ESP32-S2-Saola-1 Development Board is Now Available for $8

Espressif ESP32-S2 WiFi SoC mass production started at the end of February 2020,  and soon enough we started to find ESP32-S2 SoC and modules for $1 to $2 on sites like Digikey, but so far we had not seen ESP32-S2 development boards for sale.

The good news is the breadboard-friendly ESP32-S2-Saola-1 development board has started to show up for $8 on resellers such as Mouser and Digikey albeit with a lead time of 8 to 12 weeks.

ESP32-S2-Saola-1 specifications:

• Supported modules – ESP32-S2-WROOM(-I) & ESP32-S2-WROVER(-I) with 4 MB SPI flash and for ESP32-S2-WROVER modules only, 2 MB PSRAM
• USB – 1x Micro USB port for power and programming / debugging via USB-to-UART bridge
• Expansion – 2x 20-pin I/O headers with SPI, I2S, UART, I2C, touch sensors, PWM, etc…
• Misc – Boot and reset buttons, RGB LED, 3.3V power on LED
• Power Supply (3 methods)
  • 5V via Micro USB port (default)
  • 5V and GND header pins
  • 3V3 and GND header pins
• Dimensions & Weight – TBD

Espressif ESP32-S2 supports ESP-IDF master or version v4.2 and higher. You’ll find information to get started with ESP32-S2-Saola-1 board and hardware documentation (e.g. schematics) in Espressif’s Documentation website.

I’d expect the price to come down closer to $5 over time, and eventually, many third-party boards will be offered on Chinese resellers like Banggood or Aliexpress. If you want to make use of ESP32-S2 LCD and camera interfaces, it might be good to wait a little longer for the launch of ESP32-S2-Kaluga-1 “Multimedia” development board.

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