Web of Issues (IoT) units have a variety of energy necessities. For instance, they may want to reap vitality from a photo voltaic panel whereas utilizing as little energy as attainable, or they could want to regulate high-power hundreds. Italian engineer Salvatore Raccardi of OBJEX addresses these wants with the OBJEX Hyperlink S3LW IoT growth board. This machine options an OBJEX-developed S3LW module able to speaking with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5, LoRa, and LoRaWAN protocols. It additionally strongly focuses on environment friendly energy utilization.
The OBJEX Hyperlink S3LW is a extremely featured IoT growth board primarily based on a customized System-on-Module (SoM). The S3LW module gives Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5, LoRa, and LoRaWAN connectivity. The event board has 33 GPIOs and helps typical microcontroller interfaces like I2C, I2S, SPI, UART, and USB. A STEMMA 4-pin connector provides the board entry to an ever-expanding ecosystem of sensors, actuators, and shows.
Word: A number of years in the past, Raccardi developed the OBJEX Hyperlink. That product has a reputation just like this new board however with a number of variations. For instance, it makes use of an ESP32-PICO-D4 microcontroller as an alternative of a customized SoM however has no LoRa functionality. Additionally, its focus was on being the smallest reusable board for IoT functions and a full-featured growth board.
ELPM-S3LW modules (📷: OBJEX)
OBJEX presents the S3 and S3LW modules. The S3LW is a full-featured module with an ESP32-S3FN8 microcontroller, RTC, SX1262, and power-related circuits. The ESP32 gives Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functionality, whereas the S3 permits compatibility with LoRa and LoRaWAN. The S3 module doesn’t include LoRa {hardware} however has the opposite blocks discovered within the S3LW.
S3LW block diagram (S3 doesn’t have LoRa) (📷: OBJEX)
The OBJEX Hyperlink S3LW demonstrates the steps OBJEX took to attain excessive energy financial savings with their customized module. First, the LoRa radio has a devoted linear regulator, permitting you to energy down the radio fully when LoRa operation will not be wanted. Subsequent, there’s a energy latch that fully disables the remainder of the module’s {hardware}. That latch doesn’t exchange the deep sleep modes of the ESP32 however enhances them.
ELPM-S3 on a Hyperlink board, chip antenna at prime (📷: OBJEX)
Because the S3LW has two radios that function at totally different frequencies, there are two antenna paths. The ESP32 connects to a chip-style antenna for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth’s 2.4 GHz bands. The S3LW has a 50 ohm U.Fl connector for an exterior LoRA antenna. That radio operates within the 862 MHz to 928 MHz band.
Energy for the OBJEX Hyperlink S3LW can come from the USB-C Energy Supply (PD) succesful port or a screw terminal block linked to the identical Vbus because the USB-C connector. With PD, the board can entry 20 volts at 5 amps. An onboard DC-DC converter bucks down to five volts and gives as much as 2 amps to linked peripherals.
The board (and SoM) are suitable with numerous programming environments, making it appropriate for nearly any growth workflow. For instance, it helps the Espressif ESP-IDF, Arduino IDE, PlatformIO, MicroPython, and Rust.
OBJEX Hyperlink S3LW, back and front (📷: OBJEX)
OBJEX says the event board and ELPM modules are open supply. They’ll make the design recordsdata accessible sooner or later. For extra data, together with hyperlinks to the preliminary datasheets, go to the OBJEX Hyperlink S3LW product web page. You possibly can join notifications there when the Crowd Provide pre-order marketing campaign goes stay.