Developer board with dual-band WiFi, Matter and RGB is suitable for smart home projects

Even more compact developer boards now offer the option of wireless network connectivity. That is generally a positive development and makes it possible, for example, to program the board without a cable connection. It also opens up new use cases, since a board like this can be positioned with relatively few constraints. The SparkFun Thing Plus ESP32-C5, listed under product number WRL-30678, is a new board that supports WiFi 6 and on both the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands. Whether that ultimately makes a real difference depends on the specific use case. Either way, Bluetooth 5 LE is also supported, along with Zigbee and Thread, and the board is compatible with Matter.

The ESP32-C5-WROOM-1 is used as the SoC. It comes with a single RISC-V processing core, along with 8 MB of flash storage and 8 MB of PSRAM. External sensors and actuators can be connected through 19 GPIO pins. Relatively large amounts of data can also be stored locally without any problem, since there is a microSD card slot. A Qwiic connector allows compatible modules such as sensors or displays to be connected easily, which means it fits into the SparkFun ecosystem. The board is powered through USB Type-C, though a LiPo battery can also be used. Status LEDs are onboard, and there is also an RGB LED that can be controlled by the user. Programming is also possible through the Arduino IDE. The board is offered directly by the manufacturer for $25.