ControlBits EMIT (Environmental Monitoring for the Internet of Things) is a baseboard compatible with DOIT ESP32 DevKit V1 development board and equipped with a temperature and humidity sensor, a relay, a 12-pinGPIO connector, and a MicroSD card.
EMIT ESP32 IoT development board specifications:
- Socket for DOIT ESP32 DevKit v1 board with WiFi and Bluetooth LE connectivity
- Storage – MicroSD card socket
- Sensor – AM2302 temperature & humidity sensor with -40° to +80° C and 0 to 99.9 %RH ranges.
- Relay – 5A SPST relay output with status LED
- Expansion – 12-pin GPIO header
- Misc – 2x programmable status LEDs (red & green)
- Power Supply – 5V via USB on ESP32 board, or external 7-12 V supply via terminal block
- Dimensions – 81 x 81 mm (PCB only)
The board comes with mounting holes so it can be wall-mounted, and an optional enclosure is also available. Some applications for the board include smart greenhouse controller, a central heating thermostat, an environmental data logger, etc..
While EMIT features can be programmed with Arduino, Lua, and other languages supported by ESP32, the developers have focused their efforts on MicroPython, so all samples, including an open-source MQTT client for the company’s MQTTHQ free MQTT broker, are written in Python. They also intend to publish a full range of tutorials and launch a dedicated forum for EMIT users if their project is successful. There’s already a Github repository for the project, but with only a few documents at this stage.
EMIT ESP32 IoT development board has just launched on Crowd Supply with a $3,500 funding target. Rewards start at $29 for the baseboard only, but you may consider pledging $59 for the full development kit including EMIT baseboard, DOIT ESP32 DevKit v1 board, an 8GB MicroSD card, and a USB cable. Shipping is free to the US but adds $10 to the rest of the world. Backers should expect their rewards to ship in November if everything goes according to plans.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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$59.00 for the full kit with free CONUS shipping. Ouch! Plus I’ve found that those AM2302 temperature/humidity sensors are mostly garbage. Also, experience has taught me to never mount a high quality environmental senor near the electronics that control it, much less on the same PCB. I either remotely mount the sensor or use two separate enclosures with thermal insulation between them. As for their “value added” stuff like example code and free access to their cloud MQTT broker – not interested.
To fix the high price and lousy sensor issues try this instead: $10.50 ESP-32 module, $2.50 3.3VDC/10A-250VAC relay module, $4.50 Bosch BME280 temperature/humidity/pressure sensor module, $1.33 microSD card module. That’s $19.83 total. All those prices I plucked off of Amazon USA or Ebay and they include “free” CONUS shipping (there’ really no such thing as “free” shipping). However, in the case of the BME280 they ship you two modules minimum for $8.99, the relay module is four for $9.99, and the microSD card module is six for $7.99. So in reality you’re out of pocket a bit more ($37.50 vs. $19.83), but you get a bunch of spares. The cost would be significantly cheaper still if you buy direct from China, but be prepared for long shipping times these days.