RaspberryPi overkill / ESP32 not quite enough

[Caesiumhydroxid]

Hello everybody!

As my title states: I am planning on doing a project which requires Wifi and Bluetooth (LE) but a raspi seems like it is an overkill and an esp32 is not quite powerful enough for the task. Since I am not too familiar with the options there are, I hope that maybe some of you may know a fitting device.

My Project involves:

• driving about 70 RGB-LED's
• driving an e-ink display
• getting data like Weather / Notifications / Calendar
• connecting to Wifi / communicating with Smartphone with Bluetooth (LE)

The main problem is that the ESP32 "only" has ~300kB RAM which will not be enough for my intetions. A typical calendar file has 100-400kB and also needs to get parsed which also needs some more memory. For managing all things and to be on the save side with filesizes I estimate that I need about 4MB of RAM (more is probably better). CPU wise there is not that much demand - so anything as powerful as an esp would do the job.

Do you know some Boards which lie "between" the Raspi and an ESP32 regarding CPU power and RAM size?

I am happy to get any advice! Since I am new to this Forum - sorry if I posted in the wrong spot or overlooked some information which would already solve my problem.

Thanks in advance

Caesiumhydroxid

[sokoloff]

One approach is to do some of the heavy lifting/processing off box (on a VPS, server, or serverless function [AWS Lambda or equivalent]) and only use the ESP32 for the local part.

On the other hand, if you're making exactly one or two of these, just use an RPi and make it easy on yourself.

[Frederir]

A small board based on AR9331 should do it.
There is many different modules based on this processors. https://www.8devices.com/ is one manufacturer, and they have other more powerfull modules too.

[Scrts]

Well, you can always add SPI SRAM, e.g. 23LC1024. From there, either ESP32 works or you can look into CC3200/CC3220.

[cv007]

Onion Omega2 - https://onion.io/omega2/

No bluetooth, though (but you have a usb host port at your disposal).

These are nice modules when you want the advantages of an os, but do not need/want the size/cost of a Pi type device.

[NiHaoMike]

There are ESP32 boards that have external RAM. But if you're just building a one off, a Pi Zero W would likely be your cheapest option after considering development cost.

[SiliconWizard]

If you're familiar with the ESP32, you could consider one of those boards: https://www.analoglamb.com/product/esp32-wrover/

[Caesiumhydroxid]

Thank you very much! I will definitely have a look at the ESP boards with more RAM. Did not know that these exist!

[Dundarave]

My Project involves:

• driving about 70 RGB-LED's
• driving an e-ink display
• getting data like Weather / Notifications / Calendar
• connecting to Wifi / communicating with Smartphone with Bluetooth (LE)

Given your list, especially the "Weather / Notifications / Calendar" functionality, I'd be going the RPi route simply for ease of inter-system communications (i.e. getting the weather & notifications via TCP/IP), data handling (MySQL, possibly, for the calendar), and remote IP connectivity for the inevitable troubleshooting & debugging when interconnecting with other systems.  Separate code for each area of functionality, use of cron, etc. for handling periodic functions, and as much memory as you like, would make it my first choice.

However, absent that "getting data" set of functionality, I agree that the ESP32 or similar would probably be a better choice.

[thinkfat]

BeagleBone Black Wireless. I'm using one for a garden irrigation system and it's just the right size for it. It's much more power conservative than a Raspi and at the same time powerful enough to run a full Linux system. Lots of interfaces available, wireless connectivity on board.

[sajattack]

I would do the calendar processing in the cloud, and only push events to the ESP32 as needed. No need to store the entire calendar in RAM.

[exe]

Onion Omega2 - https://onion.io/omega2/

I'm afraid it's not well supported. I have one, about a year ago I tried to put it into use, and had problems (missing packages, script errors, etc). When I googled I found other people had same experience. The reason packages are important is it is based on openwrt/ddwrt/whatever and out-of-the box it's an empty os. Probably it's possible to hack it/compile yourself/etc, but it's going to be time-consuming. May these problems are fixed by somebody, but I'd confirm this before buying it.

I'd be glad to know about alternatives that work out of the box and have up-to-date software.

[exe]

Although, may be situation around onion has changed. At least there is some support and new firmware: https://community.onion.io/topic/3470/official-resolution-oupgrade-not-working-on-omega2-pro-factory-firmware

[jayeye]

An Rpi ZeroW costs $10, which for all practical purposes is the same as the $5 for an esp8266, and both are negligible. So unless you are making more than a few of these and planning to sell them, I don't see a problem with it being an "overkill".