Compact $2 board offers 24 GPIO connectors and USB Type-C

Some readers may already recognize the brand name WeAct. The WeAct CH32V006F8U6 is a new and compact board that should be well suited for DIY projects. It is best thought of in Arduino-like terms: the WeAct CH32V006F8U6 is not designed to handle especially demanding workloads or run a desktop OS, for example.

Instead, it is intended more for connecting various sensors and actuators. One very simple use case would be controlling several LEDs based on a sensor reading. To support that, the WeAct CH32V006F8U6 includes two 12-pin headers, which leaves plenty of flexibility for connecting external components. An SDK is also available for programming, although using the Arduino IDE is not straightforward, if possible at all.

The board uses a single RISC-V core clocked at up to 48MHz. In addition to the GPIO pins, there is a single USB Type-C port, which supplies power to the board at either 5V or 3.3V depending on the version chosen. There is also a debug header. The board is relatively inexpensive and is listed on AliExpress for roughly $2. No additional import fees are expected to apply. Possible alternatives include Arduino boards or ESP32-based systems.