Some of my favorite small micro-controller platforms (as you might have seen if you have been reading this blog) are Arduino and ESP8266. It seems that there is going ot be some upgrades to those platforms this year.
ESP32
ESP8266 chip is used to build WiFi modules for serial-to-WiFi conversion and Internet of Things applications. ESP8266 turned to be IoT maker’s favorite component for a good reason: Espressif turned the IoT game on its head by releasing a chip with WiFi and a decent embedded processor for under $1 in bulk, and costing not much more than that in a module. A little more than a year ago, the ESP8266 WiFi module showed up uneventfully in Seeed Studio’s store. During the year 2015 the ESP8266 turned to be success because it was “good enough” (it has it’s limitations) and price was cheaper than practically anything else in the market. Now it is widely available in various module formats (NodeMcu dev kit being my favorite for quick hacks) and supported by lots many programming tools.
Now Espressif looking to repeat the success of the ESP8266 with the ESP32, , that should be coming out in 2016. Espressif has been working on the next generation of powerful WiFi-enabled tiny, cheap systems for some time. They have their silicon ready and there are beta test kits already. The ESP32 Beta Units Arrive article tells that are two Tensilica L108 processors running at up to 160MHz, a lot of peripherals including ADCs, DACs, I2C, SPI, I2S, and PWM, more RAM, AES and SSL for security, and Bluetooth Low Energy. WiFi has also been upgraded. It’s already shortlisted as the best new chip of 2016, but other than that, there’s not much more information.
While the features are great, Espressif has said the ESP32 is not a replacement for the ESP8266. They’re different markets, and if you just wanted to add WiFi to a project, there’s no reason not to choose the ESP8266.
ATmega328PB
Most Arduino boards, like for example well known Arduino UNO are based on ATmega328 micro-controller from Atmel (there are nowadays also many Arduinos that use different CPUs). It seem that with ATmega328 you never have enough peripherals for everything you might want to do. Whether it’s hardware-driven PWM channels, ADCs, or serial communication peripherals, we always end up wanting just one more of these but don’t really need so many of those. Bye-bye ATmega328P, Hello 328PB! posting at Hackaday tells that Atmel’s new version of the popular ATmega328 series, the ATmega328PB, seems to have heard our pleas. ATmega328PB combines 32kB ISP Flash memory with read-while-write capabilities, 1kB EEPROM, 2kB SRAM, 27 general purpose I/O lines, 32 general purpose working registers, five flexible timer/counters with compare modes, internal and external interrupts, two USARTs with wake-up on start of transmission, two byte-oriented 2-wire serial interfaces, two SPI serial ports, 8-channel 10-bit A/D converter, programmable watchdog timer with internal oscillator, a unique serial number and six software selectable power saving modes. The device operates between 1.8-5.5 volts. The ATmega328PB supports capacitive sensors: 24 buttons in self-capacitance mode, or up to 144 buttons in mutual-capacitance mode. This ATmega328PB does not native USB thing in it, so if you need USB support, look at the ATmega32U4 as used in Arduino Leonardo board.
So what does this mean for you? It seems that chips are shipping right now, and there’s an inexpensive dev kit available as well. If you write your own code in C,you should be pretty ready to use new feature. With Arduino you might need to wait until new chips find their way to Arduino boards (there does not seem to be DIP version you could plug to Arduino UNO socket) and support for it on Arduino IDE is added (unless you can hack it to it yourself).
Here is ATmega328PB chip pin-out from summary:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
ESP GPS NTP Serve
A simple NTP server using GPS
https://hackaday.io/project/28013-esp-gps-ntp-server
Since creating some NTP based analog clocks I thought it would be handy to have a small accurate (GPS based) NTP server that could be deployed on the local network or as part of a stand alone network.
