m5stack News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

July 10, 2026July 10, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

M5Stack Stamp-C5 – A Tiny ESP32-C5 USB-C board/module with up to 19 GPIO, 3.7V battery support

M5Stack Stamp-C5, also known as the M5Stamp-C5, is a tiny wireless IoT USB-C board based on the Espressif ESP32-C5 RISC-V microcontroller with dual-band WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE, and 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread) connectivity. Despite its small size (19.1 x 17.6mm), the module exposes up to nineteen GPIO pins, eleven on standard 2.54mm pitch headers and castellated holes, and eight on an FPC extension connector. The board also supports battery charging and ships with an external IPEX antenna for wireless connectivity, since there’s no built-in antenna. M5Stack Stamp-C5 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 + […]

July 5, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Macintosh emulator works on ESP32-P4 display devkits from M5Stack and Waveshare

ESP32 chips have been used for retro gaming and computing for years, but Austin McChord (Amcchord) adds to that with a Macintosh emulator ported to a couple of ESP32-P4 display devkits. His project is a full port of the BasiliskII Macintosh 68k emulator, bringing classic Mac OS (System 7.x through Mac OS 8.1) to portable ESP32-P4 embedded devices with touchscreen, USB peripherals, and WiFi support through an ESP32-C6 on the boards. The main development platform appears to be the M5Stack Tab5 equipped with a 5-inch touchscreen display with 1280×720 resolution. However, if you need something with a larger screen, the Waveshare ESP32-P4-WIFI6-Touch-LCD-10.1 is also supported, and features a 10.1-inch display with 1280×800 resolution and a 10-point capacitive touchscreen. The actual Mac OS resolutions used are 640×360 and 640×400, respectively, then scaled twice to the native resolution of the display. Highlights of the project: CPU – Motorola 68040 emulation with FPU (68881) […]

July 2, 2026July 2, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

PaperBoy Game Boy Emulator works at 60 FPS on ESP32-S3 E Ink devkit

PaperBoy E Ink ESP32-S3 Gameboy emulator

60 FPS gaming on an E Ink display? That doesn’t seem right… But that’s exactly what Wenting Zhang’s PaperBoy Game Boy emulator project does, using the M5Stack PaperS3 devkit, pairing an ESP32-S3 wireless microcontroller with a 4.7-inch E Ink display with 960 x 540 resolution. One of the tricks here is that the bottom part of the ePaper touchscreen display is used for control buttons and doesn’t need to be refreshed, while the active part only requires 160 x 144 resolution, scaled three times to represent various shades of grey. Contrary to most small Eink devkits, the PaperS3 features a screen with a raw row/column driver interface, which enabled him to drive the display while bypassing the normal waveform method, and deliver a higher refresh rate up to 60 FPS. Wenting didn’t reinvent the wheel for the Game Boy emulation part, and after testing three different emulators, he went with […]

June 12, 2026June 12, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

M5Stack Capsule Kit v1.1- A Battery-powered ESP32-S3 IoT controller with IMU sensor, MEMS microphone, and IR transmitter

M5Stack Capsule v1.1 is a Stamp-S3A-based IoT controller with a microSD card slot, several sensors (6-axis IMU, microphone), an IR transmitter, a built-in 250 mAh battery, a few buttons, a buzzer, an RTC, and expansion capabilities through GPIO headers and a Grove connector. It’s an upgrade to the earlier Capsule based on the Stamp-S3 module. The new version still features an ESP32-S3 WiFi and Bluetooth microcontroller, 8MB flash, a USB-C port, and a few GPIOs, but benefits from the Stamp-S3A improvements, including an optimized antenna design and lower power consumption. We never had a look at the Capsule before, so let’s do it now. M5Stack Capsule v1.1 specifications: M5Stack Stamp-S3A module WiSoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3FN8 CPU Dual-core 32-bit Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with AI vector instructions up to 240MHz RISC-V ULP co-processor Memory – 512KB SRAM Storage – 8MB flash Wireless – 2.4GHz WiFi 4 (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth 5.0 LE + […]

May 30, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

PCMFlow722 library enables two-way real-time HD voice over ESP-NOW with G.722 audio codec

