M5Stack ATOMS3 Lite is a tiny ESP32-S3 IoT controller with WiFi, Bluetooth, and an infrared transmitter

ATOMS3 Lite is the latest ESP32-S3 IoT platform from the M5Stack Atom series wireless programmable controllers, doing without the 0.85-inch display and IMU sensor  found in the ATOM S3 development kit simply using an RGB LED instead.

M5Stack ATOM S3 Lite features the ESP32-S3FN8 WiFi and Bluetooth SoC with 8MB SPI flash, an infrared transmitter, a USB-C port for power and programming, a few I/O pins, user and reset buttons all in just a 24x24x9.5mm housing.

ATOMS3 Lite specifications:

• Wireless MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3FN8 dual-core 32-bit Xtensa LX7 microcontroller with AI vector instructions up to 240MHz, RISC-V ULP co-processor, 512KB SRAM,  2.4GHz WiFi 4 (802.11b/g/n), Bluetooth 5.0 BLE + Mesh, 8MB flash
• Antenna – Internal “3D” antenna
• Expansion
  • 9x pins with G5, G6, G7, G8, G38, and G39 GPIOs, 5V, 3.3V, and GND
  • 4-pin Grove connector
• Misc
  • IR LED (infrared transmitter/blaster)
  • WS2812B-2020 RGB LED
  • Reset and user buttons
  • M.2 screw hole for mounting
• Power Supply – 5V via USB Type-C port; SY8089 5V to 3V DCDC converter
• Dimensions – 24 x 24 x 9.5mm
• Weight – 5.3 grams
• Temperature Range – 0°C ~ 40°C

Like other Atom boards, the M5Stack ATOMS3 Lite controller can be programmed with Arduino or the company’s UIFlow web-based visual programming IDE. The illustration above indicates that MicroPython is also supported, but you may be on your own, as MicroPython is not mentioned in the documentation. What you do get there are some details about the hardware and an Arduino sketch that is designed for the ATOMS3 since it draws colors on the display that’s missing from the Lite model…

The primary use case should be an IoT controller for the Smart Home controlling devices connected over WiFi or Bluetooth, as well as appliances with an IR receiver such as a TV, an air conditioner, a set-top box, and so on. But you could probably use it as a BLE to MQTT  gateway, and the I/Os ports enable many more applications such as sensor monitoring, relay control, and more. The ESP32-S3 is also ideal for machine learning thanks to its vector instructions.

M5Stack is selling for ATOMS3 Lite for $7.50 plus shipping. If you’d rather have a 0.85-inch color display and an IMU sensor with it, the ATOMS3 is sold for $15.50, but is currently out of stock.

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