What is it?
Loud ESP is a rich audio development platform based on the Espressif ESP32 chip. It has a wealth of peripherals that open up a wide variety of user interaction. It is portable and has battery management on board. It is compact and can fit almost any enclosure. It is even wearable! Software samples allow for a quick start and easy adaptation of existing projects. Loud ESP will be available in a full-featured TFT-screen version, and a portable mini version.
Loud ESP is well suited for a number of different applications. To name just a few examples, it can be used as a portable speaker system with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capability, an internet-radio receiver, a framework for developing wearables and talking gadgets, or a smart speaker connected to the platform of your choice, such as Spotify.
Loud ESP flavours
Mini board (on the bottom) is designed to be used in limited space enclosures and lacks some of the peripheral that would otherwise take too much space, most noticeably TFT screen. Full version of the board (on the top) features full specs and designed to shine. It is mechanically compatible with Raspberry PI 4 cases and can be places on the desktops or other places of choice.
Features & Specifications
MCU Core
- ESP32 Dual Core 32-bit LX6 microprocessor running at 240 MHz
- 16 MB of flash storage
- 8 MB of PSRAM
- CP2102 Serial communication / Flashing chip
Battery management
- Li-Ion battery charging with charge status indication
- Battery overcharge and overdischarge protection
- Battery overcurrent protection
- Onboard 14500 battery holder (except mini version), or 2-pin connector for external battery
- Battery voltage reading using built-in DAC
- Onboard power switch
Audio capabilities
- Dual I2S stereo DAC (Maxim Integrated MAX98537) with built in D-Class amp
- 3 W per channel on 4 Ohm load
- Up to 92% efficiency
- Onboard 5.5 V boost converter
Peripherals
- 2.8″, 320 x 240 px TFT Screen with touch sensor (except mini version)
- Wi-fi
- IR reader (except mini version)
- RGB LED, RGB LED strip header
- SDCard socket (except mini version)
Other
- RESET and GPIO0 (FLASH) buttons
- Raspberry Pi 4 case mechanical compatibility (except mini version)
- Software samples for every onboard peripheral
Firmware samples
Firmware samples includes usage of each of the onboard peripheral, including playing audio from FLASH, SPIFFS, SDCARD or Web stream, as well as some project adaptations not using audio, such at ThingPulse Weather station.
Documentation
Both software and hardware documentation can be found on project’s Github. You can follow project progress at Hackaday
Where to buy
You may support our work by ordering this product at Tindie and Elecrow
