S2 Mini based on ESP32-S2 with the same footprint as the Wemos D1 Mini

Hardware
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Apologies to everyone as this post is not directly related to Node-RED.

I know many people on the Forum use the Wemos D1 Mini in their projects to collect data and send it to Node-RED via MQTT, so you may be interested in hearing about this device...

This is one example (click the purple coloured one) from the WinWin shop on AE.

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/2251832465432818.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.1.30d22f11HxgyCp&algo_pvid=7fd8b1e6-e2f2-4e2b-bcad-aba951d25af7&aem_p4p_detail=202302150942354527169138296900007670003&algo_exp_id=7fd8b1e6-e2f2-4e2b-bcad-aba951d25af7-0&pdp_ext_f={"sku_id"%3A"66484777552"}&pdp_npi=3%40dis!GBP!1.79!1.47!!!!!%402145279016764829553308802d06cb!66484777552!sea!UK!1844326759&curPageLogUid=BtNio7niwzTz&ad_pvid=202302150942354527169138296900007670003_1&ad_pvid=202302150942354527169138296900007670003_1&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt&_randl_shipto=US

Number of GPIO pins: 27
Number of PWM pins: 27 (max 8 simultaneously)
Number of analog input pins (ADC): 18
Number of analog output pins (DAC): 2

Here is a link to the new offering: S2 mini — WEMOS documentation
As you can see it supports MicroPython and I believe it comes flashed with MicroPython.

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Pretty awesome stuff. So much power in a small board. The ali-link doesn't work though, but searching for wemos s2 will return some results.

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Some outrageous prices on Amazon UK though. Including an Adafruit version with tiny screen that costs more than I can get a 7" Android tablet for!

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UK supplier on Ebay:

[EDIT]

Is also supported by CircuitPython, which means lots of support for common sensors:

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That listing is £7.02 inc postage.

£1.70 + postage + VAT means it's much cheaper, if you are prepared to wait, to get it from China.
I'm planning on buying a set of six in order to do some experiments with them. I can wait for delivery.

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Do the Chinese deliveries now get stung for import duties? They never used to if they were small enough but I'm not sure post Brexit.

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All the items I've bought from China in the last three years or so - have VAT charged at the point of sale.
So you pay the price of the item plus postage plus VAT on the total.
I assume the equivalent of the Chinese HMRC pays the VAT they collect to UK HMRC.

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Cool, good to know. I must admit, I'd virtually stopped buying direct because I wasn't sure about the import duty. Though I've used Banggood a few times because they offer an insurance that will cover unexpected duty I think.

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In October I ordered £45 worth of widgets from aliexpress. Had to pay VAT and shipping up front but no import duty. So maybe duty is less of a risk these days.
Although in the past I bought a mobile phone and escaped import duty.

It's all part of the excitement of trading with the orient, along with unexpected parcels a couple of months after you forgot ordering :grinning:

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The older you get, the bigger the surprise :slight_smile:

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Now all you have to do is find a board that supports zigbee and runs of a couple of AA batteries for a year :grin:

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I'd buy some of those for sure!

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Thanks for the heads up. I just ordered 10 from aliexpress. £24.32 including VAT and delivery. Delivery was £2.16 + VAT. ESP32s were £1.86 with a bit of discount for 5 or more.The prices shown on Ali do not include VAT but it is added at checkout. How HMRC got China to collect taxes for them I'll never know!!

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:upside_down_face:

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Interesting indeed! A RISC-V microprocessor though so expect it to take a while before the Ardiuno IDE and alt. firmwares catch up.

ESP32-C6 Thread and Zigbee CPU DevKit Limitations | Medium

But thanks for sharing. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for developments.

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I pay the extra for aliexpress standard shipping or epacket. It's usually only a few dollars more ~$5 CAD or so and comes in a few weeks instead of a few months.

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I think it varies where in the world you live. Typically it takes a couple of weeks to get stuff from Ali to the UK. I prefer to use Amazon or Ebay sources if the mark up isn't too great. Where the Ebay price is 3x the Ali price then I think there is an element of greed at play.

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Banggood is also good for some larger items as they have EU & UK warehouses. You have to pick and choose though between all of them depending on what you are trying to get.

Sometimes larger items can be cheaper from UK shops. I was looking for a Type 2 e-car charging cable recently and Halfords and Screwfix were both cheaper than Amazon.

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Wow! BangGood USA charges $13.99 for one yes one and a shipping charge of $4.99 for a total of $19.25 and it ships from China and the estimated arrival is between March 18th-28th

Aliexpress would cost $1.80 with $2.18 shipping total $3.98 arrival estimated April 26.
or I could order 5 for $10.23 + $4.87 shipping = $15.10 estimate delivery March 24th

Hmmm :thinking: such a hard decision.... (the thing is I have too many other items I need to play with first)

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It certainly is the case that one needs to shop around. I don't go into towns much and so travelling costs are a factor and Screwfix has a minimum order of £50.00 for delivery. All have to weighed up to get the true cost of the purchase. Amazon definitely are not always the cheapest for sure, but they have very easy return facilities if the goods are faulty.

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