A Wild ESP32-C5 Dev Kit Appears in an Andreas Spiess Hands-On Video
Here's a first look at the ESP32-C5, a RISC-V SoC with 2.4 and 5 GHz radios that support Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth LE, Zigbee, and Thread.
Swiss YouTuber Andreas Spiess received a special delivery from Espressif, the incredibly popular ESP32 microcontroller and IoT platform manufacturer. In his latest video, Spiess gives an overview and hands-on look at the ESP32-C5 dual-band Wi-Fi 6-enabled microcontroller. This engineering sample and video are so fresh there is still flux on the board!
Espressif first announced the ESP32-C5 in 2022. Until a few months ago, the only other news about the chip seemed to be a demo board featuring the system on chip (SoC) and module! The Espressif ESP32-C5 has a single 32-bit RISC-V core with a dual-band (2.4 GHz and 5 GHz) radio supporting Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5 (LE), Zigbee, and Thread (802.15.4). This SoC is Espressif's first to support Wi-Fi's 5 GHz band.
Spiess opens his video on the exciting new board with a slight tease and comparison to the ESP32-C6 module. The C6 has a single-band radio (2.4 GHz) but no internal PSRAM, while the C5 has the aforementioned 5 GHz capability and options for either internal Flash or internal PSRAM.
One drawback to using such early hardware is the limited toolchains available. For example, Spiess could not yet program the ESP32-C5 with the Arduino IDE. However, Spiess does not doubt that an Arduino board package will be available in the future.
Instead, he relied on two pre-compiled binaries to demonstrate the C5's ability to act as an Access Point (AP Mode) and scan for Wi-Fi SSIDs. The AP example created a network on Channel 120. The 5 GHz Wi-Fi band has channels defined between 5.150 and 5.895 GHz. Channel 120 operates around 5.6 GHz, which Spiess confirmed with the help of a TinySA, a handheld spectrum analyzer. The SSID scanner binary correctly identified 2.4 and 5 GHz APs in Spiess' lab.
The combination of radios makes the ESP32-C5 an excellent platform for IoT devices. Since Spiess has limited firmware for the C5, he closes the video showing Zigbee examples using the ESP32-C6.
Most of us must wait until Espressif's dev board or third-party boards become readily available. Until then, enjoy a video in which "a guy with a Swiss accent" describes the exciting ESP32-C5.
