New HM hardware platform?

[Steve_M]

Wio Terminal: ATSAMD51 Core with Realtek RTL8720DN BLE 5.0 & Wi-Fi 2.4G/5G Dev Board with Free Course

Wio Terminal is an Microchip ATSAMD51-based microcontroller with both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi Wireless connectivity powered by Realtek RTL8720DN, compatible with Arduino and MicroPython.

www.seeedstudio.com

Just picked up one of these for playing around with Arduino and CircuitPython.

It's probably not great for outdoor use, but it has:

Raspberry Pi 40-pin Compatible header
9 x ADC inputs at 12 bits resolution
2.4" LCD
2.4Ghz + 5Ghz WiFI
5 way joystick button
3 individual buttons
3 axis accelerometer - attach it to your bbq lid handle for true lid open detection
piezo buzzer

And it's a whopping $30 USD, which is absolutely mind boggling!

 

[Bryan Mayland]

AND it has an infrared emitter too so you can use it to light your grill if you overclock it!

It seems like it only has 192KB of RAM total which would make it hard to run all the services we run on the Pi while also maintaining a streaming HTTP connection to multiple clients. The bigger thing obviously being it would be close to a 100% rewrite of everything from UI to backend services to controller. It is a pretty cool little device though in a nice package compared to an ESP8266 and the same LCD.

 

[Steve_M]

Yeah, I posted that in jest. Mostly it's a pretty neat device that lets you play around with a whole bunch of sensors without the need for a breadboard. I -may- end up getting another one to permanently replace my ESP8266 based espresso controller since it's got such a nice polished look to it.

 

[Bryan Mayland]

haha I'm sorry I missed the joke. I used to get emails from people who wanted me to port everything over to [insert Chinese one-off brand]Pi every so often, I think usually trying to find a use for a regretful purchase. Why did I spend $75 on a ShroopleberryPi because it had 4GB of RAM and a SATA header? Well, maybe I can convince someone to port something to it before the manufacturer stops making them next month!

I do dig on the compact concept, as someone who has at least 10 proto boards bristling with wires sticking out of them and if a wire fell out I've long forgotten how it was hooked up originally or what the name of the software I wrote to run on it is called.