Tanaka Masayuki’s PCMFlow722 library enables (half-duplex) two-way real-time HD voice over ESP-NOW on ESP32 boards with a speaker and a microphone, effectively transforming them into walkie-talkies. The library implements a G.722 wideband codec add-on for PCMFlow lightweight audio decode and PCM flow library for Arduino, which already supports uncompressed PCM, MP3, and FLAC audio codecs. PCM and FLAC take too much bandwidth over ESP-NOW, and MP3 is not suitable for real-time audio, so the legacy G.722 audio codec was selected instead. The keyword here is “HD voice,” since two-way audio over ESP-NOW was previously implemented in projects such as Atomic14’s esp32-walkie-talkie (5 years ago) and, more recently, the well-documented Adafruit ESP-NOW Walkie-Talkie project, but these typically rely on lower-quality G.711 audio or compressed audio. The PCMFlowG722 library and G.722 codec enable HD voice with “7 kHz audio at 16 kHz sampling using the same 64 kbps wire budget as G.711 […]

May 25, 2026June 11, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

CardputerZero – A Raspberry Pi CM0 pocket computer for makers (Crowdfunding)

CardputerZero is a pocket-sized computer based on the Raspberry Pi Compute Module Zero (CM0) and designed for makers with a 46-key matrix keyboard, a 1.9-inch LCD, HDMI video output, Fast Ethernet, three USB ports, a microphone and a speaker for voice interaction, a 14-pin GPIO header, a Grove interface, and an IR transceiver (Rx/Tx). The credit card-sized device comes in two models: CardputerZero Lite and CardputerZero. The latter also adds an 8MP camera, a 6-axis IMU, and a 32GB microSD card preloaded with the software. Both models are powered by a rechargeable 1,500 mAh LiPo battery or directly via a USB-C port. Cardputer Zero specifications: SoM – Raspberry Pi CM0 Lite SoC – Broadcom BCM2710A1 CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.0 GHz GPU – VideoCore IV GPU supporting OpenGL ES 1.1, 2.0 graphics VPU – H.264/MPEG-4 1080p30 video decoding, H.264 1080p30 video encoding System Memory – 512MB LPDDR2 RAM Storage […]

May 22, 2026May 22, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

M5Stack StopWatch ESP32-S3 devkit offers 1.75-inch touch AMOLED, microphone, speaker, and GPIO expansion

M5Stack Core StopWatch is an ESP32-S3-powered WiFi and Bluetooth development board with a 1.75-inch round AMOLED touch display, 16MB flash, and 8MB PSRAM designed for portable IoT devices, electronic badges, and wearables. The device also features a 1W speaker and a MEMS microphone for voice interaction, two programmable buttons, a vibration motor, a 6-axis IMU sensor, an RTC, and expansion capabilities through a Grove connector and GPIO headers. It’s powered by a 450 mAh battery managed by an “M5PM1 multi-level power management” solution and charged over a USB-C port. M5Stack Core StopWatch specifications: SoC – Espressif ESP32-S3R8 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration Memory – 8MB PSRAM Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE + Mesh connectivity Storage – 16MB flash Display – 1.75-inch AMOLED round touch display with 466 x 466 resolution Audio 1W speaker MEMS microphone ES8311 […]

May 16, 2026May 16, 2026 by Debashis Das - 2 Comments

Anthropic’s open-source Claude Desktop Buddy turns ESP32-S3 devices into interactive AI desk companions

Anthropic has opened its Claude Hardware Interface (Bluetooth API) to developers, enabling an ESP32-S3-based desk companion to connect directly to the Claude desktop app over Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). To demonstrate this new feature, the company released an open-source reference project called Claude Desktop Buddy. It currently runs on the M5StickC Plus (an ESP32-based board from M5Stack, about $30 on AliExpress and Amazon) and works as a small interactive hardware companion for Claude. Also, during the recent “Build with Claude” event, the company recommended the ESP32-S3-based M5Stack Cardputer as one of the best hardware options for developers who want to build physical devices that interact with AI agents. Designed as a physical companion device for Claude Cowork and Claude Code on macOS and Windows, it stays on your desk and provides real-time updates on the AI agent’s activity. It also lets you respond to permission requests directly using its buttons, so […]