T2-U WiFi and Bluetooth development board supports the Tuya Smart Home framework

The T2-U is a development board compatible with the Tuya Smart Home framework that features a WiFi and Bluetooth module with a 120 MHz RISC processor, some buttons, an LED indicator, GPIOs, power, and a USB-to-serial chip.

In 2019, we covered Tuya as a one-stop Smart Home solution allowing companies to easily design and manufacture home automation devices from electronics to the enclosure. For example, the company provides a customizable 4-inch Android touch control panel & Zigbee gateway as well as the Tuya Link SDK allowing customers to further customize the firmware of their Smart Home devices, but I had yet to see a development board compatible with Tuya.

T2-U development board specifications:

Wireless module – T2-U
- SoC – Unnamed 32-bit RISC MCU @ 120 MHz with 2 MB flash and 256 KB RAM
- Wireless
  - Wi-Fi
    - 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11n wireless standard.
    - Channels 1 to 14 at 2.4 GHz.
    - Security – WEP, WPA/WPA2, WPA/WPA2 PSK (AES), and WPA3.
    - Tx power – Up to +16 dBm in 802.11b.
    - Modes – station mode, AP mode, and dual mode.
  - Bluetooth Low Energy (LE)
    - Bluetooth LE 5.1 standard.
    - Tx Power – 6dBm
  - Priority-based Wi-Fi and Bluetooth coexisting control module for real-time priority and dispatch.
- PCB antenna with 2.2 dBi gain (max)
USB – Micro USB port for power and programming (via CH343 USB to serial chip)
Expansion – 2x 15-pin header with
- 6x PWM interfaces
- 4x timers
- 2x UART interfaces
- 1x SPI interface
- 1x I2C interface
- 5x ADC interfaces
- 18x GPIOs
Misc
- Reset and User (P7) buttons
- Power and User (P26) LEDs
- DIP switch for serial configuration (USB-to-serial or chip’s serial port)
Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port
Dimensions – TBD

The T2-U development board supports two development methods. The first one is “TuyaOS development” where the developer creates a product on the website, downloads and debugs the code with Tuya the Tuya Wind IDE VS Code extension, and controls the board with the Tuya Smart app for Android or iOS.

The second method dubbed “TuyaOS — T2-U sample” provides more flexibility and you can either load the T2-U development kit from the aforementioned Tuya Wind IDE or download the “tuyaos-development-board-t2 project” from GitHub. This will give you access to a range of demos and samples including:

Sample minimal system to implement cloud connectivity.
Development kit for RGB strip lights.
Development kit for universal infrared remote control.
Examples of using peripherals such as ADC, GPIO, I2C, PWM, SPI, timer, and watchdog.
Sample code for Wi-Fi features, including station mode, AP mode, scan, and low power.
Sample code for Bluetooth LE central and peripheral modes.
Sample code for Bluetooth LE and Wi-Fi remote controls (Tuya FFC).
RTOS-related thread, mutex, semaphore, message queue, and software timer.
Sample code for HTTP file download.
Drivers and sample code for energy metering chips including BL0937, BL0942, HLW8032, and HLW8012.
Drivers and sample code for RGB light chips including WS2812, WS2814, YX19036, SM16703p, SM16704pk, and SK6812.
Drivers and sample code for light chips including PWM, CCT, SM2135E, SM2135EX, SM2x35EGH, KP1805X BP1658CJ, and BP5758D.

The company also mentioned development with the Tuya Connect Kit, Arduino, and MicroPython. You can find more details on the developer’s website.

Note that the T2-U development board is pre-flashed with a demo minimal system for cloud connectivity (apps/tuyaos_demo_quickstart), so you can get started immediately using the Tuya Smart Life app. We’re also told a full chip erase should not be performed because the T2-U development board comes with licenses for cloud connectivity, and if those are gone, you would not be able to use the board with Tuya anymore.

The T2-U tuya development board can be purchased on Aliexpress for $6.46 plus shipping.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

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.