michaelb
Like a smart watch wthout a strap
This feature packed gadget comes loaded with a program that shows off some of its capabilities. I was surprised by the quality of the sound it was able to play and the responsiveness of the AMOLED screen. The Waveshare wiki has good documentation on this board and its many peripherals such as the 6-axis IMU, RTC, TF reader, mic, etc. I used the Arduino IDE to load some of the example programs as the board is defined in the database (there are a number of variations of the ESP32-S3 and picking the wrong configuration can lead to hours of frustration). After a couple of failed uploads, I realised the board was not entering boot mode with the standard boot/reset button combination. I found that the only way to reliably get the board into boot mode was to hold the boot button while inserting the USB-C cable. After that everything went smoothly loading various example programs. I do wonder what the target market is for this device. It is pretty much a complete package fully integrated with its peripherals and difficult for a maker to access the GPIO pins of the ESP32. I think it is perfect for those that want to learn and develop code rather than integrate electronics. As a standalone gadget there is whole bunch of stuff you can do given the WiFi / Bluetooth capability of the ESP32 and the integrated peripherals. When I have some time I'd like to try my hand at some game/puzzle development using the IMU. Worth noting is that Waveshare also sell a battery that fits into the case making this a more portable gadget.