What kind of things do they do?
When I was working with microcontrollers, specifically the ESP-8266 series, I designed a set of board that were self-contained cheap deployable sensor packages for temperature and humidity. I've also designed my own (not terribly impressive) power distribution boards for my network rack, as well as some odds and ends that I experimented with and eventually dropped for one reason or another.
I dropped the ESP boards because the processor chips that Espressif uses are very noisy in certain RF bands.
Very good skill to have, I bet.
I've used it in my career at times, although the preferred program seems to be software made by a company called Cadence.
I can't stand the workflow of that program. My preference was Ultiboard from National Instruments, it seemed to make more sense in how it flowed. Very few use the NI packages, and I never could wrap my head around the shit that is Cadence's version of OrCAD.
With which uC did you replace the esp8266?
I didn't, I dropped the project because there wasn't a cheap, as easy to use WiFi microcontroller like the 8266.
The project depended on being an almost-disposable unit, and with the 8266s costing well under a buck for the -01 it was ideal.
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