We’re always interested in the latest from the world’s semiconductor industry here at Hackaday, but you might be forgiven for noticing something a little familiar about today’s offering from Espressif. The ESP32-WROOM-DA has more than a passing resemblance to the ESP32-WROOM dual-core-microcontroller-with-WiFi module that we’ve seen on so many projects over the last few years because it’s a WROOM, but this one comes with a nifty trick to deliver better WiFi connectivity.
The clever WiFi trick comes in the form of a pair of antennas at 90 degrees to each other. It’s a miniaturised version of the arrangement with which you might be familiar from home routers, allowing the device to select whichever antenna gives the best signal at any one time.
We can see that the larger antenna footprint will require some thought in PCB design, but otherwise the module has the same pinout as the existing WROVER. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine it nestled in the corner of a board at 45 degrees, and we’re sure that we’ll see it appearing in projects directly. Anything that enhances the connectivity of what has become the go-to wireless microcontroller on these pages can only be a good thing.
ESP32-WROOM-DA ist hier !
Ja wo den?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqTBlft8gQA
5GHz is not.
DA for Dual Antenna?
Да
Nice.
Does the antenna get selected automagically or is that something the user needs to code around? Either way, cool stuff.
“While being used, the module works according to signal strength, selecting the strongest signal to ensure continuous communication. When a weak signal is detected, the module continues to work with an API call that helps it switch to the other antenna with a stronger signal.”
Still doesn’t say how it’s implemented. Maybe an antenna switch on a GPIO line?
Looks like it is a normal “antenna diversity” implementation; if that’s the case then it’s completely automatic at physical level and no intervention is required by the software to switch to the better receiving antenna.
this should help https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/esp32/api-guides/wifi.html#wi-fi-multiple-antennas
It has the right design to make a t-shirt :-D
🤣
Earl Grey tea is best
That would be my next haircut, if only I had some hair left:D
ha microcontroller, more like macrocontroller now…
And when you need a black box development kit to use it, maybe even a macaronicontroller!
+1, reaching pi zero form factor.
Espressif, the Elon Musk of microcontrollers.
only gets better.
Can’t wait until Espressif starts blathering their crackpot theories on twitter.
Isn’t that what people use these for?
I’m not on twitter, wastes too much time, dulls the intellect ie the short term short attention span patterns.
Pray tell what’s the top three that come to mind, sort of relevant as if from a company that makes micros then could that influence their designs IOW could some crackpot theory of them initiate path of moderating potential for addressing prophylactically the crackpot theory ?
What’s with the superfluous space then in front of question marks? Not orthographically correct… dulls? Not me it seems.
Ah, that’s from my oldie psychology circa 1982 & Lisp, adding a space improves probability of perceiving delineation accurately between statement (of claim) & question in students trialling speed reading & developing subsequent habits. Also when we wrote scripts in Lisp it was a useful convention in parsing circa 1980 at Western Australian Institute of Technology, Bentley, Western Australia which is now Curtin University. Ie my first degree there late 1970’s & early 1980’s in electronic engineering.
Cheers
Quick, someone invent a cryptocurrency that is best mined on ESP32s.
Already have one look up duino-coin
With of course a cute puppy logo..
Wait till it starts bitcoin pumping and dumping, disregarding FCC
Ta ra ra WROOM D A!
But it doesn’t work like an STM32!!!!! 😭
Nice, but dual external antenna connectors would have been a lot better. This type of PCB antenna doesn’t perform very well. What Rasberry do with the Zero and 4 works a lot better strange enough (and uses less PCB space to boot).
The Pi uses a patented antenna geometry under license, and they probably got a sweetheart deal on it. It’s not something that Espressif can just copy.
I wonder if it can be used as wifi locator… directional at least…
Electrically sort antennas like this tend to have very poor directionality. The point of diversity for them is just compensating for the small null that still remains along the axis of the antenna. These anteannas won’t give real diversity.
Also, you’d need both antennas giving an RSSI value to even try to use these for direction finding. Maybe ping-poing back and forth between the antennas listening to consecutive packets and compare the RSSI. If it’s equal, you are pointing roughly at/away from the source. Probalby at if it’s in a hand held device as the human holding it will likely make a good null with their body. :)
Next up — the ESP32-WROOM-BA, with special features for robotic vacuum cleaners….
subtle, yet effective (I laughed)
This is only 2D isn’t, you could orient it to reach cosine 0
Need 3D
Is this board in market now? If not then when it’s release is scheduled?