Seeed Studio's XIAO nRF52840 Module Gets the Amazon Sidewalk Stamp of Approval
Seeed's low-cost thumb-size development board now comes with Amazon Sidewalk certification, using its integrated Bluetooth Low Energy radio.
Seeed Studio has announced the fruit of its partnership with Amazon on bringing support for the Sidewalk Internet of Things (IoT) network to its XIAO platform, with the certification of the XIAO nRF52840 as Sidewalk-compatible.
"[Earlier] in August 2023, we proudly announced our partnership with Amazon Sidewalk as an ecosystem partner. We have successfully integrated and certified the XIAO nRF52840 module for Amazon Sidewalk," Seeed's Serena Liang announced today. "This module will empower developers to create their own Bluetooth LE [Low Energy] devices with Amazon Sidewalk capabilities and explore the vast potential of Sidewalk-enabled IoT solutions."
First announced back in 2019, Sidewalk is Amazon's sub-gigahertz long-range low-power LoRa-based wireless network, initially designed to provide better connectivity for its in-house smart devices but now opened to a broader ecosystem of partners looking for ways to bridge the gap between ubiquitous but short-range Wi-Fi and long-range but typically-metered cellular.
The news comes around half a year after Amazon announced it would provide free Sidewalk connectivity test kits to developers interested in trying the technology out for themselves, claiming coverage of 90 per cent of the US population. "Many types of connected devices have been limited by the range of Wi-Fi and the cost of cellular technology," Amazon's Dave Limp claimed at the time, "which has hindered the ability to connect devices like environmental sensors, leak detectors, and smart locks."
Seeed's XIAO nRF52840 module is, as the name implies, built around Nordic's nRF52840 — meaning it includes a single 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 processor core running at up to 64MHz, 256kB of static RAM (SRAM), and both 1MB of on-chip and 2MB of off-chip quad-SPI flash storage. This is installed on a thumb-size development board, with castellated pins for surface-mount installation, exposing 11 general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins with pulse-width modulation (PWM) support and six offering analog to digital converter (ADC) connectivity.
What it doesn't have, however, is a LoRa transceiver. Instead, the XIAO nRF52840 will connect to Sidewalk over Bluetooth Low Energy — meaning that it will have to be within range of a compatible Sidewalk gateway, typically a suitable Amazon Echo or Ring smart device, in order to connect to the network.
This does, at least, translate to a bargain-basement price: the newly-certified XIAO nRF52840 is available to buy at just $9.90 before volume discounts, rising to $15.99 for the Sense variant with integrated inertial measurement unit (IMU) and microphone sensors.
More information on getting started with the XIAO nRF52840 on Amazon Sidewalk is available on the Seeed Studio wiki.
