Giveaway Week – M5Stack Atom Echo ESP32 Speaker

I reviewed M5Stack Atom Echo Bluetooth speaker powered by ESP32 earlier this year, and that will be the fifth prize of Giveaway Week 2020. It’s very much like a (low-quality) Bluetooth speaker, but you can program it with the Arduino IDE to do whatever you want. There’s also a Grove connector and I/O headers to control external modules. There’s no battery, so a USB-C cable is needed for power. To enter the draw simply leave a comment with your country and whatever else you’d like to say. If the country is missing, I’ll consider the entry void. Other rules are as follows: Only one entry per contest. I will filter out entries with the same IP and/or email address. Contests are open for 48 hours starting at 11 am (Bangkok time) every day. Comments will be closed after 48 hours. If comments are open, the contest is still going on. […]

ESP32-S2 board targets battery-powered applications with 30uA deep sleep power consumption

ESP32-S2-DevKit-LiPo vs ESP32-S2-WROVER-Devkit-LiPo

A few months ago, Olimex unveiled renders of ESP32-S2-Devkit-LiPo WiFi board that was supposed to consume as little as 2uA in sleep mode, follows ESP32-S2-Saola-1 board form factor and pinout, and adds an ultra-efficient circuitry to support LiPo batteries. The good news is that Olimex has now launched two versions of their ESP32-S2 board optimized for battery-powered applications with ESP32-S2-DevKit-Lipo and ESP32-S2-WROVER-DevKit-Lipo (with 2MB PSRAM) going for 5.56 Euros and 6.36 Euros respectively. ESP32-S2-DevKit-LiPo specifications: Wireless module: ESP32-S2-DevKit-LiPo – ESP32-S2-WROOM with Espressif ESP32-S2 single-core 32-bit LX7 microprocessor up to 240 MHz with  128 KB ROM, 320 KB SRAM, 16 KB SRAM in RTC, 4MB SPI flash ESP32-S2-WROVER-Devkit-LiPo – ESP32-S2-WROVER – same as above plus 2MB PSRAM Wireless connectivity – 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n WiFI 4 up to 150 Mbps Expansion – 2x 20-pin I/O headers with SPI, I2S, UART, I2C, touch sensors, PWM, etc… (pin-to-pin compatible with ESP32-S2-SAOLA-1) Debugging – […]

Oplà IoT Kit is Arduino’s first open programmable IoT platform

Arduino Opla IoT Kit

Arduino is well-known for its maker boards and shields that are sometimes sold as part of kits to experiment with electronics. Arduino Oplà IoT kit is a little different as it looks more like an actual consumer product once assembled. Powered by an Arduino MKR WiFi 1010 board, it is designed to make getting started with IoT easy for beginners, while still allowing more advanced users to customize and hack their smart home applications. Arduino Oplà IoT Kit is comprised of several hardware components: MKR IoT carrier with a 1.2-inch OLED color display, onboard environmental sensors (temperature, humidity, pressure, light, and proximity), IMU sensor, Grove connectors, two 24V relays, and five capacitive touch buttons. Arduino MKR WiFi 1010 board powered by Microchip SAMD21 Cortex-M0+ MCU and equipped with a 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 4.2 module based on ESP32 chip. Sensors – PIR motion sensor and moisture sensor A […]

E3K all-in-one wireless bio-sensing platform supports EMG, ECG, and EEG sensors (Crowdfunding)

E3K ESP32 bio-sensing platform

Over the year, The maker community has designed several platforms to monitor vital signs with boards like Healthy Pi v4 or HeartyPatch both of which are powered by an ESP32 WiFi & Bluetooth wireless SoC. WallySci has designed another all-in-one wireless bio-sensing platform, called E3K, that also happens to be powered by Espressif Systems ESP32 chip, and can be connected to an electromyography (EMG) sensor to capture muscle movements, an electrocardiography (ECG) sensor to measure heart activity, and/or an electroencephalography (EEG) sensor to capture brain activity. The board also has an extra connector to connect a 9-axis IMU to capture motion. E3K main board which the company refers to as “Data Communication and Processing Unit” (DCPU) comes with the following specifications: Supported wireless board – ESP32-DevKitC with ESP32-D0WD-V3 dual-core 32-bit LX6 microprocessor, up to 240 MHz, Integrated 520 KB SRAM, 16 MByte SPI flash. 2.4 GHz WiFI 4, and Bluetooth […]