I’m thinking about trying to use an esp8266 again. I switched to the esp32 because software serial at 9600 baud gave a lot of watchdog resets, not what you want in a time server. Software serial was needed because the esp8266 has only one usable UART and that is used for programming and debug messages.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESP32-DevKit
http://www.raspberrypiwiki.com/index.php/ESP32-DevKit
Geekworm ESP32-DevKitC is a low-footprint, minimal system development board which is powered by our latest ESP-WROOM-32 module and can be easily adjusted to a breadboard.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Geekcreit® ESP32-DevKit ESP32 WiFi+Bluetooth Development Board ESP-WROOM-32 Dual Cores Board With Ultra Low Power Consumption
https://www.banggood.com/ESP32-DevKit-ESP32-WiFiBluetooth-Development-Board-ESP-WROOM-32-Dual-Cores-Board-p-1138249.html?rmmds=detail-top-buytogether-auto__1&cur_warehouse=CN
Tomi Engdahl says:
Using a Camera with the ESP32
https://blog.hackster.io/using-a-camera-with-the-esp32-9d6994b34a2b
Tomi Engdahl says:
EEPROM Rotation for the ESP8266 and ESP32
https://blog.hackster.io/eeprom-rotation-for-the-esp8266-and-esp32-e42403b11df0
Tomi Engdahl says:
A Cheaper Single-Core ESP32 Module?
https://blog.hackster.io/a-cheaper-single-core-esp32-module-53fa9c4143b5
The single-core ESP32-S0WD finally has a module to call its own
Despite initial rumours, the Espressif ESP32 was never supposed to replace their widely used, and much cheaper, ESP8266 chip. In just over four years, the ESP8266 has gone from an obscure Serial-to-WiFi module with no English documentation to one of the three biggest communities around maker hardware.
Unfortunately, never intended for the many roles it was thrust into, the ESP8266 lacks basic features that make building a secure Internet of Things connected device using it practically impossible. The more capable ESP32 was designed to, amongst other things, solve that.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Grbl Ported to the ESP32
https://hackaday.com/2018/07/26/grbl-ported-to-the-esp32/
If you’re building a CNC or laser, there’s an excellent chance you’ll be using Grbl to get moving. It’s also a pretty safe bet you’d end up running it on some variation of the Arduino sitting in a motor controller breakout board. It’s cheap, easy to setup and use, and effectively the “industry” standard for DIY machines so there’s no shortage of information out there. What’s not to love?
Grbl pushes the capability of the Arduino to the very limit; making it something of a dead-end for future development. Plus the Arduino needs to be plugged into the host computer via USB to function, a rather quaint idea to many in 2018. These were just some of the reasons he decided to port Grbl to the ESP32 board.
Price wise the Arduino and ESP32 are around the same, but the ESP does have the advantage of being much more powerful than the 8-bit Italian Stallion.
Grbl CNC Firmware on ESP32
http://www.buildlog.net/blog/2018/07/grbl-cnc-firmware-on-esp32/
The ESP32 will be a great option for CNC. Here are some things I am excited about.
Fast – Two 32 bit Cores at 240MHz Each, FPU, 80MHz Timers
Memory – Tons of Flash and RAM
Low Cost – $3-$10 depending how you buy it.
Small Size – Not much bigger than an Arduino Nano
I/O – It has about the same number of pins as an Arduino UNO, which is the target for Grbl
BlueTooth and WiFi – This is great and actually the primary reason for my port.
Porting
The bulk of the code was very easy to port over, but getting very low jitter, step pulse timing took a long time to achieve.
FreeRTOS
The ESP32 uses an RTOS (Real Time Operating System). While “real time” sounds perfect for CNC, it is not good for step pulse timing. An RTOS allows multiple tasks to run “at the same time” and it manages the priorities and interaction of those tasks. The RTOS switches tasks at a “tick rate”. The tick rate is typically about 1000Hz. This means each task gets at least 1ms of time and the others wait. You can designate a high priority task to prevent these interruptions, but some tasks have watchdogs that must be reset so you need to give them some time. You can set the tick rate higher, but I need a more than 50,000 hz step rate. That is not practical for the RTOS. I can turn off the RTOS and/or the watchdogs, but a major appeal of the ESP32 is the WiFi and BlueTooth. These need the RTOS.
The normal Grbl way generate step pulse timing is to use interrupts. As long as you follow the rules for interrupts, they will interrupt the RTOS without any delays in very deterministic manner.
