Unexpected Maker’s SQUiXL is a battery-powered ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth IoT controller and development platform with a 4-inch touchscreen display with 480×480 resolution.
Designed for makers, hardware engineers, embedded developers, and home automation enthusiasts, the SQUiXL integrates with 8MB PSRAM and a 16MB SPI flash for plenty of resources for the firmware. Other features include a microSD card, an amplifier with speaker connector, a haptic driver and motor, an RTC, and a STEMMA/Qt connector for expansion.
SQUiXL specifications:
- WiSoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3
- CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 @ up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration
- Memory – 512KB RAM
- Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE + Mesh
- Memory – 8MB octal PSRAM
- Storage
- 16MB QSPI flash
- MicroSD card slot (multiplexed with audio amplified)
- Display – 4-inch 480×480 RGB display with capacitive touch (GT911)
- Audio
- MAX98357A I2S Audio Amplifier (multiplexed with microSD card slot)
- 8 Ohm, 2W Speaker connector
- Expansion
- STEMMA/QT for additional I2C expansion
- IO Expander (LCA9555)
- IO MUX (TMUX1574RSVR)
- Misc
- Power, IO0/Boot, and Reset buttons
- DRV2605L haptic driver and motor
- RV-3028-C7 I2C low-power RTC
- Magnetic Connector + USB adapter
- ESD protection on USB and buttons
- Internal high-gain antenna
- Power Management
- 1,500mAh 1S battery
- LiPo battery charging
- MAX1704X I2C battery fuel gauge
- 5V presence detection circuit
- Dimensions – TBD
Unexepted Maker also designed an optional Dock for the SQUiXL. It makes use of the magnetic USB connector on the devkit, which can be easily inserted and removed without needing to plug or unplug cables. The dock comes in two parts with two small M2.5 screws that the users need to assemble. It was designed that way to take up less space and reduce shipping costs.
The SQUiXL devkit ships with Arduino firmware developed with PlatformIO, but the Arduino IDE will soon be supported too. The shipping firmware relies on the SQUiXL library and is designed to showcase the capabilities of the ESP32-S3 devkit and offers a WiFi manager for initial setup, a clock, local weather display using an Open Weather API Key, a random joke display, and more. You’ll find the source code for the shipping firmware on the SQUiXL-DevOS GitHub repository, and there’s a separate repo with some Arduino and LVGL samples, and a MicroPython firmware. CircuitPython support is also in the works.
ESP32-S3 solutions with a 4-inch display are somewhat popular, as we’ve seen such products before with the MaTouch_ESP32-S3 4-inch Display Demo Kit, Seeed Studio’s SenseCAP Indicator with LoRaWAN, and the LILYGO T-Panel, which also adds an ESP32-H2 in the mix for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter connectivity. The main differentiating feature of the SQUiXL devkit is that it is portable since it’s battery-powered.
The SQUiXL is sold on the Unexpected Maker’s shop for $99 plus shipping, and the dock adds $29 if you need it. They don’t produce a lot of those, and 20 pieces (second batch) were added this morning, with 16 units left at the time of writing this article.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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