Olimex's New MOD-ESP32-C6-DevKit-Lipo Is a Breadboard-Friendly IoT Gadget with Battery-Backed UPS
If you need your IoT project to keep ticking even when your mains supply is out, this tiny development board ticks that box.
Bulgarian open-hardware specialist Olimex has announced a new breadboard-friendly development board based around Espressif ESP32-C6 — and it's designed to keep ticking no matter what, thanks to integrated support for a lithium-polymer battery as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).
"The ESP32-C6-Devkit-Lipo is a evaluation board built around the ESP32-C6-MINI-1-N4 module from Espressif with 4MB Flash and 512KB RAM," Olimex founder Tsvetan Usunov explains of his company's latest board, "designed to bring Wi-Fi 6 wireless connectivity, ample memory, and robust control features into one compact, breadboard friendly versatile package."
The heart of the compact board is the Espressif ESP32-C6-MINI-1-N4 module, which features a single 32-bit RISC-V core running at up to 160MHz, 512kB of static RAM (SRAM), and 4MB of flash storage. Its 18 general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins are brought out to a pair of 0.1" headers, designed for easy insertion into standard solderless breadboards, while there are two USB Type-C connectors — one providing programming and debugging support with automated handshake and the other dedicated to JTAG debugging.
The ESP32-C6 module includes single-band Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 Low Energy (BLE), and IEEE 802.15.4 radios, the latter compatible with Zigbee, Thread, and Matter standards, with a PCB antenna. A UEXT solderless expansion connector dominates the top of the board, just above a user-definable button, while a smaller connector allows it to be linked to an optional lithium-polymer battery that can act as the sole power source or as an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) to keep the microcontroller running even when USB or pin-provided power is lost.
The new board is now available on the Olimex store at €8.95, while design files are available on GitHub under the strongly reciprocal version of the CERN Open Hardware License Version 2.