The ESP32 does a “panic” reboot when it does not like something.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The ESP32-Based VoIP WiPhone
https://blog.hackster.io/the-esp32-based-voip-wiphone-dea5f352a73c
Remember Nokia? Or rather, do you remember Nokia before Apple, before the iPhone changed everything? Seems like a lot of us do and the launch of the “reimagined” Nokia 3310 last year, followed earlier this year by the Nokia 8110, was a big thing for them. Retro, not so smart, phones are apparently now fairly cool.
Tomi Engdahl says:
wESP32 Brings PoE and Ethernet to the Popular ESP32
https://blog.hackster.io/wesp32-brings-poe-and-ethernet-to-the-popular-esp32-e321f47628f9
We all know the ESP32 is a versatile SoC that brings Wi-Fi and Bluetooth options to any project requiring a wireless connection but doesn’t feature it natively. It’s almost like it helped propel the IoT into mainstream applications due to its low cost and tiny footprint.
“By using PoE, a single cable provides power as well as connectivity, easing deployment headaches for large installations. PoE can provide up to 12.95 W to a load while PoE+ specifies up to 25.50 W. Plenty for an ESP32 which takes only a watt or so, making it possible to power other loads.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to add WiFi Control to any project || ESP32 Beginner’s Guide
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAqNKaX3LQ0
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESP32 WiPhone
https://hackaday.io/project/159811-esp32-wiphone
The WiPhone project is an open source mobile IP phone. WiPhone is intended to be hackable, modular, cheap, and open, while remaining
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.hackster.io/arundale/sqlite3-library-for-esp32-arduino-core-a76ad1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sqlite3 Library for ESP32 Arduino Core
https://www.hackster.io/arundale/sqlite3-library-for-esp32-arduino-core-a76ad1
Tomi Engdahl says:
#147 Introduction into ESP32 with first tests: PWM, Servo, Web, Touch Sensors (Tutorial)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBG7ccW5gpA
Today, this channel will try to start into a new area: The area of the replacement of our beloved ESP8266 by the new ESP32. I invite you to join this journey. At the end of this video, you should be able to judge, if you want to order your first board (or take it out of your drawer)
Summary:
• We checked the GPIOs out, and discovered, that we have many more of them, and that they abandoned the Dx numbering scheme. So, we do not have to write our sketches different for the different boards.
• Then, we looked at the different examples provided with the infrastructure. This will be stuff for many videos to come. Today, we tired PWM and it worked. We were able to generate a fading LED, steer a servo, and even create a primitive DAC with this function.
• Next, we tried a simple example to check, if the Wi-Fi really works. And it does. We learned, that we will have to change all our ESP8266 sketches, if we want to port them to the ESP32.
• Then, I ported my NTP library to the ESP. With one small change, it worked and delivered accurate time also on the ESP32.
• At the end, we checked also the new touch pins and, together with the PWM functionality from the beginning of the video, were able to create a small instrument.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESP-WHO
https://github.com/espressif/esp-who
ESP-WHO is a face detection and recognition platform that is currently based on Espressif Systems’ ESP32 chip. ESP-WHO is within Espressif Systems AI framework, with the focus on face detection and recognition so far.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The ESP Mesh Development Framework
The official mesh development framework for the ESP32 chip
https://blog.hackster.io/the-esp-mesh-development-framework-2d521bfd884
https://github.com/espressif/esp-mdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
OpenPDA
Open-source, modular, portable computer system.
