WeAct CH32V006F8U6 Mini Core is an inexpensive, tiny development board based on the 48 MHz CH32V006 RISC-V microcontroller and equipped with a USB-C port, a Reset button, and two rows of 12-pin headers for I/Os using either 3.3V or 5V voltage.
WCH introduced the CH32V006 in 2024 as an update to the popular CH32V003 with more memory (8KB vs 2KB SRAM), storage (62KB vs 8KB flash), additional GPIOs, a wider supply voltage range, and an upgraded 32-bit RISC-V2C core. I just hadn’t seen any third-party CH32V006 boards so far. The WeAct Studio board changes that.
WeAct CH32V006F8U6 Mini Core board specifications:
- SoC – WCH CH32V006F8U6
- CPU – 32-bit “RISC-V2C” core up to 48 MHz
- Memory – 8KB SRAM
- Storage – 62KB flash + 3KB “boot” flash
- USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and debugging
- Expansion
- 2x 12-pin headers with GPIO, ADC, USART, I2C, SPI
- I/O Voltage – 3.3V or 5V, depending on model (selected by resistors)
- Debugging – 4-pin debug header
- Power Supply – 5V via USB-C port
- Dimensions – 30.48 x 17.78 mm
WeAct Studio provides the CH32V006 datasheet and reference manual, PDF schematics, 3D STEP file, sample code (C language), an SDK, and tools on GitHub. The latter is named WCH-LinkUtility.exe, so I suppose that means it’s designed for Windows only… However, you might be able to use CNLohr’s CH32Fun project to get a Linux 32-bit RISC-V toolchain that works with the board, especially since I can see CH32V006 is listed in the project.
Since the MCU is supposed to sell for a little over 10 cents (it’s $0.1397 per unit on LCSC for ~6k orders), the board is equally cheap, going for $2.0x on AliExpress including shipping. You can also select a bundle of 5 boards for $7.70 in the same link, or $1.54 per board. The board ships with GPIO and debug headers, and you might need a WCH-LinkE USB debugger ($2.99) to flash the board with your firmware. If the WeAct board gets out of stock, you can always get the larger, official CH32V006-EVT evaluation board for around $4.
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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There seems a ch32 arduino core: https://github.com/openwch/arduino_core_ch32
003 is listed, not sure about the 006
As the person who added 006 (and the other new 00x chips) to ch32fun, yes, the 006 is supported. 🙂
But, can I recommend a different board? This one is designed by a member of the ch32fun community (which weAct has never been) and is designed for education.
https://www.uiap.jp/en/uiapduino/pro-micro/ch32v006/v1dot1
He also has his older 003 based board and the software to support them. The boards are cheap as well. The only big negative is that most everything is just in Japanese right now. I’m pretty sure help with translation is welcome.
Thanks for the link to the other board, it’s looking very interesting. As my Japanese is pretty poor at the moment, I plan to stick to stm32 for now 😁 also because its a product from a company from my country 😉
I saw that board from Japanese readers’ comments on my post on X, but as you mentioned, everything is in Japanese and doesn’t seem available right now. Even the documentation for the older CH32V003 version is in Japanese. One commenter also said they might just use the WeAct board instead of doing hardware (or something to that effect).
The biggest reason to get the official WCH board is that it comes in a bundle with the LinkE programmer (specifically the LinkE, not one of the other variants of the Link<something> programmers) and that lets your program almost all WCH riskV parts.
Some boards have built in bootloaders or other methods of programming–like the boards by Yuki which I mentioned in my other post. If they don’t–which none of the 00X chips do (note the 003 is not in that family)–then you need something to program them and the LinkE is a great tool for that. There are several other methods including programming up an ESP32S2, CH32V003, or rp2040 to act as a programmer. There’s also code for an arduino UNO. But those are better used just to get you bootstrapped to a better setup.
(update the firmware on the LinkE when you get it as it may be old and not support newer chips. WCH has a LinkE tool which will do this for you on Windows. It’s possible to do it on Linux, IIRC, but it’s harder because there’s zero WCH support there.)
And BTW the LinkE debugger itself is a nice board, it has CH32V305 which has high speed 480mbit usb and pretty good riscv core too and can be easily updated to custom code like any CH32V chip and is supported by ch32fun too. There are small blue ‘clones’ of this board for <4usd and even the original wch LinkE dongle is sometimes pretty cheap.
checked my order history and they are called WCH-LinkE mini, here is one random seller https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005901472089.html And BTW the original LinkE dongle can turn off 5V and 3.3V output pin in software (to power cycle target board when used as a debugger), the mini board can’t. but it is still useful as high speed usb to anything adapter
I dont see the point of using these when esp32 and nrf52 are also availible for 2$, and have communiction abilities and desccent sdk’s
You might be confusing chip price vs [dev] board price.
This entire board costs 2 USD, while only the ESP32 chip/module costs about the same (and adding PCB, power, antenna raises the price).
On the other hand, the MCU itself here is 0.14USD in volume (according to quoted real listing in the atricle) – if I am not mistaken, ESP32 and nrf52 chips are far more (different category).
No you can actualy get esp32 and nrf52 boards for around 2$ these days, esp32c3 supermini and nrf52840 promicro
there is nrf52840 supermini red board sold in pairs for ~4usd in deals on aliexpress, it has excellent 6uA idle current, lipo battery charger and 3.3V external output pin switchable in software to power other stuff. more info here https://github.com/joric/nrfmicro/wiki/Alternatives
Well an esp32 is not really a good mcu, despite being a really great communications module 😁
for every use case there is the adequate tool.
I can’t judge the p4, as i never got my hands on one yet.