SPWF04 - wifi module from ST

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Smrtokvitek
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SPWF04 - wifi module from ST

Post by Smrtokvitek » Thu Apr 20, 2017 10:26 am

This looks like a new wifi board with uPy support. Hard to tell if it can compete with esp8266 or esp32 boards. Eval. board is 25$/23€ module itself around 15€, that looks reasonable.

http://blog.st.com/spwf04-low-power-wi- ... lications/

http://www.st.com/content/st_com/en/pro ... w04a1.html

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deshipu
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Re: SPWF04 - wifi module from ST

Post by deshipu » Thu Apr 20, 2017 10:59 am

MicroPython 1.6, that's pretty old. Funny how they use "pyb" module even though it's not a pyboard.

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marfis
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Re: SPWF04 - wifi module from ST

Post by marfis » Thu Apr 20, 2017 7:06 pm

Despite the odd naming that is interesting.

It does offer 2MB flash and wifi at a compelling price but more relevant is that it is coming from one of the major ARM chip manufacturer - and they mention uPy as a key piece of FW. I think that is great!

Lets hope other silicon manufacturers (TI, Freescale, Atmel..) join the uPy party now too.

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marfis
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Re: SPWF04 - wifi module from ST

Post by marfis » Sun May 07, 2017 7:40 pm

On the 1st page of their datasheet they mention uPy as a preprogrammed application. And further reading reveals:
The SPWF04Sx includes a MicroPython scripting engine to enable simple and fast custom application development on the module MCU: no external MCU is needed and the customer application runs directly on the module. The interpreter implementation is fully compatible with the standard MicroPython version 1.6. In standalone mode, MicroPython use Wi-Fi interfaces and MCU peripherals such as UART, SPI, I2C, GPIOs via standard MicroPython APIs (see application note AN4964 on http://www.st.com).

1 MB of the internal Flash is dedicated to store the user file system while a hardware interface allows the usage of an external memory via SPI/SDIO (Serial Flash/SD Card) to further extend the file system storage capabilities.
also interesting on page 12 - pin 4 is specified as "Micropython Selection Mode" - I really like to read that in a datasheet :)

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pythoncoder
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Re: SPWF04 - wifi module from ST

Post by pythoncoder » Mon May 08, 2017 6:36 am

It's evidently a custom MicroPython build, see Section 7 of http://www.st.com/resource/en/applicati ... 345374.pdf. They've done a decent job of documenting it.
Peter Hinch
Index to my micropython libraries.

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marfis
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Re: SPWF04 - wifi module from ST

Post by marfis » Wed May 10, 2017 5:54 am

lets hope they release their source code so that the module can be upgraded with a more recent uPy version. Without that it is pretty inflexible.

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Roberthh
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Re: SPWF04 - wifi module from ST

Post by Roberthh » Wed May 10, 2017 9:41 am

That is definitely an interesting module, especially since the ST controllers are technically very sound.

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