Olimex ESP32-C5-Devkit-Lipo – A dual-band WiFi 6, BLE, and 802.15.4 IoT board with battery support, UEXT connector

Olimex ESP32-C5-Devkit-Lipo is a compact ESP32-C5 board with dual-band WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE, and a 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter connectivity with support for LiPo battery for a charging circuit.

It follows the company’s ESP32-C5-EVB board with isolated inputs and relays launched in September 2025, and offers a minimal design with two USB-C ports, a UEXT connector for expansion module, the usual breadboard-compatible GPIO headers, and not much else, which makes it ideal for space-constrained applications and prototyping.

Olimex ESP32-C5-Devkit-Lipo specifications:

• Wireless module –  ESP32-C5-WROOM-N8R4
  • SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-C5
    • CPU
      • Single-core 32-bit RISC-V processor @ up to 240 MHz
      • Low-power RISC-V core @ 40 MHz acting as the main processor for power-sensitive applications
    • Memory – 384 KB SRAM on-chip, support for external PSRAM
    • Storage – 320 KB ROM, support for external flash
    • Connectivity
      • Dual-band 802.11ax WiFi 6 in the 2.4GHz and 5 GHz bands, with 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 standard support for backward compatibility
      • Bluetooth 5.0 Low Energy (LE)
      • 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee 3.0, Thread 1.3, and Matter
  • Memory – 4MB PSRAM
  • Storage – 8MB SPI flash
  • PCB antenna
• USB – 2x USB-C ports, one for UART, one for JTAG
• Expansion
  • 2x 16-pin GPIO headers
  • UEXT connector for Olimex modules
• Misc
  • Reset and Boot/User buttons
  • User LED, charging LED
• Power Supply
  • 5V via either USB-C port, or pin 14/15 on J1/EXT1 header
  • 2-pin connector for 3.7V LiPo battery; UPS charger & step-up converter
• Dimensions – 53 x 25mm; two mounting holes

The ESP32-C5 board can be programmed with Espressif ESP-IDF framework or the Arduino IDE. We’ve promised an Arduino demo, but the link is not up yet. However, the board is open-source hardware and the KiCad design files and a user manual are can already be found on GitHub.

I’ve just noticed there aren’t that many ESP32-C5 boards on the market, and besides the official ESP32-C5-DevkitC-1 board and its many copies on AliExpress, and the two Olimex boards mentioned in the post, companies don’t seem to have that much interest in making dual-band IoT boards, or we may just need to wait a little longer. We also found an ESP32-C5 module in the Wireless Tag WT99P4C5-S1 ESP32-P4 board, but it’s only used as a wireless co-processor.

The ESP32-C5-Devkit-Lipo board can be purchased for 12.95 Euros on the Olimex store. If you don’t already have your own LiPo battery, you may want to add a 1,400 mAh battery for 5.95 Euros to your order.

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