WeAct ESP32H2-N4 – A $6 Bluetooth 5.2 LE, Zigbee 3.0, and Thread development board

WeAct ESP32H2-N4 is a low-cost ESP32-H2 development board with Bluetooth 5.2 LE, Zigbee 3.0, and Thread connectivity with a design very similar to the one of Espressif Systems’ ESP32-H2-DevKitM-1 development board, but sold for just $5.70 plus shipping.

The ESP32-H2 wireless microcontroller is basically the little brother of the ESP32-C6 without WiFi and aims at low-power nodes in short-range IoT networks. We have previously seen it in Espressif hardware like the aforementioned ESP32-H2-DevKitM-1 and the ESP Thread Border Router board combining ESP32-H2 & ESP32-S3 wireless chips, but so far not in third-party boards, and WeAct ESP32H2-N4 changes that.

WeAct ESP32H2-N4 specifications:

• Wireless module – ESP32-H2-MINI-1
  • MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-H2 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller at up to 96 MHz with 320 KB SRAM, 128 KB ROM, 4 KB LP memory, Bluetooth 5.2 LE/Mesh and 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread/Matter) radios.
  • Storage – 4MB flash storage
  • PCB antenna
  • Dimensions – 13.2×16.6×2.4 mm
• USB – 2x USB Type-C ports one USB 2.0 Full Speed (12 Mbps max), the other for USB UART via CP2102 USB-to-TTL chip
• I/Os – 2x 15-pin headers with 19x programmable GPIOs, 1x UART, 3x SPI, I2C, I2S, 5x ADC, Remote Control Peripheral, LED PWM, Full-speed USB, … as well as 5V, 3.3V, VBatt, and GND power signals
• Debugging
  • USB-C UART
  • J5 for current measurement. (That one is on the ESP32-H2-DevKitM-1 board, but I can’t find it on the WeAct board)
    
• Misc – Power LED, RGB LED, Boot and Reset buttons
• Power Supply
  • 5V via USB Type-C port
  • 5V to 3.3V LDO
• Dimensions – 48.26 x 25.40 mm

There’s no information about firmware support, but since it’s basically an ESP32-H2-DevKitM-1 board, the documentation on Espressif’s website should do. Both ESP32-C6 and ESP32-H2 are now supported in Arduino IDE which may explain why WeAct decided to launch the board now. Bluetooth LE should be working right now, but I’m less clear about the progress on the 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee and Thread. Eventually, it should be possible to use WeAct ESP32-C6 as a WiFi<->Zigbee/Thread gateway connected to several WeAct ESP32H2-N2 boards and/or other ESP32-H2 boards.

Note that the ESP32-H2 chips currently available may be different from the ones mass-produced next year, as Espressif Systems states that “for customers planning mass production before March 2024, please be sure to check the ESP32-H2 Errata and pay attention to the errata descriptions and workarounds in the document“. It’s probably not an issue for experimenting, but if you plan to use early versions of the little board in products, the firmware may have to change down the road.

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