Elecrow ESP32 Terminal giveaway
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Giveaway Week 2023 – Elecrow ESP32 Terminal with a 3.5-inch touchscreen display and OV2640 camera

If I remember correctly, Elecrow sent me an end-of-year gift with a notebook (paper style), a pen, and a 3.5-inch ESP32 terminal. I had completely forgotten about it, and while wondering what I would give for Giveaway Week 2023, and looking around in drawers and on shelves, I found an “ESP32 Terminal” package, and I was like “What the F is that and where is it coming from?”. Long story short, the 6th prize of this year’s giveaway week is Elecrow’s ESP32 Terminal with a 3.5-inch touchscreen display that also comes with a front-facing OV2640 camera and six Crowtail connectors for expansion plus a LiPo battery connector. Elecrow ESP32 terminal specifications: Wireless module – ESP32-S3 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 (LE) module with 16MB flash and 8MB PSRAM Storage – MicroSD card slot Display – 3.5-inch TFT LCD display with 480×320 resolution (ILI9488 driver), capacitive touchscreen Camera – 2MP […]

ESP32-C6 ESP32-H2 ESP32 Arduino Core 3.0.0
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ESP32 Arduino Core 3.0.0 adds support for ESP32-C6 and ESP32-H2

Espressif Systems has now released an alpha version of ESP32 Arduino Core 3.0.0 enabling the new ESP32-C6 and ESP32-H2 targets to be programmed with the Arduino IDE, and including a number of new features made possible by the ESP-IDF 5.1 SDK. Announced in 2021, the ESP32-C6 WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5 LE, and 802.15.4 wireless MCU became available in modules and devkits at the beginning of this year, but so far they could only be programmed with the latest version (5.1) of the ESP-IDF framework, and so was the new ESP32-H2 Bluetooth 5.2 and 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread) MCU. But fans of Arduino programming can now rejoice as an alpha version of ESP32 Arduino Core 3.0.0 brings support for the new microcontroller, and a stable release is planned for December 2023. But as you can probably imagine ESP32 Arduino Core 3.0.0 will also bring lots of other changes since the ESP32 Arduino Core […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
SonoffMiniR4M Cover
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Review of the first Matter device by SONOFF – MINI Extreme Wi-Fi Smart Switch (MINIR4M)

We have just received the first Matter product from SONOFF for review, which is the Mini Extreme Switch (MINIR4M) model. Its external appearance closely resembles the Mini Extreme Switch Wifi (MINIR4) which we reviewed previously. They have different colors to distinguish between WiFi (Orange) and Matter (Green). In this review, we have experimented with various Smart Home platforms that support Matter, such as Home Assistant, Apple HomeKit, Google Home, and even their own eWeLink app. Let’s see how their operations and features differ to some extent. Quick intro for Matter. We have heard Matter/Thread together in the news. Matter is a control protocol, while Thread is a communication protocol. Both protocols can work together, or separately. Matter can operate on the top of various communication protocols, including WiFi, Ethernet, BLE, or Thread, with subtle differences such as energy efficiency, network, and resiliency. What’s crucial to note is that Matter acts […]

Youyetoo YY3568 devkit review
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Youyeetoo YY3568 devkit review – Part 1: Unboxing, specifications, and Android 11 testing

Youyeetoo has sent us a review sample of their YY3568 “Bundle 5” devkit with the Rockchip RK3568-powered YY3568 SBC, an 11.6-inch touchscreen display, a MIPI camera module, and all accessories required to get started. We were especially interested in using it to play with the 1 TOPS NPU in the Rockchip RK3568 in Linux, but we’ll start the Youyeetoo YY3568 review with an unboxing, some specifications, and a quick review with Android 11 before switching to Debian 10 in the second part of the review. Youyeetoo YY3568 devkit unboxing The YY3568 single board computer itself is comprised of a carrier board and a YY3568-Core board with a Rockchip RK3568 processor, as well as 8GB RAM, 64GB eMMC flash, and WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 module. The board is suitable for various applications from generic computing to video playback and AI workloads. YY3568 SBC specifications and hardware overview Youyeetoo YY3568 board […]

ButtonBoard round shap ESP8285 WiFi IoT board
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ButtonBoard is a 3cm round WiFi IoT board with BME280 and IMU sensors (Crowdfunding)

