Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

espressif.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 112 posts

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#51

Post by spacemanmatt »

jdc wrote: post #48
audunw wrote: post #38

I really wish Thread mesh networking would become standard on new Wi-Fi routers. Google Nest has hardware support for it, but not sure if it's enabled yet. I think Thread is a much better fit for IP connectivity for IoT devices. Nordic Semiconductor nRF SoCs can do Bluetooth LE and Thread on the same radio at the same time, so should be very cost effective. I'd gladly replace all my Zigbee devices with Thread ones if…

If Wi-Fi routers implemented 802.15.4 we should be able to run 6LoWPAN + Thread/CHIP etc or Zigbee on the same hardware.

The prospect of having a good wifi AP that supports the low-power bands/protocols is really exciting to me!

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#52

Post by g_p »

lostlogin wrote: post #44
sam_bristow wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One downside of using wifi if that devices like phones really don't like network connections that don't route to the internet. You sometimes have to fight them to stop the phone "helpfully" falling back to 4G or popping up all sorts of warnings about degraded networking to the user. [edit]: This is assuming you are connecting directly to the device of course. Connecting the ESP32 to your existing wifi is well support…

Any idea how this works? Are they trying to connect to a particular address?

Yes, phones request a particular (plain http) URL from Google or Apple, which returns a 204 response. If they don't get a response, the network is assumed to have a connectivity issue. If they get redirected due to captive portal, they detect that and can prompt the user to log in.

https://github.com/leoleozhu/android-captive-portal

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#53

Post by numpad0 »

neltnerb wrote: post #19
vk6flab wrote: post #12

For a new project we've been looking at the ESP32 range - great functionality - but we're more than a little concerned about being reliant on a single company (Expressif) and manufacturer (TSMC). Are there other SoC solutions with multiple companies and manufacturers with similar functionality?

From what I've seen the Qualcomm chips are really great but impossible to buy if you're a normal human, the ST chips are pretty solid and have a configuration tool that works well in Linux and their -WB versions support wireless and bluetooth but use more power than the Qualcomm chips. Then there's microchip (owner of atmel) which has a wifi integrated chip, but it was really hard to get to work. ESP32 was also super…

I don’t understand why this is downvoted gray. “We’d like to dual source a Wi-Fi SoC product” — fine, just build two completely different hardware and software to go with, with matching aesthetics and features.

There’s no way around it, there’s usually no pin-compatible alternatives in embedded like there are for Core i7 and Core i3. That only works in consumer PC.

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#54

Post by g_p »

sekh60 wrote: post #45
pfyra wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have tried fighting this a couple of times but lost every time. Do you know a solution to make my Android phone keep the connection to a wifi without internet connection?

I lack a solution but would like to commiserate. We had some config errors on one of our VLANs, where DNS want reachable. The phones helpfully would just say no internet access and then bounce to 4g without any other sorry of error. What I would give to be able to just SSH into all these consumer services and just grep through the logs.

See https://github.com/leoleozhu/android-captive-portal and https://success.tanaza.com/s/article/How-Automatic-Detection...

If you could return valid internal DNS entries for these domains, and serve up a 204 to the right requests, you should be able to stay online.

You need to ensure you don't do it for every possible domain - I believe Chrome also tests random non-existent domains too, to ensure it gets back the expected error.

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#55

Post by robert_foss »

Kliment wrote: post #33
qalmakka wrote: post #26

Why didn't they pack more ram on this? 400K is a bit tight, we often hit the ceiling with the ESP32's 512K of internal RAM. Does anyone know if they support SPI-connected external RAM on this? It has been a lifesaver on the ESP32, especially since WROVER-E fixed most of the long standing bugs that were plaguing the earlier revisions. It is slow as hell, but having 4MB (+4MB high memory) of connected RAM on a microcon…

Have you seen the die images of the ESP32? Basically the entire die area is SRAM. SRAM eats a ton of space, and with a bigger die area you have a much higher likelihood per part that you will have a defect and have to scrap the entire chip.

More SRAM will increase the price both in terms of die area and in terms of defects.

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#56

Post by robert_foss »

ksec wrote: post #29
eaurouge wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cortex-M. Lots of Bluetooth LE solutions. WiFi getting there - Nordic is working on a solution here as well.

Are the tools and software from Nordic better?

The Nordic SDKs are my favorite embedded ones by far. It's so good relative to the competition, that I will go out of my way to use their chips.

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#58

Post by fy20 »

audunw wrote: post #38

I really wish Thread mesh networking would become standard on new Wi-Fi routers. Google Nest has hardware support for it, but not sure if it's enabled yet. I think Thread is a much better fit for IP connectivity for IoT devices. Nordic Semiconductor nRF SoCs can do Bluetooth LE and Thread on the same radio at the same time, so should be very cost effective. I'd gladly replace all my Zigbee devices with Thread ones if…

Is Thread still happening? Last time I checked the only hub available was Nest, although Apple hardware has support but it's not enabled in software. Other than a couple of niche home automation products, nothing supports it. When will I be able to buy smart light bulbs for $10 that use Thread?

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#59

Post by pfyra »

g_p wrote: post #54
sekh60 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I lack a solution but would like to commiserate. We had some config errors on one of our VLANs, where DNS want reachable. The phones helpfully would just say no internet access and then bounce to 4g without any other sorry of error. What I would give to be able to just SSH into all these consumer services and just grep through the logs.

See https://github.com/leoleozhu/android-captive-portal and https://success.tanaza.com/s/article/How-Automatic-Detection... If you could return valid internal DNS entries for these domains, and serve up a 204 to the right requests, you should be able to stay online. You need to ensure you don't do it for every possible domain - I believe Chrome also tests random non-existent domains too, to ensure it gets back the ex…

I have a "captive" or "promiscuous" dns server (it responds with its own IP for all requests) for my esp projects so this info is exactly what I need. Thanks a lot!

Re: ESP32-C6, a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 (LE) SoC

#60

Post by meltedcapacitor »

pjmlp wrote: post #36
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially since the multi-thread OS means wasting space for multiple stacks. 400k is a lot for an MCU, but for the ESP32 its really not that much. A 1MB Sram version would be great, with two cores.

Why use the OS then? Just do bare metal runtime like we used to do on MS-DOS days.

What about botnet operators? This would give them a hard time if they have to hack each device specifically instead of recycling old linux vulnerabilities wholesale. The whole IoT industry is strongly committed to make devices available to botnet operators, indeed this looks like the main function, the function on the packaging usually works poorly and is likely just there to convince punters to install the botnet relays and pay for the hardware and power.

:-)

Post reply on HN