TTGO ESP32-S2 WiFi IoT Board Comes with Optional MicroSD Card and Battery Support

All ESP32-S2 boards I’ve seen so far were from Espressif Systems themselves including ESP32-S2-Saola-1 and ESP32-S2-Kaluga-1, but LilyGO TTGO ESP32-S2 is the first third-party board for sale so far.

The tiny board is somewhat similar to ESP32-S2-Saola-1 board and comes in two versions with a similar form factor, but a completely different pinout and the presence of a MicroSD card socket and a battery connector on one of the boards.

The simpler board is called “ESP32-S2 ESP32-S-WOOR” and comes with ESP32-S2-WROOM module, while the one with more features is named “TTGO ESP32-S2 ESP32-S ” and features its own circuitry built around ESP32-S2 WiSoC. Both TTGO ESP32-S2 boards share many of the same specifications:

• SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S2 single-core 32-bit Tensilica LX7 processor with 320 kB SRAM, 128 kB ROM,
• System Memory – 8MB PSRAM
• Storage – 4MB flash; XY-ESP32-S only: MicroSD card socket
• Connectivity
  • 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFi 4 connectivity
  • Antenna
    • XY-ESP32-S-WOOR: PCB antenna on module
    • XY-ESP32-S: “3D” antenna
• USB – 1x USB-C port for power and programming via CH340C USB to TTL chip
• Expansion
  • XY-ESP32-S: 2x 20-pin headers
  • XY-ESP32-S-WOOR: 2x 24-pin headers
  • I/Os – GPIO, PWM, UART, SPI, I2C, I2S, ADC, USB, +5V, VBAT, GND, etc… (See pinout diagrams below and on Aliexpress for details).
  • I/O voltage – 2.7V-3.6V
• Misc
  • Reset and boot buttons, 32.768KHz crystal oscillator
  • XY-ESP32-S only: user button and power switch
• Power Supply
  • 5V/1A via USB port
  • XY-ESP32-S only: 2-pin JST connector for 3.7-4.2V battery
• Dimensions & Weight
  • XY-ESP32-S: 63 x 30 x  6.6mm | 7grams
  • XY-ESP32-S-WOOR: 70 x 30 x 4.6mm | 8 grams
• Temperature Range –  -40 ~ +85

The boards are a bit more different than I expected at first look. Please note that specifications should be seen as preliminary, as there were obvious mistakes such as Bluetooth support (not available for ESP32-S2) which I did not included in the specs above, but there may be others which I missed.

Both ESP32-S2 boards run FreeRTOS with compatibility with the ESP-IDF SDK, Wi-Fi supporting access point, client, AP+client, and P2P modes, WPA/WPA2/WPA2-Enterprise encryption, as well as  UART and OTA firmware upgrades.

If you’d like to use ESP32-S2 boards with Arduino, I can’t find support in the official Arduino Core for ESP32 repository, but there’s a fork for “ESP32-S2 R/RS Devboard”, another ESP32-S2 development board also known as  “Cucumber”. It would probably need some modifications to perfectly work on TTGO ESP32-S2 boards.

We should expect third-party boards to be cheaper than similar official boards, so it should come as no surprise that LilyGO ESP32-S2 “XY-ESP32-S-WOOR” board is sold for $4.66, and XY-ESP32-S for $5.44 plus shipping. If you wonder about Cucumber board, it’s available but only from Gravitech in Thailand with multiple variants with or without sensors, and price ranging from 275 to 425 THB ($8.6 to $13.3 US). Soon we’ll also have Olimex ESP32-S2-Devkit-LiPo, but it’s not quite ready for sale just yet.

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