LilyGO TTGO T-Lite W5500 Packs an ESP32 and OLED, with Optional Wired Ethernet, in a Tiny Footprint

Designed for ultra-compact projects, the new T-Lite W5500 packs a lot of power into a very small footprint — including wired Ethernet.

LilyGO, fresh from launching its upgraded TTGO T-Watch-2020 ESP32-powered hacker-friendly smartwatch, has released an ultra-compact development board built around the same microcontroller and boasting an on-board OLED display panel and optional wired Ethernet accessory.

Brought to our attention by CNX Software, the LilyGO TTGO T-Lite W5500 is designed to pack a great deal of functionality into a small space. Built around Espressif's ESP32 system-on-chip, meaning it includes 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 5.0 and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity as standard, the board has a footprint of just 29.5x23.8mm (around 1.16x0.94").

Despite this, it includes a USB Type-C port for power and programming, a total of 14 breadboard-friendly 2.54mm pin headers offering regulated 5V and 3.3V supplies, general-purpose input/output (GPIO), analog to digital conversion (ADC), SPI, and touch interfaces. There's even room, on the board's flipside, for a 0.96" OLED display panel, built around the SSD1306 driver.

While primarily designed for wireless connectivity, using an on-board chip antenna or optional external antenna, the T-Lite W5500 has an optional accessory in the form of a wired Ethernet connection — built onto a daughterboard not much larger than the Ethernet jack itself.

The boards are now available from LilyGO's official AliExpress outlet, priced at $9.43 for the microcontroller module and $4.93 for the Ethernet daughterboard.

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