I’ve just started to play with Maixduino board based on ESP32 WiSoC and Sipeed M1 module that enables AI tasks such as object detection thanks to built-in AI accelerators found in Kendryte K210 RISC-V processor and noticed references to M5Stack M5StickV in firmware file names.

Somehow I never wrote about M5Stack, but the company provides modular ESP32 IoT development boards that can be stacked with various modules to easily and quickly build prototypes. M5StickV is one of those modules and is similar to Maixduino kit with camera and display, minus WiFi + Bluetooth connectivity, except that everything nicely packed into a cute module.

M5StickV hardware specifications:

SoC – Kendryte K210 dual-core 64-bit RISC-V processor @ 400MHz with dual independent double-precision FPU, 8MB on-chip SRAM, Neural Network Processor (KPU) @ 0.8Tops, Field-Programmable IO Array (FPIOA), and more

Storage – 16MB flash, microSD card slot

Display -1.14″ SPI display with 240×135 resolution ( ST7789 driver)

Camera – VGA (640×480) camera via OV7740 sensor

Audio – MAX98357 mono audio amplifier, MSM261S4030HOR microphone, speaker

Sensor – MPU6886 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis accelerometer

USB – 1x USB-C port for power and programming

Misc – Front and side buttons (A / B), power button, RGBW LED

Expansion – 4-pin “CONNEXT” port

Power Supply 200 mAh battery AXP192 PMIC

Dimensions – Small… There’s also an M3 mounting thread

The camera support OpenMV and MicroPython programming, and can be used for a variety of applications including face recognition/detection, object detection/classification, obtaining size and coordinates of the target in real-time, obtaining the type of detected target in real-time, shape recognition

video/audio recording, and game simulator. You’ll find instructions to get started in the Quick Start Guide.

M5StickV is sold “without WiFi” (so maybe a WiFi version is coming soon) on M5Stack website for $26.50, but you’ll also find it on Banggood for the same price.