The WinnerMicro W806 is a new development board from the manufacturer Shenzhen Hilink Electronics, designed for low power consumption and low cost.
The HLK-W806 is powered by a WinnerMicro W806, a 32-bit, 240 MHz XT804 MCU. The package incorporates 1MB of Flash memory and 288 Kb of RAM.
The features of this board are quite impressive and include up to 44 GPIOs, a 4-channel 16-bit ADC, and 5-channel PWM with frequency from 3Hz to 160 kHz, and up to 15 touch sensors.
Regarding interfaces and communication, it has 6 UARTs, SPI, I2C from 100 kHz to 400 kHz, I2S, and a controller for a 4x32 LCD interface.
Unfortunately, it lacks any kind of wireless communication. This is curious, as it is promoted by the manufacturer as an “IoT board”.
{ “CPU and Memory”: [ { “label”: “Processor”, “value”: “WinnerMicro W806 32-bit XT804 at 240 MHz” }, { “label”: “Memory”, “value”: “1MB Flash and 288KB RAM” } ], “Connectivity”: [ { “label”: “Power”, “value”: “5V via micro USB” }, { “label”: “Debugging”, “value”: “Via micro USB” }, { “label”: “Signals”, “value”: “Reset, Wakeup, 3.3V, GND” }, { “label”: “Buttons”, “value”: “Reset and boot” } ], “Devices”: [ { “label”: “GPIO”, “value”: “Up to 44” }, { “label”: “ADC”, “value”: “4 channels and 16 bits” }, { “label”: “PWM”, “value”: “5 channels, 3Hz to 160kHz” }, { “label”: “Interfaces”, “value”: [“6 UART”, “SPI”, “I2C (100kHz - 400 kHz)”, “I2S”] }, { “label”: “LCD”, “value”: “4×32 Interface” }, { “label”: “Touch sensors”, “value”: “15” } ], “Dimensions”: [ { “label”: “Dimensions”, “value”: “65 mm x 26 mm” } ] }
This board can be purchased for around 2€ from sellers like AliExpress or Ebay. This places it at a very interesting point in terms of features/price.
Logically, the absence of WiFi or Bluetooth totally penalizes it against our beloved ESP32, the undisputed king in IoT applications at the moment. However, it should also be noted that the price of the W806 is half that of an ESP32.
Nevertheless, due to its features, size, and price, we feel we are looking at the natural successor to the STM32 Bluepill. The W806 easily surpasses it in features, while having an even lower price.
Of course, if we compare it to the Arduino Nano reference, this new board surpasses it by light years in both features and price.
Unfortunately, as is often the case initially, documentation for this board is still scarce. Most of it is only available in Chinese, as is the IDE.
We will have to see the community’s reception of the W806. Personally, I think we would be making a mistake if we ignored this board (similar to what happened for a long time with the STM32).
In any case, it is certainly a very interesting development board for its features and price, which we hope will become a new alternative in the microcontroller landscape.
