Seon Rozenblum Refreshes His ESP32-S3 Board Range, Unveils the Antenna-Hopping Series [D]

Seon Rozenblum, also known as Unexpected Maker, has refreshed his range of Espressif ESP32-powered development boards, launching the Series [D] — complete with new M.2-format EdgeS3[D] for modular designs.

"[They are] the boards you already know and love," Rozenblum says of the new EdgeS3[D], TinyS3[D], FeatherS3[D], and ProS3[D], "but re-invented to incorporate both onboard and external antenna options into a single board, with user controlled (via code) RF [Radio-Frequency] switch to select the antenna output for each project. All Series [D] boards [also] come with an I2C Fuel Gauge for battery monitoring, with its interrupt pin connected to an RTC-IO [Real-Time Clock Input/Output pin], allowing for low battery voltage alerts to wake the [Espressif] ESP32-S3 from deep sleep."

The new boards, brought to our attention by CNX Software, refresh Rozenblum's earlier range, retaining the same ESP32-S3 microcontroller as before and coming in the same breadboard-compatible footprints: the TinyS3[D] at the smallest end of the range, the FeatherS3[D] having the same footprint as an Adafruit Feather board, and the ProS3[D] the largest and the only model to boast castellated pin headers for easy installation as a surface-mount module.

It's not a complete refresh, however: the FeatherS3 Neo, which includes an on-board RGB LED matrix, has not yet been brought across to the Series [D], and neither has the NanoS3 or surface-mount OMGS3. Instead, Rozenblum has designed an entirely new form-factor: the EdgeS3[D], a microcontroller module based on an M.2 B-key edge connector and designed to make it easy to integrate into custom carrier boards — with the supposition that Rozenblum may release other models in the future that would retain pin compatibility, making upgrades a cinch.

All models are built around the Espressif ESP32-S3, one of the company's last chips to feature two 32-bit Tensilica Xtensa LX7 cores running at up to 240MHz and a RISC-V ultra-low-power coprocessor. There's single-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 5 Low Energy (BLE) with Bluetooth Mesh support integrated, now with the option of using an on-board antenna or an optional external antenna. Flash and memory vary by model: the EdgeS3[D] comes with 2MB of pseudo-static RAM (PSRAM) with an 8MB variant penciled in for the future, both with 8MB of flash; the TinyS3[D] with 8MB PSRAM and 8MB flash; the Feather S3[D] and ProS3[D] both come with the same 8MB of PSRAM but 16MB of flash.

More information is available on the Unexpected Maker ESP32-S3 website, with boards listed on the Unexpected Maker Shop starting at $19 for the EdgeS3[D] without carrier board.