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SparkFun's New Qwiic Pocket Development Board Is a Teeny-Tiny Stackable Matter-Complaint Marvel

With Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 Low Energy, and Matter-compliant Thread radios, this tiny 1" board really packs in the features.

SparkFun has launched a new development board based on the Espressif ESP32-C6, packing Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 Low Energy (BLE), and Matter-compliant IEEE 802.15.4 radio connectivity into a 1" square β€” with room for a Qwiic connector for easy expansion, too.

"Our newest development board comes in a new form-factor and is equipped with the new ESP32-C6," writes SparkFun's Chris McCarty of the freshly-launched dinky dev board. "The Qwiic Pocket Development Board is capable of communicating via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5 LE, and Thread, and it's Matter-compliant all on a 1" by 1" board footprint!"

The new board, which is barely taller than the Espressif ESP32-C6-MINI-1 module and USB Type-C connector adorning its upper side, is the first to fit in what the company calls the "Qwiic Standard Size" β€” meaning it stacks onto existing 1Γ—1" Qwiic breakout boards for a compact project footprint.

The ESP32-C6 system-on-chip at its heart offers a single 32-bit RISC-V core running at up to 160MHz, 400kB of static RAM (SRAM), 384kB of flash ROM plus 4MB off-chip SPI flash, and 23 multi-function general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins β€” a subset of which is brought out to eight unpopulated 0.1" pin headers on either side of the board, plus a Qwiic connector hidden on the underside.

The reverse of the board hides more than just the Qwiic connector, too: there's a Microchip MCP73831 battery charging chip on there, which can charge a lithium-polymer battery connected to the board's two-pin JST connector at up to 213mA, There are two physical buttons β€” one boot mode selection and one reset β€” and three status LEDs showing power, battery charging, and status.

It's the compact board's radio functionality which really makes it stand out. The ESP32-C6 is Espressif's first to support IEEE 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6, albeit only on the 2.4GHz spectrum, and the radio also offers Bluetooth 5 Low Energy (BLE) connectivity. For smart home and other Internet of Things (IoT) projects, meanwhile, there's an IEEE 802.15.4 radio capable of talking both Zigbee and Thread β€” and offering full compliance with the new cross-vendor Matter standard.

The SparkFun Qwiic Pocket Development Board ESP32-C6 β€” which is likely to be only the first in a range of microcontroller boards boasting the same compact format β€” is now available on the SparkFun store at $14.95 before volume discounts.

Gareth Halfacree
Freelance journalist, technical author, hacker, tinkerer, erstwhile sysadmin. For hire: freelance@halfacree.co.uk.
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