SwarmDrive is an ESP32 motor driver board for brushless motors (Crowdfunding)

ESP32 Motor Driver Board

Netherlands based NickStick BV has developed a motor driver board powered by an ESP32 dual-core WiFI and Bluetooth module and capable of controlling brushless DC motors. The SwarmDrive board targets users who want to start experimenting with motor control, and learn about commutation strategies, PID for balance plateau or balance robots, cartesian gantries and spatial navigation, drive by wire and wireless, swarm intelligence experiments, etc. SwarmDrive specifications: Wireless module – Espressif Systems ESP32-WROOM-32D module with ESP32 dual-core processor @ 240 MHz, 4 Mbit flash Connectivity 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n WiFi up to 150 Mbps Bluetooth v 4.2 BR/EDR and BLE Motor Control L6234 triple half-bridge motor driver, 5 A peak current 3-pin terminal block for motor output 3x enable pins are broken out to a bridging connector Programming and debugging – Micro USB serial port via USB to UART bridge, Misc – Boot and reset push-buttons Power Supply Supply Voltage – […]

ESP32 CNC Controller Board Supports Grbl Arduino Firmware

ESP32 CNC Controller Board

Grbl_ESP32 CNC development board is a breakout board for NodeMCU 32S board that also takes three stepper motor drivers, and designed to run Grbl open-source Arduino firmware to control wireless CNC machines. Grbl_ESP32 CNC breakout board specifications: Socket for NodeMCU 32S board with ESP32 WiFi and Bluetooth dual-core SoC 3 sockets for stepper motor drivers such as TI DRV8825 types and others. Micro-step selection jumpers included. MicroSD card socket Home/Limit switch connections for XY and Z axes. Control switch input connections for Feed Hold, Cycle Start, Reset, and Door. Spindle output for PWM to control speed. 3A DC-DC power supply to run the ESP32 if it is not connected to USB Grbl CNC firmware was initially developed for the Arduino UNO and basic 3 axis CNC routers around 10 years ago, but has since then been ported to other CPUs and is now found in other types of CNC machines […]

FeatherS2 Board Brings ESP32-S2 to Adafruit Feather Form Factor

FeatherS2 Pinout Diagram

We’ve covered a fair number of development boards following Adafruit Feather form factor in the last year or so with products such as QuickFeather Cortex-M4 + FPGA board, OrangeCrab (Lattice FPGA), nRF9160 Feather providing LTE IoT & GPS connectivity, and other boards. But here’s yet another Adafruit Feather themed board that has just launched: FeatherS2. The tiny board is equipped with the latest Espressif Systems ESP32-S2 WiFi SoC, 16 MB SPI Flash, 8 MB PSRAM, several I/O, and a USB-C port for power and programming. FeatherS2 key features and specifications: SoC – ESP32-S2 single-core Tensilica LX7 processor @ 240 MHz, RISC-V ultra-lower power co-processor, 320 kB SRAM, 128 kB ROM Memory – 8 MB extra PSRAM Storage – 16 MB SPI Flash Connectivity – 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi – 802.11b/g/n with 3D antenna USB – 1x USB-C port for power and programming Sensor – ALS-PT19 Ambient Light Sensor Expansion 16 + […]

M5StickC PLUS ESP32-PICO Devkit Comes with 1.14-inch LCD, 120 mAh Battery and Buzzer

M5StickC PLUS ESP32-PICO DevKit Bluetooth and WiFi

Shortly after introducing the Core2 ESP32 IoT Development Kit with a 2-inch touch display, 390 mAh battery earlier this week, M5Stack has announced the availability of another ESP32 WiFi & Bluetooth IoT devkit, with the more compact M5StickC PLUS featuring a 1.14-inch display, a 120mAh battery, motion, sensor, a buzzer and the usual Grove connector for expansion. M5StickC PLUS is an upgrade to the original M5StickC that lacks the buzzer and features a smaller 0.96-inch display and a lower capacity 96 mAh battery. The new model can be purchased now for $13.95 plus shipping on Aliexpress, while the original device, that happens to be M5Stack top-selling product, is still available for $9.95. M5StickC PLUS key features and specifications: SiP – Espressif Systems ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package with ESP32 dual-core WiFI and Bluetooth IoT processor @ up to 240 MHz, 4MB SPI flash Display – 1.14-inch Color TFT LCD with 135×240 resolution (ST7789v2 […]