There are no end of ESP32 dev boards but if you're new to working with MCUs I'd always recommend starting with something from Adafruit or Sparkfun. They just have way more documentation and support.
So I'd go with something like an Adafruit ESP32 Feather [0]. Sure it's super impressive that one can pick up a perfectly functional anonymous board on eBay for almost nothing but, for getting started, $20 for something from Adafruit will save you a lot of initial hassle.
MicroPython on ESP32 [1].
MicroPython specifically on the Adafruit ESP32 Feather [2].
I can highly recommend the "Wemos D1 Mini" for starting with ESP8266 as it's tiny, cheap but can be plugged in to a PC to be programmed over USB and has pin headers and readily available shields for getting started quickly. I have one in each room of the house reporting back temperature\humidity to the pi that controls the central heating :-)
You're welcome! You might also be interested in MicroPython (if you write python) which runs pretty solid on esp32 and has a lot of batteries included. You can almost forget you're running on a micro.
Do you by chance have a link to a good development kit for the esp32? I checked and I'm a bit overwhelmed by the amount of different components one can get.
- it has an OLED screen on the board for debugging and status output
- it has a battery holder and charging circuitry for an 18650 on the back of the board for portable powering/"UPS"
- it breaks out all the GPIO lines onto pins
Why you might not like it:
- like many esp32 dev boards it's slightly too fat to go straight into a standard breadboard. You have to join two breadboards to get access to both rows of pins.
Lately I've been playing with the Olimex esp32-poe [0]. It supports being powered over ethernet or lipo battery (or micro usb) and includes an SD card slot. If your application uses the ethernet, though, be sure to develop using a non-poe switch (or else power from the ethernet interface can leak over the usb programming interface and damage your laptop.)
So I'd go with something like an Adafruit ESP32 Feather [0]. Sure it's super impressive that one can pick up a perfectly functional anonymous board on eBay for almost nothing but, for getting started, $20 for something from Adafruit will save you a lot of initial hassle.
MicroPython on ESP32 [1]. MicroPython specifically on the Adafruit ESP32 Feather [2].
[0] https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-huzzah32-esp32-feather?v... [1] https://docs.micropython.org/en/latest/esp32/tutorial/intro.... [2] https://github.com/pvanallen/esp32-getstarted