https://hackaday.io/project/162266-openpda
There are basically three parts: an ESP32, a battery, and a touchscreen. I can also add an SD card when I want to.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Deep-Sleep Current: Which is better? µCurrent or Current Ranger? (ESP32, ESP8266)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmXfyLyN38c
During Deep Sleep, microcontrollers consume very low currents, and batteries live longer. Unfortunately is not easy to measure these small currents. Today we will check out two small boxes which promise to make this possible. And we will use the 10’000$ professional Keysight N6705C Power Analyzer to establish the reference.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Face Detection and Recognition on the ESP32
https://blog.hackster.io/face-detection-and-recognition-on-the-esp32-3b4b9a35c765
Additionally, the newer ESP32 chips supports security features like secure boot and flash encryption needed to implement real ‘production ready’ Internet of Things smart devices, and interestingly, it now also has support for machine learning at the edge with the ESP-WHO framework
https://github.com/espressif/esp-who
ESP-WHO is a face detection and recognition platform that is currently based on Espressif Systems’ ESP32 chip.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Face Detection and Recognition on the ESP32
https://blog.hackster.io/face-detection-and-recognition-on-the-esp32-3b4b9a35c765
Additionally, the newer ESP32 chips supports security features like secure boot and flash encryption needed to implement real ‘production ready’ Internet of Things smart devices, and interestingly, it now also has support for machine learning at the edge with the ESP-WHO framework
https://github.com/espressif/esp-who
Tomi Engdahl says:
New WiFi Satellite #35c3
https://hackaday.io/project/162900-new-wifi-satellite-35c3
Monitoring and logging traffic of all 14 2.4GHz WiFi channels!
Now even better
Tomi Engdahl says:
$10 Secure ESP32-Based Internet Camera
https://www.hackster.io/zielmicha/10-secure-esp32-based-internet-camera-05acd9
ESP32-CAM-based project that streams video securely to any place in the world over the Husarnet.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Build a Game Boy Clone with an ESP32 and a Small CRT Display
https://blog.hackster.io/build-a-game-boy-clone-with-an-esp32-and-a-small-crt-display-7768e97f4682
he designed the CRT Boy — a portable Game Boy clone that features a tiny black and white CRT display.
http://bitluni.net/crt-boy/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Build Yourself This ESP8266 Pong Game with VGA Output
https://blog.hackster.io/build-yourself-this-esp8266-pong-game-with-vga-output-2194403f68f0
for simple devices that lack video output altogether, it can actually be easier to hack together analog video than digital. That’s the case with Rob Cai’s VGA Pong game, and his tutorial will show you how to build your own with an ESP8266.
https://www.instructables.com/id/ESP8266-VGA-Pong/
https://github.com/smaffer/espvgax
The library implements a resolution of 512 x 480 pixels, stored in a framebuffer inside the RAM, which requires 30720 bytes. The resolution is huge in comparison to the Arduino TVout or VGAx ones (128 x 96 and 120 x 60 pixels respectively).
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Mysterious ESP-EYE Development Board from Espressif?
https://blog.hackster.io/the-mysterious-esp-eye-development-board-from-espressif-2d5b4ffd2b9
Sometimes new boards pop up on the radar almost entirely out of the blue, like the new Espressif ESP-EYE has done
“…this is Espressif’s new AI development board featuring voice wakeup, as well as face detection and recognition. It has been built around our flagship chip, ESP32, and it is also equipped with a 2-Megapixel OV 2640 Camera, Microphone, 4 MB Flash, 8MB PSRAM, Micro USB and LED lights on a 21mm × 41mm board.”
https://www.cnx-software.com/2019/01/02/esp-eye-esp32-ai-development-board/
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESP32 Boards With Displays: An Overview
https://hackaday.com/2018/05/23/esp32-boards-with-displays-an-overview/
[Andreas] has a new video that shows seven new ESP32 boards that have integral displays. These boards can simplify a lot of applications where you need both WiFi and a user interface.
Of the boards examined, six of them have OLED displays, but one has an E-paper display. To summarize results, [Andreas] summarized his findings on these seven along with others in an online spreadsheet.
The boards include:
TTGO with 2.9 E-paper display
TTGO TS V1.2
TTGO T4
TTGO Pro V2
TTGO LoRa V2
Wemos
Wifi Kit32
#201 New ESP32 Boards with Displays
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s12XuR7BJkw
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.hackster.io/yes-your-esp32-can-output-composite-video-and-bitluni-will-show-you-how-dac05e1f6e94
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESP32 Ultra Low Power (ULP) core made easy in the Arduino IDE including 100$ challenge
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QIcUTBB7Ww
We can save energy by deep-sleeping the ESP32. During this time, the chips do not consume a lot of energy but also are not responsive. This is why Espressif included a mysterious Ultra Low Power core (ULP) which is active when the main processor sleeps. People say it has to be programmed in Assembler, and nearly nobody was able to program it in the Arduino environment.
