JieLi Tech AC6329C4 is a 35 cents Bluetooth 5.0 microcontroller

JieLi Technology AC6329C4 is an ultra-cheap microcontroller with Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity and several I/Os including some for motor control that sells for just 35 cents on  LCSC in single units, or 25 cents per piece for 1K+ orders.

The microcontroller features a 32-bit RISC core clocked at 96 MHz with 73KB SRAM, and up to 4Mbit (512KB) flash. The 16-pin (SOP16) package offers plenty of multiplexed interfaces including USB 2.0, ADC, PWM, I2C, SPI, UART, and in-phase (I) and quadrature (Q) encoders.

AC6329C4 specifications:

• CPU – 32-bit RISC CPU @ 96 MHz with
  • Cache – 8KB I-cache 2-way, 1KB R/O cache 1-way
  • 64x Vectored interrupts
  • 8x Levels interrupt priority
• Memory – 73KB data RAM
• Storage – 4Mbit flash (another part called AC6329C2 comes with 2Mbit flash)
• Bluetooth
  • CMOS single-chip fully-integrated radio and baseband
  • Compliant with Bluetooth 5.0+BR+EDR+BLE specification
  • Bluetooth Piconet and Scatternet support
  • Meets class2 and class3 transmitting power requirement
  • Support GFSK and π/4 DQPSK all packet types
  • +8 dBm Tx power
  • -92 dBm Rx sensitivity
  • Support for a2dp, avctp, avdtp, avrcp, hfp, spp, smp, att, gap, gatt, rfcomm, sdp, and l2cap profiles
• Peripherals
  • 10 GPIO pins
    • Programmable as input or output individually
    • Internal pull-up/pull-down selectable individually
    • CMOS/TTL level Schmitt triggered input
    • External wake up/interrupt on all GPIOs
  • 1x Full Speed USB OTG controller
  • 4x Multi-function 32-bit timers with support for capture and PWM modes
  • 3x full-duplex advanced UART (DMA)
  • 3x SPI host/device interfaces (DMA)
  • 1x I2C host/device interface
  • RTC with alarm clock and time base to wake up the chip
  • 16-bit PWM generator for motor driving
  • 3x IQ Encoder
  • 6 channels 10-bit ADC
  • 1-channel 8 levels Low Power Detector
  • Embedded PMU support low power mode
  • Watchdog
  • Power-on reset
• Power Supply
  • LDOIN – 4.5V to 5.5V
  • VBAT – 1.8V to 4.5V
  • VDDIO – 1.8V to 3.4V
• Package – SOP16 (9.9 x 6 mm)
• Temperature Range
  • Operating – -40°C to +85°C
  • Storage – -65°C to +150°C

There’s not a lot of public information about the AC6329C(4/2) except for the datasheet.But if we extend the search to AC63 more information pops up. First, Zhuhai Jieli Technology Co.,Ltd has a GitHub account with two SDKs for the AC63 series, one named fw-AC63_BT_SDK for the Bluetooth part (based on Zephyr RTOS) with documentation in English and Chinese, and the other called fw-AC63_GP_MCU for the MCU core with instructions in Chinese only. A documentation website is available, but only in Chinese.

Jieli Tech sells several development boards on Taobao with a few AC63-based boards, but none specifically powered by the AC6329C4 or AC6329C2. I did find a final product based on the AC6329C4: a 2G GSM Bluetooth GPS tracker that relies on the microcontroller for Bluetooth connectivity.

While the AC6329C4 is interesting due to its low price and Bluetooth connectivity, it might be a challenge to build something around it at this time unless you can read Chinese and are based in China. Besides being sold on LCSC, the MCU is also offered on Aliexpress for $7.62 for a bundle with twenty chips, or about 38 cents per chip, but again, I was unable to find any development board there. We’ll have to wait and see how it evolves, although the datasheet is dated 2021 so I’m not sure there’s much hope…

Thanks to Rogan for the tip.

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