When working on a project you may need an MCU or MCU board, an external display, a breadboard, and other accessories like sensors and jumper cables. It does the job, but it can be messy.

Recently, we wrote about M5Stack M5StickV AI camera, but the company is better known for its ESP32 IoT development kits enabling neater project thanks to hardware that integrates MCU, I/O headers, display, and sensors into an enclosure. Their latest offerings are ATOM series toolkits that come in two versions: ATOM Lite and ATOM Matrix. Let’s have a look at both.

M5Stack ATOM Lite

Specifications:

SiP – ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package with ESP32 dual-core processor with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0/5.1 Storage – 4 MB flash Crystal oscillator and passive components

USB – 1x USB Type-C port

Expansion 9-pin header with 6 GPIOs compatible with jumper cables 4-pin PH2.0 connector with 2x GPIO, 5V and GND

Misc – Reset button, user button, RGB LED, IR LED

Dimensions – 24 x 24 x 10 mm (Material: PC + ABS)

Weight – 1 gram?

ATOM Lite is suitable for smart home controllers, alarm, temperature and humidity sensors, smart keys and more.

M5Stack ATOM Matrix

ATOM Maxtrix is very similar to ATOM Lite but adds an LED matrix and a sensor.

Specifications:

SiP – ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package with ESP32 dual-core processor with WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0/5.1 Storage – 4 MB flash Crystal oscillator and passive components

Display – 5 x 5 RGB LED matrix panel

USB – 1x USB Type-C port

Sensor – MPU6886 inertial sensor

Expansion 9-pin header with 6 GPIOs compatible with jumper cables 4-pin PH2.0 connector with 2x GPIO, 5V and GND

Misc – Reset button, user button, RGB LED, IR LED

Dimensions – 24 x 24 x 14 mm (Material: PC + ABS)

Weight – 1 gram?

ATOM Matrix will be the preferred kit if you need a display or IMU sensor for your project. The company also told CNX Software the sensor could also be used to collect manufacturing data or develop a centralized controller in industrial automation applications.

Software & Documentation

ATOM development kits can be programmed using Arduino, Micropython, Visuino visual programming environment, or the company’s UIFlow web-based IoT programming system using Blockly visual interface and Python code. More technical details and tutorials can be found on the documentation website and Github.

Availability & Price

Both M5Stack ATOM Lite and ATOM Matrix are available now for respectively $5.95 and $8.95 on Aliexpress. There are plenty of external modules available as well. Further information may be found on the company’s website, and in the unboxing video below.