Until now.
Arduino IDE ULP repository: https://github.com/duff2013/arduino_ulp
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cheap Power Over Ethernet For The ESP32
https://hackaday.com/2019/02/05/cheap-power-over-ethernet-for-the-esp32/
While most projects we see with the ESP32 make use of its considerable wireless capabilities, the chip can be connected to the wired network easily enough should you have the desire to do so. [Steve] liked the idea of putting his ESP32s on the wired network, but found the need for a secondary power connection burdensome. So he took it upon himself to modify some cheap Power Over Ethernet (PoE) hardware and create a single-cable solution (Google Translate).
[Steve] bought a PoE module intended for security cameras and ran a close eye over the board to figure out what kind of hardware it is was using to generate the nominal 12 V output.
https://geeks-r-us.de/2019/02/03/esp32-mit-poe-fuer-unter-10e/
https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fgeeks-r-us.de%2F2019%2F02%2F03%2Fesp32-mit-poe-fuer-unter-10e%2F
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wiring The ESP-32 To Ethernet
https://hackaday.com/2018/08/19/wiring-the-esp-32-to-ethernet/
Since its introduction years ago, the ESP-8266 has taken over the world. It’s the chip inside thousands of different projects, and the basis for dozens of different IoT thingamadoos. The follow-up to the 8266, the ESP-32, is even more capable. It has a ton of peripherals inside, including an Ethernet MAC. What’s that? Yes, it’s possible to put Ethernet on an ESP-32, and give an IoT board PoE. That’s what [Patrick] is doing for his Hackaday Prize project, and it’s an awesome idea.
wESP32: Wired ESP32 with Ethernet and PoE
https://hackaday.io/project/85389-wesp32-wired-esp32-with-ethernet-and-poe
A low cost ESP32 core board with Ethernet and PoE for convenient “single cable” deployments
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESP32-POE Open Source Hardware IoT development board with WiFi/BLE/100Mb Ethernet with 802.3 POE is in stock!
https://olimex.wordpress.com/2018/09/06/esp32-poe-open-source-hardware-iot-development-board-with-wifi-ble-100mb-ethernet-with-802-3-poe-is-in-stock/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tractor Drives Itself, Thanks to ESP32 and Open Source
https://hackaday.com/2018/11/09/tractor-drives-itself-thanks-to-esp32-and-open-source/
Modern agricultural equipment has come a long way, embracing all kinds of smart features and electronic controls. While some manufacturers would prefer to be the sole gatekeepers of the access to these advanced features, that hasn’t stopped curious and enterprising folks from working on DIY solutions. One such example is this self-steering tractor demo by [Coffeetrac], which demonstrates having a computer plot and guide a tractor through an optimal coverage pattern.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SL1M6wUr3jA
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Video-Streaming, ESP32-Based Robot Can Be Controlled Remotely via Web Browser
https://blog.hackster.io/this-video-streaming-esp32-based-robot-can-be-controlled-remotely-via-web-browser-18005effa78d
Back in 2017, engineer Max Kern created his Tiny ZeroBot — a simple robot built around the Raspberry Pi Zero W and featured a Pi Camera Module, DC gear motors, and other hardware packed into a 3D-printed housing. The robot could be FPV-controlled using any computer or smartphone via web browser. The ZeroBot was a simple, if not an ingenious design, that could be thrown together, and made for a great educational tool for anyone looking to get into robotics.
Kern has since refined the robot’s design with a shrunken-down version of the ZeroBot, known as the ESP32 Wi-Fi Robot, which as the name implies, replaces the Zero W with a smaller ESP32 module.
