Seeed Studio Brings Wired Ethernet to the XIAO Range with the XIAO W5500 Ethernet Adapter

Seeed Studio has announced a new entry in its XIAO family, the XIAO W5500 Ethernet Adapter — which, despite its name, is a fully standalone development board that combines wired networking and Power over Ethernet (PoE) capabilities to the company's XIAO ESP32S3 Plus.

"Through the feedback that we got from the community, we found that the need for a stable network connection for reliable data transmission still remains a key challenge in many IoT [Internet of Things] applications: while wireless networks are commonly used, they often struggle with instability and latency issues," explains Seeed's Liora Chen. "With an integrated, isolated MQ7813T120 based-PoE module and TPS563201-based power conversion, [the XIAO W5500 Ethernet Adapter] addresses both the power and network connectivity challenges, ensuring stable and uninterrupted data transmission."

The "adapter" is designed as a carrier board for the existing thumb-sized XIAO ESP32S3 Plus development board, giving it an Espressif ESP32-S3R8 wireless microcontroller with a pair of Tensilica Xtensa LX7 cores running at up to 240MHz, 8MB of pseudo-static RAM, and 16MB of flash storage — up from 8MB on the non-Plus variant. The module's single-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5.0 Low Energy (BLE) radios are still fully functional, but stand alongside a new connectivity option: a WIZnet W5500 Fast Ethernet transceiver.

For power, the new board accepts Power over Ethernet (PoE) with no additional hardware required — meaning it's possible to both connect the gadget to a wired Ethernet network and power it with a single cable. Finally, Seeed has designed a 3D-printed enclosure for the development board, providing external access to the reset button, user-addressable and power LEDs, the Ethernet port, the USB Type-C port, and a connector for a bundled external antenna.

The XIAO W5500 Ethernet Adapter is available on the Seeed Studio store, priced at $19.90 before volume discounts.