Designed by MuseLab, the nanoCH57x is a WCH CH570/CH572 development board with a 2.4 GHz proprietary radio (CH570) or Bluetooth LE (CH572) that only costs $3.50 and is more compact than the official CH570 Basic Evaluation Board. We first came across this low-cost MCU back in March this year, and saw that the official development board became available for purchase as early as April.
The nanoCH57x development board currently features the 100 MHz CH572D RISC-V microcontroller (the CH570D version is coming later), which includes 256KB of flash memory, 12KB of SRAM, and an onboard 32 MHz crystal. The board also includes a USB 2.0 Type-C Host/Device port and PCB antenna for BLE/RF communication.
MuseLab nanoCH57x development board specifications:
- MCU (one or the other) – WCH CH570D or CH572D
- CPU – QingKe 32-bit RISC-V3C core @ up to 100 MHz
- Memory – 12KB SRAM
- Storage – 256KB non-volatile memory
- 240KB code flash (user application)
- 8KB system boot program memory area for bootloader
- 8KB for configuration (InfoFlash)
- Wireless
- 2.4GHz RF transceiver, baseband, and link control
- Support GFSK digital modulation and demodulation
- Rx sensitivity – -95dBm, programmable
- Tx power – Up to +7.5 dBm
- Bluetooth LE 5.0 with support for up to 2 Mbps data rates (CH572 only)
- USB – USB 2.0 Type-C Host/Device port also used for power
- Expansion – 12x usable GPIOs with UART, SPI, PWM, ADC
- Debugging – 1-wire/2-wire serial debug
- Security – AES-128 encryption and decryption, unique chip ID
- Misc
- 2x watchdog timers
- Power and IO LED
- Boot and Reset buttons
- Power Supply – 5V via USB-C port; built-in 5V to 3.3V regulator
- Dimensions – TBD
The nanoCH57x development board can be programmed using WCH’s official toolchain, which includes the MounRiver Studio (an Eclipse-based IDE) and the WCH RISC-V GCC compiler. You can use the WCHISP Studio to program the MCU; alternatively, you can use the WCHLink-E tool for firmware flashing and debugging. More information about the board, including hardware design files, firmware, example code, and documentation, can be found on the company’s GitHub repository.
The nanoCH57x development board is available for $3.50 on Tindie. You can also order a full devkit with a 1-meter USB Type-C cable and the WCHLink-E debugger tool for $9.50. At the time of writing, only the development board with the CH572D MCU is available, and the CH570D package will be added later, likely at a lower cost.
Debashis Das is a technical content writer and embedded engineer with over five years of experience in the industry. With expertise in Embedded C, PCB Design, and SEO optimization, he effectively blends difficult technical topics with clear communication
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Just a side note, the CH32fun project has recently been adding support for more and more WCH chips. We’re running out of make to remove as it generalizes. It used to be CH32V003fun, but then it supported the X035 and V203, then the V00X chips….. Now the WCH57x, WCH58x, and WCH59x. *sigh* Maybe WCHfun is the future….
https://github.com/cnlohr/ch32fun
I doubt this allows “abusing” the ble radio for non standard links ala nrf24…
Its a pity nowadays only lora chips are flexible in that way amongst the modern chips…
There just may be some people RE’ing it for just that purpose.
That’s not very true. Lora is the modulation not the network layer, if you want to use different modulation, stm32 wireless series offer a lot more flexibility for modulation support, or even silicon lab.
Or if you hated the idea of learning a new processor, you could also use a RF frontend or transceiver like cc1101 to get more choice of RF modulation and bands to use.
Interesting, the chip is quiet inexpensive (IMO) and the BOM is ultra minimal.
Is the MounRiver IDE/SDK mandatory for this ?
Read the first post.