MuseLab Launches the $3.50 nanoCH57x, Building on WCH Electronics' CH570D RISC-V Part
Upgraded CH572D-based variant with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) support promised for some time in the future.
Update (07/03/2025): Reader Leon Heller has been in touch to say that MuseLab has already begun shipping the WCH CH572D-based variant of its nanoCH57x development board family, complete with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) support.
Original article continues below.
Chinese embedded and hobbyist electronics specialist MuseLab has launched a new, sub-$4 board built around the WCH Electronics CH570D RISC-V wireless microcontroller — and promises an updated version with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) support to follow.
"nanoCH57x is a development board based on [the] WCH CH572/CH570 launched by MuseLab," the company explains of its latest design. "The chip has a maximum main frequency of 100MHz, supports Bluetooth BLE and 2.4GHz communication, and can be downloaded and burned through the USB port, which is convenient for customers to conduct rapid prototype verification and development."
The currently-shipping board, brought to our attention by CNX Software, doesn't quite fulfil that promise, though: MuseLab warns that its current stock uses WCH's CH570D chip and won't switch to the CH572D until some time in the future. The difference between the two: the absence of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity on the CH570D.
With either chip on board the compact PCB offers a single-core 32-bit RISC-V microcontroller running at up to 100MHz from an on-board 32MHz oscillator, with 12kB of static RAM (SRAM) and 256kB of flash storage of which 240kB is available for programs. A USB Type-C port at one end supports power, programming, and USB 2.0 Full Speed Host and Device operation, with the microcontroller's general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins brought out to breadboard-friendly 0.1" pin headers. There's a PCB antenna for proprietary 2.4GHz connectivity, which will also be used for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) when production shifts to the CH572D chip.
The nanoCH570 is now available on the MuseLab Tindie store at $3.50, with no word yet on pricing and availability for the nanoCH572 variant; the company has published a schematic and compiled firmware on GitHub under an unspecified license.