ButtonBoard is a tiny round-shaped board based on the ESP-01F WiFi IoT module (ESP8285), equipped with a BME280 air pressure, humidity, and temperature sensor, an IMU sensor, and designed for wearables electronics projects. ButtonBoard specifications: Wireless module – ESP-01F module with ESP8285 Tensilica L106 microcontroller @ 80/160 MHz with 2.4GHz WiFi connectivity, PCB antenna; package: 11 x 10 mm USB – Micro USB port Sensors Bosch Sensortec BME280 pressure, temperature, and humidity sensor, and altimeter. IMU sensor Expansion – Through holes for up to 10x GPIOs, I2C, SPI, USART Misc – Reset button Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port; onboard power management Dimensions – About 3cm diameter The ButtonBoard can be programmed with the Arduino IDE via USB or WiFi, MicroPython, Lua, and Scratch, and they also mention support for ChatGPT through the current API, but I could not find any code samples at this time. They do […]

WeAct ESP32-C6 development board
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WeAct launches $6 ESP32-C6 development board, ESP-IDF 5.1 framework released

As expected, Espressif has just released the ESP-IDF 5.1 framework with ESP32-C6 and ESP32-H2 support, so more ESP32-C6 boards should become available, and after Olimex ESP32-C6-EVB launched earlier this week, we’ve noticed WeAct had introduced a low-cost ESP32-C6 development board that sells for just $6.43 plus shipping a few weeks ago. WeAct ESP32-C6 board The WeAct board offers 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth LE 5.0., and Zigbee/Thread connectivity through the ESP32-C6-WROOM-1 module, two USB-C ports, two 16-pin headers for GPIOs, and if it looks familiar, it’s because it closely follows the design of the official ESP32-C6-DevKitC-1 development kit, albeit with some small modifications. WeAct ESP32-C6 board specifications: Wireless module  – ESP32-C6-WROOM-1 with ESP32-C6 single-core 32-bit RISC-V clocked up to 160 MHz, with 320KB ROM, 512KB SRAM, low-power RISC-V core @ up to 20 MHz Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee 3.0 and Thread. […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
Arduino UNO R4 WiFi
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Arduino UNO R4 Minima and WiFi boards launched for $20 and $27.50

Arduino UNO R4 Minima and WiFi boards powered by a Renesas RA4M1 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4F microcontroller and equipped with an optional ESP32-S3 WiFI & BLE module are now available for respectively $20 (18 Euros) and $27.50 (25 Euros) on the Arduino store. The Arduino UNO R4 Renesas RA4M1 board was initially unveiled during Arduino Day with most details, but not everything as the company had hidden one part of the board which we now know is for a 12×8 LED matrix and a Qwiic connector for expansion present on the UNO R4 WiFi only. Arduino UNO R4 specifications: Microcontroller – Renesas RA4M1 Arm Cortex-M4F MCU @ 48 MHz with 32KB SRAM, 256KB flash Wireless (Arduino UNO R4 WiFi only) – ESP32-S3-MINI-1 module based on ESP32-S3 dual-core Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with 512KB SRAM, 384KB ROM, WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity, PCB antenna Display (UNO R4 WiFi only) –  12×8 LED […]

Pico Ice Raspberry Pi RP2040 Lattice FPGA board
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Pico-Ice board combines Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU with Lattice ICE40 UltraPlus 5K FPGA

tinyVision.ai Pico-Ice is a development board with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 MCU and a Lattice ICE40 UltraPlus 5K FPGA connected through an 8-bit bus. The Arm Cortex-M0+ microcontroller provides the clock for the FPGA and can program the FPGA directly or the dedicated FPGA flash using a drag-drop of a UF2 file. Just a few days ago we wrote about the LILYGO T-FPGA board that combines an ESP32-S3 wireless MCU with a Gowin FPGA connected through a 6-bit bus, and the Pico-Ice board provides a similar option with different chips and without wireless connectivity. Pico-Ice specifications: MCU – Raspberry Pi RP2040 dual-core Cortex-M0+ microcontroller @ 133 MHz with 264KB SRAM with all pins exposed FPGA – Lattice UltraPlus iCE40UP5K FPGA with 5.3K LUTs, 1Mbit SPRAM, 120Kbit DPRAM, 8x multipliers with all pins brought out Memory & storage chips MCU – 4MB QSPI flash FPGA – 4MB QSPI Flash, 8MB low […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications