You can use a Raspberry Pi to measure, control and regulate, but you don’t have to, especially if you don’t need a graphics screen and Linux as the operating system. An ESP32 is usually enough. Soon it will even be available in Raspberry format, with which, according to the developer, most of the Raspi plug-in boards (hats) should be able to be used.
The single-board computer, which is currently difficult to obtain, is simply under-challenged for many tasks or even not really the best choice. Raspis need a lot of power, produce a lot of heat and only have to boot after switching on, so they don’t start working immediately. Permanent use with the SD card is also not considered to be particularly stable.
The ESPIFF, developed by the MDC Service Wittenburg GmbH in Freiberg, can hardly be distinguished from the original at first glance: The circuit board of the open source project has exactly the same size, the 40-pin header is in the same place. The POE-compatible Ethernet socket and a USB-A socket are arranged on the side. On the long side there is a USB-C socket for programming and power supply (5V, 3A). However, the high power consumption only occurs when energy-hungry hats are attached. There is no further information about which ones the circuit board is supposed to run with.
An ESP32 wrapper module with 8MB PSRAM and 16MB flash memory works on the board. An external antenna must be connected (supplied) for WLAN and Bluetooth operation. As a coprocessor there is an RP2040, which mainly takes care of the pin header. In addition, there are two connectors for UART interfaces and a supercap-buffered RTC.
There’s a lot sitting on the ESPIFF’s circuit board.
A crowdfunding campaign is currently running on Crowd Supply for the board. There the board is offered for 65 US dollars. In addition, there are freight costs and VAT. The price for orders from Germany should then be just under 100 euros. Another campaign there concerns one on the ESPIFF suitable graphics-capable display.
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