Bad QC, Unusable device
For ESP32-DIV Development Board
Bad soldering meant it could not be used on battery power as shipped. After re-flowing the connection to make it actually turn on, once I found the battery switch that is completely undocumented. After all of that, it is still unstable and will reboot itself at random when sitting on the desk untouched. Can't update firmware as the SD card reader will not recognize cards (have tried several) and the touch screen has a bunch dead spots making it impossible to connect to wifi (there is also no way to swap cases on the keyboard, making it impossible to use a password that isn't ALL CAPS).
Good concept, exceptionally poor execution.
Response from Cirket Open Source Hardware | Jan. 23, 2026
Hi,
We’re very sorry to hear about your experience and truly appreciate you taking the time to share such detailed feedback.
ESP32-DIV is a developer-oriented, open-source device, and we acknowledge that the current hardware revision has several known limitations, including battery power handling, SD card compatibility, touchscreen sensitivity, and overall system stability. These issues are documented in our developer notice, but we understand this may still cause frustration during actual use.
Regarding battery operation, the device does include a physical battery power switch on the side of the case, which must be enabled for battery use. We agree that this should be more clearly documented, and we are working to improve our documentation and QC process in future batches.
That said, the issues you described (unstable reboots, SD card reader failure, touchscreen dead zones) are not the experience we want users to have, and we sincerely apologize for that.
Thank you again for your honest feedback. It helps us improve the product.
