MXCHIP EMW3162 is a $10 Low Power Wi-Fi Module for IoT Applications

You can’t beat ESP8266 Wi-Fi modules on price to add Wi-Fi to your IoT projects, but Hackaday found a new Wi-Fi module by Shanghai MXCHIP Information Technology that sells for $10 on Seeed Studio or Amazon US, that should be better suited to battery operated project thanks to a lower power consumption. EMW3162 also features a more powerful STM32F205 cortex M3 micro-controller, as well as more I/Os than ESP8266.

Specifications for EMW3162 Wi-Fi module:

• MCU – STM32F2 Cortex M3 MCU @ 120 MHz with 128KB RAM, 1MB flashOn
• Wi-Fi connectivity
  • 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n (single stream) on channel 1-14 @ 2.4GHz
  • WEP, WPA/WPA2 PSK/Enterprise (hardware encryption)
  • Transmit power: 18.5dBm@11b; 15.5dBm@11g; 14.5dBm@11n
  • MIN Receiver Sensitivity: -96 dBm
  • Max Data rate: 11Mbps@11b; 54Mbps@11g; 72Mbps@11n HT20
  • Wi-Fi modes: Station, Soft AP and Wi-Fi direct
  • Advanced 1×1 802.11n features: Full/Half Guard Interval, Frame Aggregation, Space Time Block Coding (STBC), Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) Encoding
  • WPS 2.0, EasyLink
  • Multiple power save modes
  • On-board chip antenna, IPEX connector for external antenna
• Peripherals accessible via 30x through holes and 14 solder pads:
  • 32x GPIOs
  • 2x UARTs with hardware flow control
  • 1 x I2C, 1x SPI/I2S
  • 8x ADC input channels, 2x DAC output channel
  • 1 x USB OTG
  • 2 x CAN
  • PWM/Timer input/output available on every GPIO pin
  • SWD debug interface
• Misc – 2x user LEDs
• Single operation voltage – 3.3V
• Power consumption:
  • ~7mA while module is connected to access point and no data is transmitting,
  • ~24 mA while sending data under 20kbps
  • 8μA under standby mode.
• Dimensions – 38.60 x 23.62 mm
• Compliance – CE,  FCC
• Operating Temperature – -40°C to 85°C
• Moisture Sensitivity Level (MSL) – Level 3

You can get the full details in EMW3162 datasheets. The module can be programmed with Broadcom’s WICED firmware development kit (See github), or the company’s MICO (Mico-controller based Internet Connectivity Operation System) that relies on IAR Workbench.

Since the module is said to require a single 3.3V power input it should not be too difficult to power it by yourself, but if you want an easier platform for evaluation, EMB-380-S2 development board is sold on Seeed Studio for $21 without the module. Both can also be found on Aliexpress but prices are quire higher, at least for now.

Visit MXCHIP EMW3162 product page for a few more details about their embedded Wi-Fi module.

Thanks to Freire for the tip.

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