When the ESP8266 came onto the 2014 IOT scene by storm in the form of a tiny 8-pin system-on-chip repleat with on-board WIFI,  I was an eager early adopter.  I bought a fistful of dirt-cheap ESP-01's with great intentions to build a network of portable connected widgets.  And that's when I never got past the "AT" interface, weird (to me) programming interface and API.  ESP-01's abandoned - gathering dust.

When Arduino began supporting ESP8266 and open-source platforms like NodeMCU, Thing and HUZZAH started to gain traction, I got the bright idea to leverage features from these and make an easy to use motherboard for ESP-01. 

With only 4 pins of I/O, you might think there's not much beyond a serial interface and WIFI-ing your way to glorified IOT blinkenlights.  I knew that I2C bus would work marvelously with the ESP-01's remaining GPIO pins, and with Sparkfun's implementation of a standard I2C bus for their QWIIC ecosystem, the time was right for some MAJIIC.

Blank SMD boards are available through OSH Park

https://oshpark.com/shared_projects/oLVfSMsW

Contact the project if you're interested in populated SMD boards.