Seeed Studio's Tiny XIAO Dev Board Family Goes Dual-Band, with the New Wi-Fi 6 XIAO ESP32-C5
Built around Espressif's ESP32-C5, the new board also includes Bluetooth 5 Low Energy (BLE) and Zigbee/Thread radios.
Seeed Studio has launched another new entry in its growing XIAO family of tiny development boards — and it's the first to boast dual-band 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi 6 connectivity, alongside Bluetooth 5 Low Energy (BLE) and IEEE 802.15.4 with Zigbee and Thread support, thanks to an Espressif ESP32-C5 at its heart.
"The Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-C5 [is] a thumb-sized development board that brings modern dual-band Wi-Fi connectivity to the XIAO ecosystem," says Seeed's Josie Wu of the company's latest development board design. "Powered by Espressif's ESP32-C5 chip, it supports both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi 6 in an ultra-compact form factor, making reliable wireless connectivity achievable for real-world IoT [Internet of Things] applications."
There are no surprises with the board's design, entering as it does into the well-established XIAO ecosystem: the bulk of the general-purpose input/output (GPIO) pins are brought out to castellated headers at either side, suitable for surface-mounting as a module or soldering pins for use with a breadboard, and there's a USB Type-C connector at the top for data and power with new enlarged reset and boot-selection buttons at the bottom. There's also a connector for an external antenna, which is linked to the Espressif ESP32-C5's multi-feature radio module.
This offers, for the first time in a XIAO board, both 2.4GHz and 5GHz Wi-Fi connectivity, plus Bluetooth 5 Low Energy (BLE) and IEEE 802.15.4 with Zigbee and Thread support — meaning that the board can also be used in Matter-compatible smart home projects. There's a single-core 32-bit RISC-V processor running at up to 240MHz plus a secondary low-power core running at up to 48MHz, 384kB of static RAM (SRAM), 320kB of flash, and 8MB of pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM) plus 8MB of off-chip flash.
The XIAO ESP32-C5 is now available to order on the Seeed Studio store for $6.90, with a limit of five per customer; shipping is expected to start in late February.