LILYGO Launches Dual-USB ESP32-S2 T-Dongle Dev Board with Full-Color Display On-Board
With two USB ports, a compact display, and a single-core Xtensa LX7 core, this compact dev board offers an unusual mix of features.
Chinese embedded electronics specialist LILYGO has launched another development board, but this one one comes with a somewhat unusual feature: a second USB port, found on the reverse side to a compact 1.14" full-color IPS display.
Following the launch of its sub-$8 T-Zigbee board a week ago, built around the RISC-V-powered ESP32-C3 system-on-chip and a Telink TLSR8258 multi-protocol radio controller, LILYGO has launched another compact development board — but the T-Dongle concentrates on expanded USB connectivity, rather than sub-gigahertz wireless.
The company's latest development board, brought to our attention by CNX Software, comes with an ESP32-S2 microcontroller on board — an older model, from before Espressif announced it would be moving the ESP32 range to RISC-V exclusivity in all future models. As a result, the part features a single 32-buit Xtensa LX7 processing core running at up to 240MHz, though this stands alongside a RISC-V ultra-low power coprocessor located in the chip's real-time clock (RTC) block.
The board also includes 320kB of static RAM (SRAM), 128kB of flash, and Wi-Fi 4 connectivity with an on-board antenna and IPEX connector for an external. Additional storage is available on a microSD slot, while hardware expansion is offered by a single Grove connector. Additionally, the board offers a 1.14" 240×135 full-color IPS LCD panel to the front, for on-board display functionality — but with no user-addressable buttons, you'll need external hardware to make it interactive
What makes the T-Dongle interesting, and what gives it its name, is its USB conectivity. The primary USB port is a Type-A Male — allowing the device to be inserted into a host computer or USB power supply directly, with no intervening cable, for data and power. That's only half the story, however: The board also includes a Type-A Female USB On-The-Go (OTG) port, allowing it to act as a host itself — addressing external drives like flash storage, keyboards, or mice.
The LILYGO T-Dongle is now available to order from the company's AliExpress store at $12.69 per unit; it has not yet appeared on the company's Tindie store, nor has the company released any English documentation or code samples.