LOLIN C3 Pico is a tiny ESP32-C3 board with battery charging support

LOLIN C3 PICO

LOLIN C3 Pico is a tiny (25.4×25.4mm) ESP32-C3 RISC-V board with 2.4 GHz WiFi and Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity, a few I/Os, and LiPo battery support including charging circuitry. I tend to like Wemos/LOLIN boards, because of their small form factor, support for equally tiny shields, and low price. The LOLIN C3 Pico is no exception, and even adds a few features such as an RGB LED, an I2C connector, and support for battery power and charging. LOLIN C3 Pico specifications: SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-C3FH4 single-core 32-bit RISC-V (RV32IMC) microcontroller up to 160 MHz with 400 KB SRAM, 4MB Flash Connectivity – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE (in SoC) Expansion headers 2x 8-pin headers with up to 12x GPIO, ADC, I2C, SPI, UART (3.3V I/O voltage) LOLIN I2C port USB – 1x Type-C USB for 5V power and programming Misc – Reset button and user button, […]

WiFi HaLow IoT gateway is based on Morse Micro MM6108 802.11ah chip

Wi Fi HaLow IoT Gateway AP7688-WHM

Most WiFi HaLow hardware platforms we’ve seen so far are based on Newracom chips, but AsiaRF AP7688-WHM WiFi HaLow IoT gateway features a module based on Morse Micro MM6108 802.11ah SoC instead. The gateway is powered by a 580 MHz MediaTek MT7688 MIPS processor providing 802.11n WiFi 4 and dual Ethernet networking, and features a USB port as well as an RS232 console for industrial control.  WiFi HaLow (802.11ah) enables video and data transmission at a range of up to one kilometer and data rates of up to 32.5 Mbps. AP7688-WHM WiFi HaLow gateway specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT7688 MIPS SoC @ 580 MHz with built-in WiFi 4 System Memory – TBD Storage – TBD Connectivity 2x Ethernet RJ45 ports 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 1T1R up to 150 Mbps; PCB antenna 850 to 950 MHz WiFi HaLow 1T1R up to 32.5Mbps @ 8 MHz bandwidth via Morse Micro MM6108 chip; […]

WBZ451 Curiosity Board features Microchip PIC32CX-BZ2 BLE and Zigbee 3.0 microcontroller

WBZ451 Curiosity Board Bluetooth LE Zigbee 3.0

Microchip WBZ451 Curiosity Board features the company’s Microchip’s WBZ451PE Bluetooth Low Energy 5.2 and Zigbee 3.0 RF module based on the new Microchip PIC32CX-BZ2 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4F wireless microcontroller. WBZ451 Curiosity Board (EV96B94A) specifications: Wireless module – WBZ451PE Bluetooth Low Energy and Zigbee RF Module with Microchip PIC32CX-BZ2 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4F wireless microcontroller @ up to 64 MHz, 128KB RAM, 1MB flash, 2.4 GHz radio for Bluetooth LE 5.2 and 802.15.4 (Zigbee 3.0) Tx output power – Up +12 dBm Rx sensitivity – Up to -103 dBm PCB antenna 29x I/O pins Storage – 64Mbit QSPI flash Expansion – mikroBUS socket for MikroElectronika Click adapter boards Sensor – Microchip MCP9700A analog voltage temperature sensor Debugging On-board Programmer/Debug Circuit using PICkit On-board 4 (PKoB4) based on Microchip SAME70 MCU On-board USB to UART Serial Converter with Hardware Flow Control based on Microchip MCP2200 10-pin Arm Serial Wire Debug (SWD) header for […]

Tuya “T6E” is a 4-inch Android touch control panel & Zigbee gateway for OEMs

Tuya T6E 4-inch smart home controller

Tuya T6E is a 4-inch control panel with a touchscreen running Android 8.1 on Rockchip PX30, WiFi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee,  and designed to be wall-mounted for home automation and other HMI applications. It looks fairly similar to the ITEAD NSPanel Pro introduced last month, for Tuya’s “Central Control System” (CSS) appears to be mostly designed for OEMs who want to roll their own products with custom firmware. Tuya T6E specifications (details vary depending on OEM requirements): SoC – Rockchip PX30 quad-core Arm Cortex-A35 processor @ up to 1.5GHz with Mali-G31 MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB, 2GB, or 4GB RAM Storage – 4GB to 8GB  eMMC flash Display – 4-inch 480×480 IPS screen with 5-point capacitive touch Audio Dual-array microphone with noise reduction 1 Watt speaker Connectivity 10/100Mbps Ethernet RJ45 port 2.4 GHz 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi 4 Bluetooth LE 4.2 and Bluetooth Mesh (Tuya SigMesh) Zigbee 3.0 gateway based on Tuya […]

