Does it run Linux?
why would you do that? (unless for the fun of it)
Imagine installing Claude Code in it with full root access. Just by asking a few things, you can have a semi-broken ESP32 doing stuff.
ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI
81–90 of 151 posts
Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI
#82I believe this is the first ESP to gain Ethernet capability? I totally wish that a board would come with PoE… Because as it is right now, powering a fleet of those with USB power supplies is annoying as fsck…
Nah, ESP32's have had ethernet capability for a while and ESP-IDF supports it well. I've been using one I built for 5+ years now. Unfortunately RMII (ethernet phy) interface takes up a lot of the GPIO pins. This part looks like it'll remedy that issue. There's two ESP32 boards that have been around for a while with PoE: - https://www.tme.com/us/en-us/details/esp32-poe/development-k... - https://wesp32.com/ I'm more h…
> I'm more hopeful for single-pair ethernet to gain momentum though!
I keep looking for a reasonably priced 10baseT to 10Base-T1L bridge... everything commercial seems too expensive (for me) and the two hobby designs [1] [2] I've seen are not orderable :(
But I'm seeing more commercial options lately, so that's hopeful.
Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
This would be great indeed. On that note, why does the PoE capability often add such a big proportion of the price of various items? Is the technology really costly for some reason, or is it just more there's fairly low demand and people are still willing to pay?
PoE power supplies need to be isolated (except in rare exceptions) and handle much higher voltages than common USB-C or wall wart power supplies. They have to use a transformer and a more complex control strategy, not a simple buck regulator with an inductor. PoE inputs need to tolerate voltages several times higher than the highest USB-C voltages, so more expensive parts are used everywhere.
Any Ethernet (well, any RJ45 you expect in a home/office) has to have at least 1500V isolation from the RJ45 wire to anything metal that can be touched or is a connector on the device.
A PoE-only device with no electrical connectors besides the RJ45 can just use a very cheap RJ45 port with integrated magnetics and PoE allowance (tiny bit bigger wires and a center pin exposed, less than 50ct more than the cheapest RJ45 with integrated magnetics) and a cheap buck from 40~80V to e.g. 5V.
Oh, and a cheap bridge rectifier and some signaling resistors to take care of input polarity and signal to the source that we in fact want the approximately 50V that could hurt a device not made for it.
Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI
#84The ESP32 boards I own have bad support and are a bit of a hit and miss. (arduino nano esp32) Did this get better? Or is the support still messy?
What do you mean by that? bad support for what?
Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI
#85Perfect timing. I just started planning to build a DIY smartwatch and was looking into the S3. Having native zigbee support could be nice.
Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI
#86How do Espressif’s RISC-V cores compare to existing ARM or RISC-V options in terms of power efficiency (computational power / electrical power)?
Without being hands on, it's difficult to make a direct comparison. There's 2 processors according to CNX [0], and the HP core's instruction set might roughly be comparable to M55.
[0] https://www.cnx-software.com/2026/03/24/esp32-s31-dual-core-...
Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI
#87I don't understand what possesses these folks to continue making 2.4ghz devices. I understand there are use cases for low bandwidth, high range. But surely we've passed the point where that is more desirable to most than lower latency and high throughput, right?
2.4 GHz has the advantage of it passing through obstacles easier. The higher the frequency the more easily it gets blocked.
Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s not like creating a chip gives you unfettered access to it. You _can_ add 0-day flaws and backdoors, but these can be discovered, leaked, etc. Has there been any case of such a backdoor built in consumer chips like theses? I’m not talking about CIA ops like snowden described, that’s supply chain interception. I mean, has anybody ever found such a backdoor?
Well, that depends on what you count as a backdoor, but Espressif has had some questionable flaws: - Early (ESP8622) MCUs had weak security, implementation flaws, and a host of issues that meant an attacker could hijack and maintain control of devices via OTA updates. - Their chosen way to implement these systems makes them more vulnerable. They explicitly reduce hardware footprint by moving functionality from hardwa…
Obviously... They are not made for safety critical systems. It's for hobbyists.
Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, if I just look at my house. There is just one ethernet outlet, but many power sockets. If I want to connect devices all over my house, the best way is to use wifi and usb power adapters. Not ethernet. Both solutions require 1 cable per device, but the first solution would require only short and thin cables, and the second solution would require very long cables which I don't know even how to do properly witho…
Yep. Mains electricity is ubiquitous, highly interoperable, very reliable, very high power available per drop, can be outdoor capable, common standards, understandable by users, requiring no active components, with many on-call experts available who can come to fix problems or extend/alter connectivity. Mains power wall plates with inbuilt USB power outlets are even available at quite small cost if the look of the bi…
On the other hand, _all_ the WiFi devices that I had at some point fell off the network, at least once. Including doorbells and cameras. While PoE devices just work.
Another point is that mains power in my area can go down periodically. My PoE switch is powered by a Li-Ion UPS and can provide power for about a day.
Re: ESP32-S31: Dual-Core RISC-V SoC with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4, and Advanced HMI
#90I don't understand what possesses these folks to continue making 2.4ghz devices. I understand there are use cases for low bandwidth, high range. But surely we've passed the point where that is more desirable to most than lower latency and high throughput, right?
> I understand there are use cases for low bandwidth, high range. Use cases like IoT? The very thing this is for?
Is what you described a truth for all IoT devices? If I have los of my AP, why do I need 2.4Ghz? Even so, what SNR do you truly need for this low bandwidth application? Where is the engineering here?
I have a unique position of having a data set over 8000 APs with 40k unique devices. If you design properly, there is no need for 2.4 ever. 2.4Ghz congestion (with nearly no actual 802.11 traffic) is very high. To the point where the IoT folks are struggling.