Yesterday, we wrote about Bouffalo BL602 32-bit RISC-V WiFI and Bluetooth LE wireless SoC that should eventually compete with ESP8266 in terms of price but with more features, higher performance. and more resources like memory and storage.
At the time, I noted I could not find any tools for the processor, but I was informed a BL602 SDK (Doiting_BL) and documentation had already been released on Github. The basic readme and a user manual are already available in English, but the main documentation is still in Chinese with various examples to configure GPIO, YART, WiFi, and Bluetooth.
You’ll find the documentation in Github, as I could not find a website yet:
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git clone https://github.com/SmartArduino/Doiting_BL |
Go to Doiting_BL/docs/html folder and then open index.html in your browser to access the documentation. The SDK works both in Windows and Linux and relies on either Eclipse & OpenOCD or Freedom Studio & OpenOCD. A graphical software called Dev Cube is used for flashing the board.
The documentation is made for a specific board Doit.am DT-BL10 development board powered by BL602 WiSoC that sells for $5 plus shipping on Aliexpress or 19.99 RMB on Taobao (about $3). We’re not at ESP8266 board price level ($2+) yet, but still affordable and interesting for evaluation.
- SoC – Bouffalo BL602 RISC-V processor @ up to 192 Mhz with 276KB RAM, 128KB ROM with WiFi and Bluetooth
- Wireless
- 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n WiFI 4 up to 65 Mbps (802.11n) or 26 Mbps (802.11g)
- Bluetooth LE 5.0
- PCB antenna
- 19x pin around module with
- Up to 16x GPIO
- 2x UART, 1x I2C, 1x SPI, 5x PWM
- 10-bit DAC, 12-bit ADC
- 1x EN
- 1x SDIO
- 3.3V and GND
- Supply Voltage – 3.0 to 3.6V
- Power consumption – Deep sleep mode: 22mA; deep standby mode: 2mA
- Dimensions – 20 x 16 x 3mm
- Temperature Range – -20°C to +85°C
The module is placed on a breakout board with two 15-pin 2.54mm pitch headers, EN and D8 buttons for flashing, as well as a micro USB port for power and programming.
Now that there are a public BL602 SDK and a cheap development board, we’ll have to see if it gains traction in the maker community, or whether it’s just not worth the effort since ESP8266 and ESP32 solutions are already cheap and well supported.
Thanks to fan for the tip.
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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