AI Thinker Ai-WB2 modules feature BL602 RISC-V MCU with WiFi and BLE connectivity

Ai-WB2-32S-Kit development board

AI Thinker has just introduced a new family of wireless IoT modules with the Ai-WB2 equipped with Bouffalo Lab BL602 RISC-V microcontroller offering both 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE connectivity. There are ten different modules to choose from, probably to keep mechanical and electrical compatibility with ESP8266 and ESP32 modules, and the company expects customers to integrate those into Internet of Things (IoT) products, mobile devices, wearables, Smart Home appliances, and more. Ai-WB2 modules share the following specifications: Wireless MCU – Bouffalo Lab BL602 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller @ up to 192 MHz with 276KB SRAM, 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE connectivity Storage – 2MB or 4MB SPI flash WiFi range – Up to about 500 meters (typical) I/Os – SDIO, SPI, UART, I2C, IR receiver, PWM, ADC, DAC, and GPIO  (except Ai-WB2-01S with just UART/PWM/GPIO/ADC) Power Supply – 2.7V to 3.6V > 500mA Power […]

$5.5 Banana Pi BPI-PicoW-S3 ESP32-S3 board follows Raspberry Pi Pico W form factor

Banana Pi BPI-PicoW-S3 Raspberry Pi Pico W alternative

Banana Pi’s BPI-PicoW-S3 is a development board following the Raspberry Pi Pico W form factor, but based on Espressif System ESP32-S3 dual-core microcontroller offering both WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE connectivity. The Raspberry Pi SBCs have inspired many designs, but the Raspberry Pi Pico MCU boards less so. So far, I had only seen the WeAct RP2040 board with the same layout except for a USB Type-C port and a 16MB flash. But the Banana Pi BPI-PicoW-S3 provides a direct alternative to the Raspberry Pi Pico W with a more powerful microcontroller, vector instructions for AI acceleration, BLE, and about the same price at $5.5 plus shipping. Let’s see how the BPI-PicoW-S3 specifications compare to the ones of the Raspberry Pi Pico W in the table below. While the power signal (5V, 3.3V, GND) and GPIO numbers are the same on both boards, there are a few variations here and […]

Bee S3 ultra-low-power ESP32-S3 board can last several years on a LiPo battery

Bee S3 ESP32-S3 ultra-low-power board

Smart Bee Designs’ Bee S3 is an ultra-low-power development board based on Espressif ESP32-S3 WiFi & Bluetooth microcontroller that consumes less than 20 uA in deep sleep mode allowing the board to theoretically last over 5 years under specific conditions. The board provides WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5 LE connectivity, features a battery voltage monitoring circuitry to check the battery charge level, a USB Type-C port for power and programming, plus 20 through holes for extensions such as connecting sensors, and so on. Bee S3 specifications: Wireless module – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3-MINI-1 module (PDF datasheet) with ESP32-S3 dual-core Xtensa LX7 processor with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, 4MB or 8MB QSPI flash, PCB antenna USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming Expansion – 2x 10-pin headers with up to 15x GPIO, 8x ADC, touch support, I2C, SPI, UART, 5V In/out, 3.3V out, and GND Misc – […]

T-Watch-Keyboard-C3 with ESP32 “watch”, ESP32-C3 keyboard looks like a miniature PC replica

LILYGO Watch Keyboard C3

T-Watch-Keyboard-C3 is a device that looks like a miniature PC replica comprised of an ESP32-C3 powered keyboard, and the TTGO T-Watch ESP32 programmable device with a 1.54-inch touchscreen display. The LilyGo TTGO T-Watch ESP32 programmable touchscreen display has been around for a while, and the company used to provide an accessory keyboard based on Microchip ATSAM20 Cortex-M0+ microcontroller that has now been replaced with ESP32-C3 WiFi and Bluetooth RISC-V microcontroller to create the T-Watch-Keyboard-C3 devices pictured below.   T-Watch-Keyboard-C3 specifications: TTGO T-Watch MCU – ESP32-D0WDQ6 dual-core microcontroller @ 240 MHz with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 4.x with 520KB SRAM Memory – 8MB PSRAM Storage – 16MB QSPI flash Display – 1.54-inch LCD screen USB – 1x USB Type-C port for power and programming via CP2104 USB to TTL chip Sensor – 3-axis accelerometer Misc – Power button, RTC Dimensions – 40 x 38 x 20 mm Weight – 43.19 grams […]