I would like to be able to use a switch to power on the ESP8266 (ESP-12F) and then be able to power-off the unit via GPIO pin in software.
I tried using a switch connected to CH_PD, and holding CH_PD high with GPIO#13, however, there is a long (6-10+ sec) power-up delay before I can "latch" CH_PD high with a GPIO pin. Since the switch on/off time would potentially be shorter than this delay, I think I need another circuit to reliably interface with CH_PD to get the functionality I want.
-Voltage source would be ~3.3V
-Ideally state of on-off switch can be checked by the ESP8266 for further control
Best Answer
This is a good resource about the Power on / Power off circuits for uC. I think what you need is described in section: "Latching push button ON/OFF power switch using a MOSFET high side switch"