockets on the inside. They are the same 22 signals twice, wired together pin for pin, so count one row, not both.
The shield has no power of its own. Its LEDs and chips run from the ESP32-S3's 3.3 V output, so nothing lights until the board is seated and a USB cable is in.
74HC04D inverters — SN74HC04 in the board's bill of materials — six channels each, one channel per LED. They are what lets a GPIO light its LED without the LED's current coming out of the pin.
Only a 44-pin ESP32-S3 with the DevKitC-1 pin order: 22 pins a side, rows 22.86 mm apart, 3V3 at the antenna end of the left row. A board with a different order can seat and still put the wrong signal on the rows.
Why an LED on every pin cannot disturb I²C, SPI or serial.
The lights never touch your bus →Edit this page — content/books/esp32s3-base/what-the-shield-does.mdx
Questions people ask first
Which way round does the ESP32-S3 go on the base?
Its USB sockets go over the two boxes printed USB, at the bottom of the base, with the antenna end at the top under the display connector.
Nothing stops the other way: the two sockets are identical, so the board seats just as firmly end for end. Put in backwards, its 3.3 V regulator output ends up wired to ground, and the board can be damaged for good. Seat the board first and plug the USB cable in second, every time.
Where does the power for my sensors come from?
The base has no regulator, no battery connector and no power input. It is powered through the ESP32-S3's own USB sockets, and every power way on it is one of that board's pins carried out.
The 3V3 ways are the output of the regulator on the ESP32-S3. The 5V ways are the board's 5V pin: about 4.6 V with a USB cable plugged in, and nothing without one. Nothing on the way is switched, fused or filtered.
Can I run a motor, relay or LED strip from the base?
Not from its power ways. Motors, relays, servos and long LED strips need their own supply, with its ground joined to a GND way on the base, because the ESP32-S3's regulator is small and is also running your sketch.
Small sensors and a display can take 3V3 and ground from the base. No current rating is quoted for the ways, because none has been checked.
How many GPIOs does the Pluggable Terminal Base bring out?
24 of the ESP32-S3 Gold's 36 GPIOs, once each, on two 12-way push-in blocks, plus two 4-way power blocks.
Twelve do not come out: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 35, 36, 37, 43, 44, 45 and 46, and the RST pin. GPIO 1, 2 and 4 reach the display connector and nothing else. All of the I²C and SPI pins are on the left block, and GPIO 19 and 20 (the native USB pair, on the right block) should be left alone while a sketch is using USB.
How many GPIOs does the Screw Terminal Base bring out?
26 of the ESP32-S3's GPIOs, once each, on two 15-way screw terminal blocks, with 3V3 on the left block and 5V on the right. Ten GPIOs do not come out.
The native USB pins (GPIO 19 and 20) are on the right block: a wire on either one shares the USB lines with the computer, so leave them alone unless the sketch is not using native USB.
Questions about this product
See what other owners have asked, and read their solutions.
This page covers several products. Choose yours to see the right discussions.
Discuss this article
Ask about this page. The answer stays here, on the page it belongs to, for whoever hits the same wall next.