22 AWG solid-core wire is the right size for breadboard holes and perfboard pads: it pushes in firmly, holds its shape and can be cut to exactly the length you need for flat, tidy circuits. TUOFENG’s kit (about 4.7 stars from 2,862 ratings) includes six colours with 30 ft each, enough for years of projects. Use it for permanent links on perfboard and for short, low-current connections; for anything that flexes or vibrates, such as robot wiring, switch to stranded wire, which won’t fatigue and snap.

For circuits you’ll leave on the breadboard for a while, such as a weather station prototype or a teaching demo, preformed jumpers lie flat, look clean and make it obvious where every connection goes. BOJACK’s 840-piece kit (about 4.5 stars from 758 ratings) covers 14 lengths from 2 to 125 mm, colour coded by length, in a compartment box. Use them for power rails and short links, and keep flexible Dupont jumpers for connections to off-board sensors.

Once a circuit works, move it from the breadboard to perfboard so it survives being moved or mounted in an enclosure. ELEGOO’s kit is the best-rated product in this guide (about 4.8 stars from 2,067 ratings), with 32 double-sided boards in several sizes on a standard 2.54 mm grid. Plated-through holes make soldering easy and let you route connections on both sides. A common approach is to solder female headers to the board and plug the ESP32 in, so you can swap or reflash it later. Only 4 were in stock when we checked.

Pre-made jumpers are always the wrong length. With a Dupont crimper you make cables exactly as long as you need, with the right connector on each end, which is the difference between a tidy enclosure and a rat’s nest. The iCrimp SN-28B (about 4.6 stars from 2,334 ratings) is the standard hobby tool for 2.54 mm Dupont pins and also handles 2.5 mm and 3.96 mm terminals. Its ratchet ensures a full crimp every time. There’s a short learning curve, so practise on a few pins first. 18 were in stock when we checked.

The crimper needs something to crimp. IWISS’s 1550-piece kit (about 4.6 stars from 393 ratings) includes Dupont housings in many pin counts, male and female crimp pins and pin headers, all sorted in a box. Use 4-pin housings for I2C sensors (3.3 V, GND, SDA, SCL), 3-pin for servos and DS18B20 probes, and single housings for one-off GPIO connections. A polarised multi-pin housing also makes it much harder to plug a sensor in backwards.

Many ESP32 boards and sensor breakouts ship with headers unsoldered, and permanent builds need female sockets so modules can be unplugged. Glarks’ 112-piece kit (about 4.6 stars from 877 ratings) mixes breakaway male headers and female socket headers in several lengths on the standard 2.54 mm pitch. Tip: when soldering headers onto a board, plug them into a breadboard first so they stay perfectly straight.

For wires that leave the board, such as power input, a cable to a remote sensor, or a relay output, screw terminals are far more secure than header pins. This set of 60 PCB-mount terminals (about 4.6 stars from 597 ratings) includes 2-pin and 3-pin blocks on a 5 mm pitch that slot together side by side for any number of positions. Note the 5 mm pitch doesn’t match the 2.54 mm perfboard grid exactly, so use every other hole or bend the legs slightly.

When you need to split one power supply to an ESP32, an LED strip and a relay board, or join sensor cables inside an enclosure, WAGO 221 lever nuts are the cleanest solution: lift the lever, insert the stripped wire, close it. They’re reusable, accept both solid and stranded wire, and are by far the best-reviewed product here (about 4.8 stars from 4,098 ratings). This 36-piece assortment includes 2-, 3- and 5-port sizes. They’re rated for mains wiring too, but that work should follow local electrical code.

You need resistors constantly in ESP32 work: 4.7 kΩ pull-ups for DS18B20 and I2C, 10 kΩ pull-ups and pull-downs for buttons, 220–330 Ω for LEDs and LED-strip data lines, and pairs like 100 kΩ + 100 kΩ for battery-voltage dividers on the ADC. BOJACK’s 1000-piece kit (about 4.7 stars from 4,096 ratings) covers 25 values from 1 Ω to 1 MΩ, neatly labelled, so you’ll always have the right one.

Large electrolytic capacitors solve two of the most common ESP32 problems: brownout resets during Wi-Fi bursts (a 470–1000 µF cap near the board’s supply) and LED-strip power spikes (1000 µF across the strip’s input). This kit (about 4.7 stars from 988 ratings) covers 24 values from 0.1 to 1000 µF at several voltage ratings. Mind the polarity stripe (negative), choose a voltage rating comfortably above your supply, and pair it with some 100 nF ceramic capacitors for high-frequency decoupling, which electrolytics don’t do well.

Every soldered wire joint needs insulating, and adhesive-lined heat shrink does it properly: the inner glue melts as the tube shrinks, sealing out moisture and adding strain relief. This 400-piece kit has an enormous following (about 4.7 stars from 33,933 ratings), with a 3:1 shrink ratio that fits over connectors and still grips thin wire. It’s also the neat way to seal a sensor-cable joint for outdoor use, or to protect the electronics end of a capacitive soil sensor. Shrink it with a heat gun or the side of a soldering iron, not a lighter.

Absolute beginner

Breadboard kit + jumper wires + resistor kit.

Regular tinkerer

Add 22 AWG solid wire, preformed jumpers and the capacitor kit.

Permanent builds

Perfboards, headers, screw terminals and heat shrink.

Custom cables

SN-28B crimper + IWISS connector kit.

Enclosure installs

WAGO lever nuts + screw terminals + heat shrink.

Fixing resets and glitches

The capacitor kit plus 4.7 kΩ / 10 kΩ from the resistor kit.

Why doesn’t my ESP32 fit on a breadboard?

Most ESP32 DevKit boards are wider than the five-hole columns on each side of a breadboard, so they cover all the holes on one side. Join two breadboards side by side with the middle power rail removed, use a screw-terminal breakout board, or choose a narrower board like a XIAO or ESP32-C3 SuperMini. Our ESP32-C3 guide covers compact boards.

My circuit works sometimes and fails randomly. Why?

Intermittent faults on breadboards are usually loose jumpers, worn contacts, or a missing pull-up resistor on I2C, buttons or 1-Wire lines. Press each wire firmly, check pull-ups with a multimeter, keep wires short, and add a capacitor across the supply. A logic analyzer from our programming and debugging tools guide shows exactly what’s on the wires.

Which resistor values should I keep on hand for ESP32 projects?

4.7 kΩ (I2C and DS18B20 pull-ups), 10 kΩ (button pull-ups and pull-downs), 220–330 Ω (LEDs and LED-strip data), 1 kΩ and 2 kΩ (5 V to 3.3 V dividers), and 100 kΩ (low-drain battery-voltage dividers). The BOJACK kit covers all of these.

Solid or stranded wire?

Use solid-core 22 AWG for breadboards and perfboard links, where it stays in place. Use stranded wire for anything that moves, vibrates or connects to screw terminals over a distance, such as robots, enclosure cables and sensor leads.

What else do I need besides these supplies?

A multimeter, a temperature-controlled soldering iron and a USB-to-serial adapter. All three are covered in our tools guide. If you’d rather start with everything in one box, see our ESP32 starter kits guide.