Adafruit's ESP32 Feather V2 Has an ESP32-Pico with 8MB Flash, 2MB PSRAM, a NeoPixel, and USB-C
Big improvements on an already incredibly full-featured board.
Adafruit has updated one of their most popular Feather form factor boards. The new ESP32 Feather V2 extends the previous ESP32 Feather by increasing the flash memory, adding PSRAM, a push-button, a NeoPixel, and more!
"Recently we had to redesign this feather to move from the obsolete CP2104 to the CP2012N and one thing led to another and before you know it we made a completely refreshed design: the Adafruit ESP32 Feather V2." — Angelica, Adafruit blog
Adafruit's Feather boards are a form factor measuring about 23 by 53 millimeters. They feature a pinout that puts the standard microcontroller features, like analog inputs, in the same physical location. Also on board is a USB interface, a connector for LiPo batteries, and a battery charging circuit.
The update list between the ESP32 Feather V2 and the original is surprisingly extensive! One update is that the USB Micro connector is now a USB Type-C, which is a trend we expect to see with Adafruit boards moving forward. Another is the addition of a user-readable push-button and a NeoPixel Mini RGB LED. Also, a STEMMA QT connector enables you to add sensors and other components without soldering.
Extra room for these new features happened because of a change to the SoC module. The ESP32-Pico mini-module opened up enough room for the new features, and the board still has enough remaining space to improve the readability of the pinout's silkscreen!
Compared to the previous ESP32 Feather, the mini-module on the V2 doubles the flash memory to 8 megabytes and adds 2 megabytes of PSRAM. PSRAM is pseudo-static RAM. From the user's perspective, it just means more RAM available for programs running on the 240 MHz dual-core Xtensa processor! The module's built-in antenna and radios support WiFi, Bluetooth, and Bluetooth Low Energy.
Adafruit gave some serious attention to power management on the ESP32 Feather V2. First, the 3v3 rail to the STEMMA QT connector is controllable. Now it is much easier to turn off external sensors to save power. Even the mini NeoPixel LED has a controllable power pin. Second, Adafruit profiled power usage with a Nordic Power Profile Kit. The light sleep current consumption at only 1.2 milliamps and deep sleep down to 70 microamps!
ESP32 pin numbers assignments for the serial protocols have changed. Physically I2C, SPI, and UART are all in the same place on the Feather form factor. However, in software, the pins are now different. Changing the board/processor type should be enough to keep code compatibility if you're using consts in your code.
While we think the updates to the venerable ESP32 Feather are impressive on their own, even more so is the price for the new board is the same at $19.95! Learn more about Adafruit's ESP32 Feather V2 on its product page.