“Despite its lower processing power, the ESP32 robot has a ton of features. It streams color video over Wi-Fi, runs on a small LiPo battery, and can be controlled accurately from any web browser. With the €4 ESP32 and a €3 camera, it’s also really cheap.”
https://hackaday.io/project/163542-esp32-wifi-robot
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hands-on: Hacker Hotel 2019 Badge Packs ESP32, E-Ink, and a Shared Heritage
https://hackaday.com/2019/02/26/hands-on-hacker-hotel-2019-badge-packs-esp32-e-ink-and-a-shared-heritage/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Utilizing the ESP32’s Processing Power to Run Grbl CNC Software
https://blog.hackster.io/utilizing-the-esp32s-processing-power-to-run-grbl-cnc-software-bb291269a82
When it comes to DIY three-axis machines, Grbl is one of the most popular CNC controllers available. It is an open source software package used for the controlling of machines and will run on an Arduino. However, in doing so, the Arduino becomes incapable of performing and handling any other tasks you may wish for it to do.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESP32 Guitar Shield
https://hackaday.io/project/164477-esp32-guitar-shield
A guitar effect pedal stuffed with your own algorithms
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESP32 Video Tricks Hack Chat with bitluni
https://hackaday.com/2019/03/25/esp32-video-tricks-hack-chat-with-bitluni/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Esp little game engine
Game engine using a virtual machine with a simulator and a web compiler
https://hackaday.io/project/164205-esp-little-game-engine
Game engine with web emulator and compiler. The image is displayed on the tft using the TFT_eSPI library
The game engine has a virtual screen resolution of 128×128 pixels, 16 colors, one background layer, 32 soft sprites with collision tracking and rotation, 20kb of memory for the game and variables. The virtual machine performs approximately 900,000 operations per second at a drawing rate of 20 frames per second. Control of eight buttons.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Sound Driver Runs on the ESP32’s ULP Coprocessor
https://blog.hackster.io/this-sound-driver-runs-on-the-esp32s-ulp-coprocessor-df5bd197e0cf
Tomi Engdahl says:
WiPhone: An Open Source Phone That’s Really Yours
http://a.wiphone.io
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wireless Security Camera in a Matchbox
https://www.hackster.io/akarsh98/wireless-security-camera-in-a-matchbox-42f8d6
An internet-connected camera which has WiFi on board and is so small that it fits in a matchbox.
ESP32 + Azure Custom Vision
https://www.hackster.io/andri/esp32-azure-custom-vision-83d9c1
A proof of concept project for getting started with Azure Custom Vision and leveraging it to work with ESP32 MCU + camera.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Parasite ATtiny Resets Your ESP32 for You
https://hackaday.com/2019/05/01/parasite-attiny-resets-your-esp32-for-you/
Embedded development can be a tough process. Between weird electrical gremlins, obscure bugs and our own mistakes, it can be a real struggle at times. To keep cognitive loads to a minimum, it’s best to make sure your tools are as simple and easy to use as possible. [tech] got tired of having to push a button to prepare the ESP32 for programming, and decided to solve the problem.
When it detects the Arduino IDE’s boot sequence on the line, it switches the BOOT0 and RESET lines on the ESP32, emulating the button presses to force it into programming mode.
ESP32 autoreset
https://hackaday.io/project/165266-esp32-autoreset
This little project utilises an ATtiny9 to automatically reset the ESP32 into bootloader mode
Tomi Engdahl says:
ESP32-MeshKit custom RGB LED Lamps
https://hackaday.io/project/163672-esp32-meshkit-custom-rgb-led-lamps
Use this RGB Leds that are in your garage to build your own Lights. As simple as Leds, Ω and soldiering (To be safe max. 30 mA per GPIO)
Tomi Engdahl says:
New Part Day: Espressif Announces ESP32-S2 With USB
https://hackaday.com/2019/05/21/new-part-day-espressif-announces-esp32-s2-with-usb/
Espressif, the company behind the extremely popular ESP8266 and ESP32 microcontrollers has just announced their latest chip. It’s the ESP32-S2. It’s a powerful WiFi-enabled microcontroller, and this one has support for USB OTG.
