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The Nano ESP32

blog.arduino.cc

21–30 of 142 posts

Re: The Nano ESP32

#21
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you expand a bit on the value for the money? This board is $21 with headers... I've seen a ton of esp32 boards for much less. What do you think makes this board worth the extra cost?

It has Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and an IMU built in which is very useful for a robotics project I'm currently working on. Plus it has a huge amount of RAM and flash compared to an ATMEGA Arduino

[deleted]

Re: The Nano ESP32

#22
post #2

The price of these aren't quite as egregious as the incredibly dated ATMEGA8-based Arduino Unos, but these still aren't really priced competitively to other offerings on the market. This is even considering other ESP32-S3 boards.

there are new 2022-23 cell phones available for $50-70, including the cameras, battery, display, case, gps, DAC, usb, radio, accel ...

why aren't we seeing feature-rich dev boards based on the same platforms ?

Re: The Nano ESP32

#23
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the difference?

The OG ESP32 and successors esp32-S2 and ESP32-S3 use an ISA from company Tensilica called Xtensa LX6 (LX7 for the S3). The ESP32 C and H series use RISC-V. Xtensa is pretty well supported by compilers at this point, but RISC-V is on the rise and will have better support going forward. At this point in time, the S3 is the speediest ESP32 and is well supported, so it probably doesn't make a big difference. ISA: https:…

What are the non-Espressif targets for an Xtensa compiler? Could be there's some other fun embedded chips to use with it

Re: The Nano ESP32

#24
post #22
post #2

The price of these aren't quite as egregious as the incredibly dated ATMEGA8-based Arduino Unos, but these still aren't really priced competitively to other offerings on the market. This is even considering other ESP32-S3 boards.

there are new 2022-23 cell phones available for $50-70, including the cameras, battery, display, case, gps, DAC, usb, radio, accel ... why aren't we seeing feature-rich dev boards based on the same platforms ?

Profit = number of units sold * (sale price - cost to build unit) - upfront costs

Number of units sold has to be enormous to make a profit on low margin items.

Re: The Nano ESP32

#25
post #19
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OG ESP32 and successors esp32-S2 and ESP32-S3 use an ISA from company Tensilica called Xtensa LX6 (LX7 for the S3). The ESP32 C and H series use RISC-V. Xtensa is pretty well supported by compilers at this point, but RISC-V is on the rise and will have better support going forward. At this point in time, the S3 is the speediest ESP32 and is well supported, so it probably doesn't make a big difference. ISA: https:…

It's not just this, but also that Espressif CEO's expressed their desire to focus on RISC-V[0]. Thus, a new Arduino platform is being created out of a deprecated family of MCUs, the Tensilica-based ESP32s. 0. https://www.eenewseurope.com/en/espressif-moves-exclusively-...

The move when using the IDF is quite smooth though.

Re: The Nano ESP32

#26
I struggle to understand the appeal of these more premium ESP32 boards. I’m gonna throw the same code on it. It’s an ESP32 either way. What exactly am I buying here for that 3x price

Re: The Nano ESP32

#28
post #26

I struggle to understand the appeal of these more premium ESP32 boards. I’m gonna throw the same code on it. It’s an ESP32 either way. What exactly am I buying here for that 3x price

Just for prototyping ease tbh.

You would always make a custom board for an actual mass appeal product. If it's not a mass made product why do you care? Pick the easiest one regardless of cost.

This is essentially a dev kit. With the ability to easily mess with it. You don't care about the cost here because it's not really an expense when amortized.

Re: The Nano ESP32

#29
What you get when you pick a board is not just the raw specs, but also the community, apis, and documentation. I choose to buy Adafruit products because I know they will be documented and supported for a long time.
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