ESP32-C5 Mini is a tiny development board with dual-band (2.4/5 GHz) WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.x LE, and an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter, as well as two 9-pin headers offering up to fourteen GPIOs for IoT and Smart Home projects.
It reminds me of the XIAO ESP32-C5, but it’s slightly longer and features an ESP32-C5HF4 SoC instead of an ESP32-C5HR8 + 8MB SPI flash, meaning it lacks PSRAM, and only comes with 4MB flash on-chip instead of external flash. It also adds four GPIO pins and comes with a built-in antenna and an IPEX antenna connector.
NiceMCU ESP32-C5 Mini specifications:
- Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-C5HF4
- CPU
- Single-core 32-bit RISC-V processor @ up to 240 MHz
- Low-power RISC-V core @ 48 MHz acting as the main processor for power-sensitive applications
- Memory – 384 KB SRAM on-chip
- Storage – 320 KB ROM, 4MB SPI flash
- Wireless
- Dual-band (2.4/5 GHz) 802.11ax WiFi 6, 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 backward compatibility
- WiFi modes: Station mode, SoftAP mode, SoftAP + Station mode, and promiscuous mode
- Bluetooth 5.0 Low Energy (LE) with Mesh support, up to 2Mbps data rate
- 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee 3.0, Thread 1.3, and Matter up to 250 Kbps
- CPU
- Antenna – On-board antenna and IPEX antenna connector
- USB – USB Type-C port for power and programming
- Expansion I/Os – 2x 9-pin headers (through holes and castellated holes) with 1x UART, up to 14x GPIO, 5V (Vin), 3.3V, and GND
- Misc
- Reset and Boot buttons
- Power and User (IO23) LEDs
- Power Supply – 5V via USB Type-C port or Vin pin
- Dimensions – 27.9 x 17.8 mm (vs 21 x 17.8mm for the XIAO ESP32-C5)
- Temperature Range – Not mentioned, but the ESP32-C5HF4 is designed to operate in the -40°C to 105°C range.
The name is not ideal, since Espressif Systems sells an ESP32-C5-Mini-1 module, but that’s a minor issue. There’s no documentation or firmware specific to the board, except for the schematics below.
But you can leverage the usual ESP-IDF framework, Arduino IDE, and MicroPython firmware that are supported by other ESP32-C5 boards.
Since the ESP32-C5 Mini lacks battery support and offers less memory and storage capacity, it’s also a little cheaper than the XIAO ESP32-C5, selling for just $4.93 on the Maker Go AliExpress store, including shipping, and before eventual taxes and/or tariffs.
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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