The Best Series of Chips: 
FireBeetle of Low Power Consumption 


DFRobot is planning to post a brand new series of low power consumption products──Firebeetle. The ultralow-power design of external hardware and its small compatibility interface can build Internet of Things (IOT) conveniently and fast.



The Brief Introduction of FireBeetle

▲ Parts of FireBeetle, the related parts are still in development.

In simple terms, FireBeetle is an easy to use development platform to internet of things. Based on the theme of a series of low-power hardware development, it is designed to provide a simple development experience for intelligent hardware enthusiasts, interactive art designers and electronic software engineers.        

                                                                                           
 
For example, a simple networking project ──intelligent watering device of real-time soil moisture monitoring. When the humidity is less than 300 (a parameter), it will control the pump watering and upload data in every 5 mins. Therefore, you can check the real-time data on apps of mobile phone, such as Blynk. You can also monitor the ambient temperature by the installation of temperature and humidity sensors on the watering device. See, it’s so easy to build an intelligent watering device!

There are three categories of FireBeetle, containing Boards (main control), Covers (expansion boards) and related Accessories. The core controller chips of Boards mainly are MCUs such as ESP32, Bluno etc. These chips are of high performance, low power consumption and wireless transmission function. Covers contain LED dot matrix, I2S audio driver, GPS/GPRS/SIM etc. They can provide rich peripherals for the motherboard. Accessories contain 2.54mm pin header, female header, LED light, button and other extensible peripheral hardware.

The List of The Existing Products of Firebeetle series.

【DFR0478】FireBeetle Board-ESP32  (Support WiFi & Bluetooth)

【DFR0480】FireBeetle Covers-3.5" TFT LCD Touchscreen

【DFR0481】FireBeetle Covers-Proto Board

【DFR0482】FireBeetle Covers-Proto Board Doubler

【DFR0483】FireBeetle Covers-Gravity Adapter Board

【DFR0484】FireBeetle Covers-24x8 LED Matrix(White)

【DFR0485】FireBeetle Covers-24x8 LED Matrix(Blue)

【DFR0468】FireBeetle Covers-24x8 LED Matrix(Green)

【DFR0487】FireBeetle Covers-24x8 LED Matrix(Yellow)

【DFR0488】FireBeetle Covers-24x8 LED Matrix(Red)

【DFR0489】FireBeetle Board-ESP8266

【TEL0121】FireBeetle Covers-LoRa Radio 433MHz

【TEL0122】FireBeetle Covers-LoRa Radio 915MHz

【DFR0492】FireBeetle Board-328P with BLE4.1

【DFR0498】FireBeetle Covers-Camera&Audio Media Board


First Class: Boards (main control)
 


The core controller chips of Boards mainly are MCUs such as ESP32, Bluno etc. These chips are of high performance, low power consumption and wireless transmission function.

For example, the master control board of FireBeetle Board-ESP32 is ESP-WROOM-32, a dual-core chip. The FireBeetle Board-ESP32 supports a dual-mode communication, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, USB and 3.7V onboard lithium battery supplying and dual power source automatic charging, available for two charging methods: USB and DC. Its peripherals compatible with the Super-low power consumption design of external hardware, the electric current is 10 μA under low power consumption mode. FireBeetle Board-ESP32, small and convenient to connect and easy to handle, can be apply to the low power consumption projects of the internet of things directly.

▲FireBeetle Board-ESP32

Characteristics

• Compatible with products in the DFRobot FireBeetle serials 
• Low power consumption（its electricity current of ultra-low power mode is 10uA）
• Fast response（reach to 400KHz）
• Cost-effective
• Small size, convenient to install
  

Technical specification

• Working voltage: 3.3V
• Input voltage: 3.3V~5V
• Support electric current of low power consumption: 10 μA
• Support maximum discharge current: 600mA
• Support maximum charge current: 500mA
• Support USB charging.
• Processer: Tensilica LX6 dual core processer. One for high speed connection; one for independent programing.
• Frequency: 240MHz 
• SRAM：520KB
• Flash：16Mbit
• Wi-Fi standard:   FCC/CE/TELEC/KCC 
• Wi-Fi protocol: 802.11 b/g/n/d/e/I/k/r (802.11n, high speed can reach to 150 Mbps), converge A-MPDU and A-MSDU, supporting 0.4us protecting interval.
• Frequency range: 2.4~2.5 GHz
• Bluetooth protocol:  Comply with BR/EDR/BLE standard of Bluetooth v4.2.
• Bluetooth audio: the current under low power consumption of CVSD and SBC is 10μA
• Working current: 80mA in average
• Frequency range:  2.4~2.5GHz
• Support one-key downloading of Arduino
• Support micropython.
• On-chip clock: 40 MHz crystal and 32.768 KHz crystal.
• Digital I/O: 10 (default setting of arduino)
• Simulative input: 5(default setting of arduino)
• SPI：1 (default setting of arduino)
• I2C：1 (default setting of arduino)
• I2S：1 (default setting of arduino)
• LED_BUILTIN：D9
• Interface: FireBeetle series compatible
• Working temperature: -40℃~+85℃
• Dimension: 24 × 53(mm)/0.94 x 2.09(inches)
• The dimension of mounting hole: inner diameter 3.1mm; outside diameter 6mm.

  
  
  

Second Class: Covers (expansion boards)


Covers contain LED dot matrix, I2S audio driver, GPS/GPRS/SIM etc. They can provide rich peripherals for the motherboard.

To take the FireBeetle Covers-24x8 LED Matrix (Dot-matrix display) as an example, it supports the design of low power consuming external hardware. The module designed of compatible interface, easy to use, plug and play.

Adopted HT1632C LED driver of high-performance, independent register for every LED driver can drive every LED light respectively. The built-in 256 KHz RC clock will turned off in the down-power mode, and the power consumption is just 5 μA. LED Matrix supports controlling LED light in 16 levels. LED Matrix supports Arduino libraries, character display, and dynamic scrolling display, make dots and lines etc.

▲FireBeetle Covers-24x8 LED Matrix (V1.0)

• DFRobot FireBeetle serials compatible with each, plug and play.
• Low power consumption（The ultra-low power is 10μA）
• 24×8 dot-matrix display
• Support driver libraries of Arduino 
• Support scrolling display
• Small size, convenient to install

Technical specification

• Working voltage: 3.3V
• Display Color: White
• HT1632C driver chip
• Built-in 256KHz RCO clock
• Low power consumption: 5μA
• Working current: 6mA~100mA
• Serial data communication
• Support Arduino libraries
• Support scrolling display
• Interface mode：Compatible with FireBeetle series 
• Working temperature: -40℃~+85℃ 
• Dimension: 24 × 58(mm)/0.94 x 2.28(inches)
• The dimension of mounting hole: inner diameter 3.1mm; outside diameter 6mm.


Second Class: Accessories (Related)

Accessories contains 2.54mm pin header, female header, LED light, button and other extensible peripheral hardware. 



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In the middle of June, Firebeetle low power consumption microcontrollers will log on DFRobot Official Web Store. 
Now DFRobot offering 20 sets of FireBeetles with accessories for the trial.