Espressif Launches the ESP32-H2-DevKit-M-1 for Those Looking to Experiment with IEEE 802.15.4
Following its leak in 2021, the low-power Espressif ESP32-H2 is now available — albeit only as a development board built on a "sample chip."
Espressif has finally launched a development board for its ESP32-H2, a low-power microcontroller with integrated Bluetooth 5.2 Low Energy (BLE) and IEEE 802.15.4 radio module — and it's priced under $10.
Details of the ESP32-H2 leaked back in July 2021 as part of an update to Espressif's software development kit (SDK), suggesting an ESP32-C3 variant with a lower-speed RISC-V processor core designed for lower power draw and an IEEE 802.15.4-standard low-rate wireless personal area network (LR-WPAN) radio in place of Wi-Fi — details confirmed in an August 2021 release announcement. It wasn't until December last year, though, that Espressif would include ESP32-H2 support in its ESP-IDF development framework — and now it's finally making development boards available.
The Espressif ESP32-H2-DevKitM-1, brought to our attention by CNX Software, is based on the ESP32-H2-MINI-1 module on a breadboard-friendly carrier. The module offers a single 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller core running at up to 96MHz, 320kB static RAM (SRAM), and 128kB flash, plus 4kB of low-power memory and 4MB of off-chip flash. There's a Bluetooth 5.2 Low Energy (BLE) radio and the IEEE 802.15.4 radio with support for Zigbee, Thread, and Matter, as well as proprietary protocols.
Unusually, the board features not one but two USB Type-C connectors. The first provides power and programming, as is to be expected, while the second offers a USB 2.0 Full Speed (12Mb/s) Host connection for external peripherals. The outer edges of the board offer 19 user-accessible general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins with two UART, three SPI, one I2C, and one I2S bus, LED-focused pulse-width modulation (PWM) support, and a remote control peripheral.
While the boards are available now, though, the ESP32-H2 has still not officially entered mass production. As a result, the gadgets are based on what Espressif describes as "Sample Chip Revision v0.1" — though the company has not explained how the pre-release variants will differ from the mass production variant. It's also not yet possible to purchase the ESP32-H2-MINI-1 module outside the board, though channel stockists have it listed as "coming soon" on their calendars.
More information on the ESP32-H2-DevKitM-1 is available on the Espressif documentation site, while boards are now available to order on Espressif's AliExpress store at $9.90 each.