Man this module sucks, it is so not ready for any project where you expect to solder it in and work. I know there is a lot of work going into getting it reliable but for now I'm seriously thinking of ditching it and going back to the lower spec (but reliable and useable) USR module I originally used. I will give it one more try to get it working.

I think I know the boost converter problem, basically the WIFI module wants 250mA on power on and I had the wrong size inductor in the boost converter to give this, dropped the value from 10uH to 5.6uH and much better now, though still not happy with a 250mA surge as I have had to pop in some big caps and the boost converter may not start at the end of its charge. Lets see!

I will update the BOM and circuit once I get through the wifi nastiness I'm having. Maybe at some future date someone will produce reliable hardware and firmware for the ESP8266 but for now early adopters beware!