LILYGO T-Panel – A 4-inch HMI display and WiFi, BLE, and 802.15.4 gateway based on ESP32-S3 and ESP32-H2

T-Panel 4-inch ESP32-S3 and ESP32-H2 gateway

LILYGO T-Panel is both a 4-inch HMI display and IoT gateway based on ESP32-S3 WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5 microcontroller and an ESP32-H2 module with Bluetooth LE 5 and an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter connectivity. Last year, Espressif introduced the ESP-Thread Board Router/Zigbee gateway board with ESP32-S3 and ESP32-H2 to show how both chips could be combined to create IoT gateways.  But I don’t think I had seen a company design a product based on both ESP32-S3 and ESP32-H2 until I saw the T-Panel which also includes an RS485 interface and Qwiic expansion connectors for good measure. T-Panel specifications: Wireless chips/modules Wireless SoC –  ESP32-S3R8 dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller @ 240 MHz 2.4 GHz 802.11n WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE connectivity Memory – 8MB PSRAM Wireless module – ESP32-H2-MINI-1 module MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-H2 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller at up to 96 MHz with 320 […]

This new ESP32-C6-based IoT development board supports solar battery charging

FireBeetle 2 ESP32 C6 IoT Development Board with Wi Fi 6, Bluetooth 5, Solar Powered

DFRobot’s FireBeetle 2 ESP32-C6 is an IoT Development Board with 802.11ax (now called Wi-Fi 6), Bluetooth 5, Zigbee 3.0, Thread 1.3, and flexible power options including USB Type-C, 5V DC, and a CN3165 Lithium Ion battery charger for solar-powered systems. This isn’t the first solar-based board we’ve covered. We’ve also explored boards like Conexio Stratus, Wisblock Kit 2, and RAK8211-NB iTracker along with other solar-powered devices such as solar-powered laptops, solar-powered headphones, and even a solar-based power supply. FireBeetle 2 ESP32-C6 IoT Development Board Specifications: Processor – ESP32-C6 RISC-V single-core, 160 MHz Memory SRAM – 512KB ROM – 320KB Flash – 4MB RTC SRAM – 16KB USB – USB 2.0 CDC Wi-Fi Protocols – IEEE 802.11b/g/n, IEEE 802.11ax (20 MHz-only non-AP mode) Bandwidth – Supports 20 MHz and 40 MHz at 2.4 GHz Modes – Station, SoftAP, SoftAP+Station Frequency – 2.4GHz Frame Aggregation – TX/RX A-MPDU, TX/RX A-MSDU Bluetooth Protocol […]

8 Euros ESP32-H2-DevKit-LiPo is an open-source hardware Bluetooth 5 LE and 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread/Matter) board

ESP32-H2-DevKit-LiPo

Olimex ESP32-H2-DevKit-LiPo is an open-source hardware board based on ESP32-H2-MINI-1-N4 wireless module with Bluetooth 5 Low Energy (LE) and an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter connectivity, and that can be powered by a LiPo battery. The ESP32-H2 RISC-V microcontroller is coupled with 4MB flash in the wireless module, and the board comes with two rows of 15 pins for up to 19 GPIOs with alternate functions such as ADC, SPI, UART, I2C, etc… plus pUEXT and Qwiic/Stemma connectors for expansion modules. The board also features two USB-C ports, one for connected directly to the ESP32-H2 and the other for USB to UART programming/debugging. ESP32-H2-DevKit-LiPo specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-H2-MINI-1-N4 MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-H2 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller at up to 96 MHz with 320 KB SRAM, 128 KB ROM, 4 KB LP memory, Bluetooth 5.2 LE/Mesh and 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread/Matter) radios. Storage – 4MB flash storage PCB antenna Dimensions […]

Arduino and Silicon Labs collaborate to bring Matter to Arduino boards and IDE

Arduino Nano Matter Silicon Labs

Arduino and Silicon Labs have joined hands to both bring Matter-compatible SiLabs wireless microcontrollers to the Arduino IDE and then design an upcoming Arduino Nano based on SiLabs MGM240 Arm Cortex-M33 microcontroller with Matter, Thread, Zigbee, and Bluetooth LE protocols. Available now: Arduino Core for Silicon Labs devices The first phase of the collaboration involves getting Arduino core for Silicon Labs development boards so that compatible devices can be programmed in the IDE. The good news is that it’s available now and works with four existing wireless boards: SparkFun Thing Plus Matter MGM240P based on MGM240PB32VNA Arm Cortex-M33 MCU with Matter, Thread, Zigbee 3.0, and Bluetooth 5.3 LE connectivity SiLabs xG27 Dev Kit based on EFR32BG27C140F768IM40 Arm Cortex-M33 MCU with Bluetooth LE 5.3, Bluetooth Mesh, Proprietary 2.4 GHz connectivity SiLabs xG24 Explorer Kit based on EFR32MG24B210F1536IM48 Arm Cortex-M33 MCU with Bluetooth 5.3 LE, Bluetooth Mesh, Matter, OpenThread, Zigbee, Proprietary 2.4 […]

