Original product by GroundStudio

Products created by GroundStudio are made using high quality components, designed and assembled in Romania.

Pinout

Schematic si Layout

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION:

The GroundStudio Carbon S2 development board is based on the ESP32-S2FN4R2 chip, which is a low-voltage integrated solution with a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi System-on-Chip operating at 240MHz.

ESP32-S2 includes Wi-Fi subsystems that integrate Wi-Fi MAC, Wi-Fi radio and bandwidth, RF switch, power amplifier, and a noise reduction amplifier, etc. The base chip has 320KB SRAM and 128KB ROM, and in addition to this, ESP32-S2FN4R2 integrates 2MB PSRAM and 4MB flash memory.

It is used for very low power applications with multiple low-power modes. Equipped with fine-grained clock, dynamic voltage, frequency scaling, and adjustable power amplifier contributing to an optimal compromise between communication domain, data rate, and power consumption.

The device provides a rich set of peripheral interfaces including SPI, I2S, UART, I2C, LED_PWM, LCD interface, camera interface, ADC, DAC, touch sensor, temperature sensor, as well as 43 GPIO. It also includes a maximum-speed On-The-Go (OTG) interface to enable USB communication.

The board includes a 3V3 I²C connector compatible with "STEMMA QT" or "Qwiic".

ESP32-S2 contains several dedicated hardware for security features. Cryptographic accelerators are integrated for AES, SHA, and RSA algorithms. Additional hardware security features are provided by RNG modules, HMAC, and digital signature modules such as flash encryption and secure boot signature verification. These features enable the device to meet strict security requirements.

Technical specifications

Microcontroller: ESP32-S2FN4R2

• 128KB ROM for booting and basic functions
• 320KB SRAM for data instructions
• 16KB RTC SRAM
• 2MB PSRAM
• 4MB Flash

USB-Serial converter: internally integrated ESP32-S2
Voltage regulator 3.3V: ME6211C33U4AG-N
GPIO pins: 18
USB 2.0 type C adapter
ROM memory: 128 KB
SRAM memory: 320 KB
Interfaces: ADC, DAC, SD/SDIO/MMC Host Controller, SPI, SDIO/SPI Slave Controller, EMAC, PWM motor, LED PWM, UART, I2C, I2S, GPIO
Maximum processor frequency: 240 MHz
Approx. PCB dimensions: 37mm x 18mm

Arduino IDE upload issue:

            

• USB CDC On Boot: "Enabled"
• USB DFU On Boot: "Enabled"
• Upload Mode: " Internal USB"

            

Arduino IDE connection example:

For this example, you will need the following:

1x Carbon S2 development board || Reference UIECRE_GS

Step 1 - Download Arduino IDE

Link: Arduino IDE

Before connecting the board, start by downloading Arduino IDE 1.8.x from the above link according to your preferences and operating system.

Step 2 - Setting up Arduino IDE.

To begin, you will need to download a set of boards into Arduino IDE, so after opening Arduino, go to File->Preferences and in the "Additional Boards Manager URLs" section, attach the following URL: 

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/gh-pages/package_esp32_dev_index.json

Press OK, then open "Tools"->"Board:", and from the drop-down list, select "Boards Manager...".

Search for "esp32" and the package "esp32 by Espressif Systems" will appear in the list, click install and wait for the installation to complete.

Note: Versions newer than 2.0.9 create an issue with resetting ports after code upload. For this code example, you need to select and install version 2.0.9 of ESP32 boards (instructions provided above). 

Next select "Tools"->"Board"->"ESP32 Arduino" where various ESP32 boards compatible with Arduino will be displayed. Choose "ESP32S2 Dev Module" from the list.

After selecting the board, in the tools menu, modify the options "USB CDC On Boot:" and "USB DFU On Boot:" to "Enabled" and "Upload Mode:" to "Internal USB" to allow subsequent code uploads without entering boot mode.

Step 3 - Putting the board into programming mode.

To enter "boot" mode (code loading mode), you need to:

1. press and hold the "BOOT" button marked on the development board.
2. press and release the RESET button (marked "R" on the board). At this point, in Device Manager, the "Ports" section will display a new device "USB Serial Device" followed by a COM number. You have now entered the controller into programming mode.
3. release the "BOOT" button.

While in boot mode, in Arduino IDE, from the "Tools -> Port" menu, select the newly appeared port in Device Manager.

If you have multiple ports and are unsure which one is Carbon S2, press "RESET" to exit programming mode then re-enter following the above steps and check the "Ports" menu in Device Manager to see which one appears.

Step 4 - Uploading the test code.

Download the file "CarbonS2_neopixel_test.zip" from the "DOWNLOADS" section.

Extract the archived content then open and upload the "CarbonS2_neopixel_test.ino" code to the development board.

After upload, you will receive a warning, and to run the code, you need to manually exit boot mode by pressing the reset button.

After pressing the reset button, the code will run and the neopixel LED will perform a light show according to the uploaded code.

Upon exiting "BOOT" mode, the board will be assigned a different communication port, so to load new code, check again in "Device Manager" and modify the COM port in the "Tools -> Port" menu, no longer requiring re-entering "BOOT" mode for subsequent uploads even if the board is disconnected and reconnected to the power source.

Package contents:

1x Carbon S2 development board

2x pcs. 1*12 pin male header strips

NOTE: The included pin headers are not soldered and we do not offer soldering services for them.

Certifications:

Open Source Hardware Association