Frustrated with ESP32 Development Boards that promise both Bluetooth and WiFi

[wpzaffos@gmail.com]

Trying to complete what I thought to be a simple project but with limited success.

Project was to use a SD card reader to read and play MP3 music where output was ether via the headphone jack or via Bluetooth so music could be played on any vehicle with Bluetooth newer than 2015, BT headphones or BT soundbars. GPIO pins to control the volume, play, pause, next or previous also use the WiFi to replicate the buttons so the board functions could be controlled via iPhone or tablet.

All of my attempts used Arduino IDE and C++ with multithreading to take advantage of the dual CPUs.

I tried these boards with frustrating success (none could do it all):

ESP32-A1S Module Audio Development Board

ESP32-P4-WIFI6-DEV-KIT Development Board

ESP32-Lyrat V4.3 with IPEX ESP32 Audio Development Board

Some of my attempts died due to insufficient PSRAM, others died because BT quit when attempting to read the next MP3. I don't pretend to know all that goes on inside the ESP32 but in my project, sharing resources seems to be the killer.

What I'm finding out is that currently, there are no single Dev board that can do what I desire, but I think I may be able connect 2 or 3 to make this project work.

I need guidance as to what boards to put together (play nice together) to accomplish my goal. I've spent way too much time and money with attempting find the right board(s) on my own.

Your suggestions and help would be appreciated.

[MicroController]

used Arduino IDE ...
sharing resources seems to be the killer.

That's the way the cookie crumbles. Many Arduino libraries are notoriously bad w.r.t. resource use and/or interoperability with other libraries, each of them written like it would always be the only thing running inside an application.

That said, if you haven't already, check out Phil Schatzmann's stuff, e.g. https://github.com/pschatzmann/ESP32-A2DP

(To be clear, a single ESP32 should have no problem playing MP3s from an SD card via BT or I2S.)