Sfera Labs Launches Multi-Function Exo Sense RP Environmental Sensor with Raspberry Pi RP2040 Inside
Designed to work around ongoing stock shortages, the new Exo Sense RP swaps the CM4 out for a custom-built RP2040 SOM.
Sfera Labs has launched a new version of its Exo Sense environmental sensor system, using the low-cost Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller in place of the still hard-to-source Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 of its Exo Sense Pi design — and it's calling the latest model the Exo Sense RP.
"Exo Sense RP is a multi-sensor module with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller core and a wide range of environmental sensors and input/output lines," the company explains of its new module, brought to our attention by CNX Software. "Ready for residential and commercial applications such as environmental monitoring and data logging, people and assets tracking, rooms management, access control and much more."
The design of the board, which is housed in a wall-mountable case designed for indoor use, mimics that of the company's earlier Exo Sense Pi but no longer requires a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 — a welcome shift for those who are still struggling to find the systems-on-module in-stock at the manufacturer's recommended pricing.
The RP2040 version includes all the same sensing capabilities of its predecessor: Temperature, humidity, volatile organic compound (VOC)-based air quality, light intensity, an on-board microphone, and a passive infrared motion sensor. There are also the same user-controllable LED and piezoelectric buzzer outputs, the same battery-backed real-time clock (RTC), the same RS-485 bus, and the same Microchip ATECC608 secure element — plus an optional earthquake sensor module, available on request.
There's a reason for the similarity: The Exo Sense RP is effectively identical to the Exo Sense Pi. Rather than design a wholly new board, what Sfera Labs has done is design a new system-on-module that sits in place of the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4. Dubbed the RP2040CM, the board simply attaches to the Exo Sense carrier where the CM4 would otherwise sit. There's a bonus feature there, too: An Exo Sense RP can be upgraded to an Exo Sense Pi at a later date by simply swapping the RP2040CM out for a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4.
There are, of course, concessions made in the shift away from the considerably more powerful Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4: There's no Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connectivity, for starters, and the RP2040's processor and memory constraints mean that it's considerably more challenging to run edge-AI workloads.
The Exo Sense RP is available to order from the Sfera Labs website now at €230 plus tax (around $244) — making it only marginally cheaper than the Exo Sense Pi with bundled Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4, but with the advantage of ready availability in volume.
The company has also released project examples written for MicroPython, the Arduino IDE, and the official Raspberry Pi RP2040 C/C++ software development kit (SDK), all published to GitHub under the GNU Lesser General Public License 2.1.