WIOT is an Arduino-compatible board with an ESP-8266 interface and lithium-ion battery support.
The brainchild of Ubld.It Electronics’ Chris Cockrum, WIOT is an open-source, rechargeable development board for the Internet of Things.
Based on an ATmega32U4, WIOT features integrated Wi-Fi capabilities through an on-board ESP-8266 module. The extremely compact device, which measures just 3.82” x 1.02” in size, is also entirely Arduino-compatible. This lets users design and develop their connected project within the Arduino IDE.
“I designed this board to be an easy-to-use way to get connect to WiFi from an Arduino-compatible board. This will allow anyone to write Arduino compatible sketches that can easily use 802.11b WiFi using the ESP-8266 (ESP-01) Wi-Fi module,” Cockrum writes.
The Li-Ion battery powered device operates at a voltage of 3.3V with a recommended input voltage of 5V, and can run for approximately 40 hours on no sleep. Meanwhile, on-board switching enables complete power-down of the ESP-8266. In terms of I/O, WIOT includes nine digital pins, five PWM channels and six analog input channels.
“With proper power management and intermittent Wi-Fi usage, the battery can last for days to months (depending on sleep time, Wi-Fi usage, Wi-Fi transmit usage, and other peripherals) without recharging,” Cockrum adds. “Since the board auto switches between external and battery power, a USB solar charger may be connected to power the unit indefinitely.”
Key specs include:
- MCU: ATmega32U4
- Flash memory: 32KB
- SRAM: 2.5KB
- EEPROM: 1KB
- Clock speed: 8MHz
- On-board lithium-ion battery management
- Automatic switching from external 5V power to battery
- Any 5V (500mA) source may be used to power and charge the unit
- ESP-8266 Wi-Fi module (ESP-01) with updated firmware
- Uses a through-hole mini-USB connector
Interested? WIOT is currently selling on Tindie for $45, while Cockrum has provided details on the board here.
