I've been scratching my head as to which BT module is worth looking at when considering a wireless connection to the P1 and P2 boards.
I do not need or want WiFi and I need it to be relatively low power.
I am considering the ESP32C3 or ESP32WROOM/WROVER with the WiFi disabled ( I think I've read it's possible) or a BGM220P from SiLabs. The nice thing about the later is that it also comes as a nice dev board in a form of BGM220-EK4314A that supports built in packet monitoring interface and full debugging/programming on board. Looks good on paper. Five times more expensive than a ESP32C3 but I only need a few of these BT modules. Many people tend to use HC05 ar the likes but maybe these are a bit long in tooth these days.
Any suggestions or points to consider when making a choice are welcome. Thanks.
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Hi Maciek, hope things are going well for you. I must confess that I have a drawer full of the bare HC05 modules I bought one time to mount on my own little adapter to plug straight into my 4x2 Prop Header which of course includes power. However I have been considering the C3 since it is so low cost and has BT5/BLE and WiFi as well. I must get some and see how suitable they are for BT serial.
My module has a cheap n tiny micro on board to intercept a reset sequence so I could still reset the Prop remotely although I never really used this feature. The trouble with the P1 boot is that it had this annoyingly short and sensitive serial boot sequence which is why P2 does it quite differently.
Let me know if you find anything.
btw - I have been helping some use Tachyon lately and there are quite a few things that annoy me about the console interface so I will at least be adding a console layer for interactive edit and history while source loads will still be processed directly. Oh, being able to backspace past a word and fix any typo!
I also uncovered a bug which meant that BACKUPs to 32kB EEPROMs would be corrupt. I had changed the page size to a fixed 128 but now I get BACKUP to gently test just before it does a backup. A friend's C3 Prop board was supposed to have 64kB EEPROM - but it turns out it was only 32kB. Oh, that awful C3 SPI CS scheme!
Last edit: Peter Jakacki 2022-12-01
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Hi Peter,
Things are good at my end and so I hope are at yours too.
As for the BT module I went for the BGM220P and got BGM220-EK4314A board that has just arrived and was cheaper then the module itself. Nice little board so I got more than one, of course. Now I need to make freinds with the Simplicity Studio just to try it out as it most probably needs some initial configuration to work and get discovered as a BT device on the air and at the PC side as well whic it doesn't apparently out of the box.
The ESP32-C3 modules I will get with my next purchase. Chances also are that since it's a RISC-V somebody will come up with decent FORTH for it (and no, I don't like the esp32forth with it's potential licensing issues).
BTW, while not a member of the Forth2020 group I do watch a YT videos as soon as they pop up and have seen your Forth programming challenge talk there too and some others as well.
I'm starting to seriously consider the P1 as a useful, but hugely overpriced micro as it stands now compared to other cheap alternatives like RP2040 or even the not so cheap P2, both bargains in terms of feature to price ratio. Also the potential for the ESP32-C "whatever the latest" is very promissing.
If you would like to refer to this comment somewhere else in this project, copy and paste the following link:
I've been scratching my head as to which BT module is worth looking at when considering a wireless connection to the P1 and P2 boards.
I do not need or want WiFi and I need it to be relatively low power.
I am considering the ESP32C3 or ESP32WROOM/WROVER with the WiFi disabled ( I think I've read it's possible) or a BGM220P from SiLabs. The nice thing about the later is that it also comes as a nice dev board in a form of BGM220-EK4314A that supports built in packet monitoring interface and full debugging/programming on board. Looks good on paper. Five times more expensive than a ESP32C3 but I only need a few of these BT modules. Many people tend to use HC05 ar the likes but maybe these are a bit long in tooth these days.
Any suggestions or points to consider when making a choice are welcome. Thanks.
Hi Maciek, hope things are going well for you. I must confess that I have a drawer full of the bare HC05 modules I bought one time to mount on my own little adapter to plug straight into my 4x2 Prop Header which of course includes power. However I have been considering the C3 since it is so low cost and has BT5/BLE and WiFi as well. I must get some and see how suitable they are for BT serial.
My module has a cheap n tiny micro on board to intercept a reset sequence so I could still reset the Prop remotely although I never really used this feature. The trouble with the P1 boot is that it had this annoyingly short and sensitive serial boot sequence which is why P2 does it quite differently.
Let me know if you find anything.
btw - I have been helping some use Tachyon lately and there are quite a few things that annoy me about the console interface so I will at least be adding a console layer for interactive edit and history while source loads will still be processed directly. Oh, being able to backspace past a word and fix any typo!
I also uncovered a bug which meant that BACKUPs to 32kB EEPROMs would be corrupt. I had changed the page size to a fixed 128 but now I get BACKUP to gently test just before it does a backup. A friend's C3 Prop board was supposed to have 64kB EEPROM - but it turns out it was only 32kB. Oh, that awful C3 SPI CS scheme!
Last edit: Peter Jakacki 2022-12-01
Hi Peter,
Things are good at my end and so I hope are at yours too.
As for the BT module I went for the BGM220P and got BGM220-EK4314A board that has just arrived and was cheaper then the module itself. Nice little board so I got more than one, of course. Now I need to make freinds with the Simplicity Studio just to try it out as it most probably needs some initial configuration to work and get discovered as a BT device on the air and at the PC side as well whic it doesn't apparently out of the box.
The ESP32-C3 modules I will get with my next purchase. Chances also are that since it's a RISC-V somebody will come up with decent FORTH for it (and no, I don't like the esp32forth with it's potential licensing issues).
BTW, while not a member of the Forth2020 group I do watch a YT videos as soon as they pop up and have seen your Forth programming challenge talk there too and some others as well.
I'm starting to seriously consider the P1 as a useful, but hugely overpriced micro as it stands now compared to other cheap alternatives like RP2040 or even the not so cheap P2, both bargains in terms of feature to price ratio. Also the potential for the ESP32-C "whatever the latest" is very promissing.