Compared to the ESP32 we know and love, there are a few differences. The ESP32-S2 uses a single core Xtensa LX7 core running at up to 240 MHz, where the current ESP32 uses either a single or dual core LX6. The differences between these cores is hidden away in marketing speak and press releases, but it appears the LX7 core is capable of many more floating point operations per cycle
Other features include an automatic power-down of the RF circuitry when it isn’t needed, support for RSA and AES256, and plenty of support for additional Flash and SRAMs should you need more memory.
Espressif Announces the Release of ESP32-S2 Secure Wi-Fi MCU
https://www.espressif.com/en/news/espressif-announces-%E2%80%A8esp32-s2-secure-wi-fi-mcu
Espressif announces the release of the ESP32-S2 Secure Wi-Fi MCU, which is a highly integrated, low-power, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi Microcontroller SoC supporting Wi-Fi HT40 and 43 GPIOs. Based on Xtensa® single-core 32-bit LX7 processor, ESP32-S2 can be clocked at up to 240 MHz.
Features
CPU and Memory
Xtensa® single-core 32-bit LX7 microcontroller
7-stage pipeline
Clock frequency of up to 240 MHz
Ultra-low-power co-processor
320 kB SRAM, 128 kB ROM, 16 KB RTC memory
External SPIRAM (128 MB total) support
Up to 1 GB of external flash support
Separate instruction and data cache
Connectivity
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n
1×1 transmit and receive
HT40 support with data rate up to 150 Mbps
Support for TCP/IP networking, ESP-MESH networking, TLS 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2 and other networking protocols over Wi-Fi
Support Time-of-Flight (TOF) measurements with normal Wi-Fi packets
IO Peripherals
43 programmable GPIOs
14 capacitive touch sensing IOs
Standard peripherals including SPI, I2C, I2S, UART, ADC/DAC and PWM
LCD (8-bit parallel RGB/8080/6800) interface and also support for 16/24-bit parallel
Camera interface supports 8 or 16-bit DVP image sensor, with clock frequency of up to 40 MHz
Full speed USB OTG support
Security
RSA-3072-based trusted application boot
AES256-XTS-based flash encryption to protect sensitive data at rest
4096-bit eFUSE memory with 2048 bits available for application
Digital signature peripheral for secure storage of private keys and generation of RSA signatures
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to make a small, low-cost, remote accessible security camera with an ESP32
https://www.nabto.com/esp32/
In our former blog post ‘RTSP P2P streaming through Nabto‘, where we talked about how to create an app that enabled remote accesses to an RTSP camera, we used a large Linux-based camera. Later on, we have received many requests on how to do the same type of integration to a ‘low-cost’ WI-FI module-based camera – and that is exactly what we are going to cover in this blog post.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The ESP32-S2, Is It Almost Ready?
Beta Silicon for the new chip is now shipping
https://blog.hackster.io/the-esp32-s2-is-it-almost-ready-aa62f2d6b916
Tomi Engdahl says:
The ESP32-S2, Is It Almost Ready?
Beta Silicon for the new chip is now shipping
https://blog.hackster.io/the-esp32-s2-is-it-almost-ready-aa62f2d6b916
Tomi Engdahl says:
Espressif Systems releases ESP32-S2 datasheet and dev board: http://bit.ly/2kp7CQT
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://blog.hackster.io/etch-a-sketch-esp32-cam-etch-a-selfie-2da5490913f2
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tiny ESP32 Fits Inside USB-A Connector
https://hackaday.com/2019/09/28/tiny-esp32-fits-inside-usb-a-connector/
The ESP32 was introduced a few years ago as an inexpensive way to outfit various microcontrollers with WiFi or Bluetooth.
The latest development in the ESP32 world comes from [femtoduino] who, as the name suggests, makes very small things. This one is a complete ESP32 which fits inside a USB-A connector. The brains of the projects is the ESP32-D2WD which is a dual core chip with 2 Mb of memory, making it more than capable. In fact, a big part of this project was [femtoduino]’s modifications to MicroPython in order to allow it to run on this chipset. For that alone, it’s cool.
FEMU – An ESP32 Wi-Fi/Bluetooth board in TOMU form
https://hackaday.io/project/167005-femu-an-esp32-wi-fibluetooth-board-in-tomu-form