Espressif announces the ESP32-C61 WiFi 6 SoC with improved affordability and wireless connectivity

ESP32 C61 Block Diagram

Espressif has announced the ESP32-C61 SoC, a new ESP32-Cx chip with improved wireless connectivity, and expanded memory options. The ESP32-C61 builds upon the foundation laid by previous ESP32-Cx chips, such as the ESP32-C2 and ESP-C3, and its specifications appear to be quite similar to the ESP32-C6 launched in early 2023, but this SoC also adds support for the BLE Mesh 1.1 protocol and Quad SPI PSRAM at a frequency of up to 120MHz. It supports WiFi 6 on two modes (802.11ax and 802.11b/g/n) and includes a Bluetooth 5 (LE) radio with support for long-range operation through advertisement extension and coded PHY. The TWT (Target Wake Time) feature is supported in 802.11ax mode to save power, as well as OFDMA (Uplink/Downlink) and MU-MIMO (Downlink) for a high-quality, low-latency connection between devices. ESP32-C61 specifications: CPU – Single-core, 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller that can be clocked up to 160MHz Memory: 320KB on-chip SRAM 256KB […]

ESP32 Qwiic Pro Mini is an ESP32 board in Arduino Pro Mini form factor

Sparkfun's latest development board puts Espressif ESP32-PICO-MINI-02 on a compact Arduino Pro Mini footprint. It also includes an onboard QWICC connector for easy interfacing with a wide range of sensors and peripherals,

SparkFun’s latest development board, the ESP32 Qwiic Pro Mini, puts the Espressif ESP32-PICO-MINI-02 on a compact Arduino Pro Mini footprint. It also includes an onboard QWICC connector for easy interfacing with a wide range of sensors and peripherals. We have already covered other Sparkfun dev boards like DataLogger IoT, Datalogger IoT – 9DoF, and SparkFun Thing Plus Matter you can check those out if interested. Like any other ESP32 board, this also uses an ESP32 microcontroller which features a 32-bit dual-core processor, 520kB of SRAM, 2MB of PSRAM, 8MB of flash memory, and 16 kB of additional SRAM in its RTC. It supports Bluetooth 4.2 and BLE and has ADC and DAC, touch detection, PWM, TWAI, Ethernet MAC, UART, SPI, SDIO, I2C, and I2S interfaces. As reported in a Hackster article, the board also features a Qwiic Connector for solderless connections to sensor boards and add-ons, positioned at a 90-degree angle […]

LILYGO Mini E-Paper Core IoT controller gets ESP32-S3 wireless microcontroller

LILYGO Mini E-Paper ESP32-S3

LILYGO Mini E-Paper Core has gotten an upgrade to the ESP32-S3 wireless microcontroller. The IoT controller was first introduced in 2021 with an ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package, a 1.02-inch E-Paper display, and a few GPIOs on the back, and the company kept the same design for the ESP32-S3 model called “Mini E-Paper Core S3”. The tiny ESP32-S3 IoT controller can still be used for integrated into your own project, and the company also provides several shields with nRF24L01 2.4GHz wireless or 433/868 MHz “LoRa” connectivity to transform the device into a longer range IoT device. Mini E-Paper Core S3 specifications Wireless SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3FN4R2 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 @ up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration Memory – 512KB RAM, 2MB PSRAM Storage – 4MB flash Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth Storage – MicroSD card socket Display – 1.02-inch e-paper display with 128×80 […]

nRF7002 Expansion Board adds WiFi 6 to Nordic Thingy:53 devkit

nRF7002 Expansion Board Thingy:53 devkit

Nordic Semi keeps adding more nRF7002 WiFi 6 boards with the launch of the nRF7002 Expansion Board adding WiFi 6 connectivity to the Thingy:53 IoT prototyping platform and transforming it into an all-in-one wireless devkit with Matter, Bluetooth Low Energy, Thread, and WiFi 6 support. The new “nRF7002 EB” board follows the nRF7002 DK development kit combining the nRF7002 WiFi 6 with nRF5340 multiprotocol wireless SoCs, and the nRF7002 EK evaluation kit in Arduino UNO shield form factor adding WiFi 6 to existing Nordic development kits. nRF7002 Expansion Board specifications: Chipset – nRF7002 Wi-Fi Companion IC with support for features such as OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access), Beamforming, Target Wake Time, and SSID-based locationing Antenna – 2.4 GHz / 5 GHz ceramic antenna I/Os Castellations for all pins on nRF7002 Thingy:53 expansion connector with SPI and a 3-wire coexistence interface to allow seamless coexistence with other wireless protocols Misc […]

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