Re: new option for a very low cost WiFi client for IoT

[pablo2048]

New kid on the block - http://hackaday.com/2015/07/13/new-part-day-the-esp8266-killer/ or http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/EMW3165-p-2488.html?cPath=19_20 - STM32F2/4 CPU onboard, lot of flash/RAM/peripherals, $7.95 ...

[LzEn]

New kid on the block - http://hackaday.com/2015/07/13/new-part-day-the-esp8266-killer/ or http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/EMW3165-p-2488.html?cPath=19_20 - STM32F2/4 CPU onboard, lot of flash/RAM/peripherals, $7.95 ...

I saw this yesterday on hackaday and it is really amazing how do they achieve such prices.
A quick result puts STM32F411CE at 3-5$ with 10k+ units. On top of this comes the transceiver, FCC, PCB design and PCBA, RF tuning and RF shield.
Since that is not enough to make it work, you will also need a to invest in the development of a firmware and an SDK for developers.
Add to it profit margin for seeed and explain to me how is it sold at 7.5$.
 

[motox]

Anyone can buy the ESP8266 on Aliexpress for $2.3 USD and Seeed sells it for $7.5 USD. That's almost 70% profit margin for Seeed.
Now imagine the real cost of the EMW3165. I'll wait for some days until it appears on Ali or eBay.

[LzEn]

Anyone can buy the ESP8266 on Aliexpress for $2.3 USD and Seeed sells it for $7.5 USD. That's almost 70% profit margin for Seeed.
Now imagine the real cost of the EMW3165. I'll wait for some days until it appears on Ali or eBay.

That is exactly my question, how is it even possible to reach such low cost

[MrBojangles]

You can typically find chips from large manufacturers on AliExpress/Alibaba in single quantities for less than the 10k price on Digikey or similar.

How that works is anyone's guess. Common theories are that the factories sell failed batches to grey market venders at bargain basement prices. A lot of these failed chips just fail in small ways like timings being out of spec, or tolerances a little bit off. Not necessarily something you'd ever notice.


Something like that is probably happening with the EMW3165s. The manufacturer might have locked in a secret deal for bad lots for literal pennies.

[bobcat1]

Hi All
Sure you can profit from this design:
the ESP8266 - cost 1.5$ @10000
the Micro cost the same about 1.5 $ @10000
in a smart design the designer use the micro memory  as the memory for the ESP8266 and save external memory
in the same way he can you a single crystal for both the memory and ESP8266 there for save on crystal cost
Antenna if not printed cost 0.05 $
PCB cost 0.2 $ and metal cover cost 0.3$ ,FCC test cost 0.2$ ,labor work cost 0.2$ ,Misalliance 0.05 $
Now do the math - 4.00$ @10000
Even if I was a bit wrong and the final cost reach  4.5$ you can still profit from this type of design

For the first 10K unit the profit will be marginal but for the next beach it will increase.

All the best
Bobi

[an007_rld]

now ESP8266 support mesh (esp_iot_sdk_v1.2.0_mesh_v0.0.6_15_07_03); still experimental but a big step forward.
Check here: http://espressif.com/new-sdk-release/

-an

[an007_rld]

a nice site with projects: http://www.esp8266-projects.com.
Enjoy!

Best Regards,
-an

[pablo2048]

And another new kid on the block - Nufront NL6621 http://www.nl6621.net/ , http://www.nufront.com/index.php/portal/page/index/id/366.html . Modules already available on ebay...

[an007_rld]

Espressif combine now an ESP8266 with an 1Mbyte flash and get a new small IC call-it ESP8285.
The volume price according to a forum is around $1.1 and you need around just a few components.

Here is the data sheet: http://espressif.com/sites/default/files/documentation/0a-esp8285_datasheet_en_0.pdf
and 2 modules build with this IC:
here: http://en.ai-thinker.com/html/2016/ESP_85_Series_0404/7.html
and
here: https://www.itead.cc/psf-a85.html

The wiki page for the second module is here: http://wiki.iteadstudio.com/PSF-A85

Hope helps,
-an

[LzEn]

ESP32 (WiFi + BLE) Modules are now available for sale from Seeed

240 MHz dual core Tensilica LX6 microcontroller with 600 DMIPS
Integrated 520 KB SRAM
Integrated 802.11BGN HT40 Wi-Fi transceiver, baseband, stack and LWIP
Integrated dual mode Bluetooth (classic and BLE)
16 MByte flash
2.2V to 3.6V operating voltage
-40°C to +125°C operating temperature
On-board PCB antenna / IPEX connector for external antenna

[pablo2048]

... and best of all - its only $6.95 ...

[LzEn]

... and best of all - its only $6.95 ...

It will probably be even cheaper from Aliexpress suppliers once the chip becomes widely available.
The chip itself is 2.85 USD.

[mars01]

Quite a lot of performance to offer but I wonder about the documentation. ESP8266 had some problems in this area and it took a big community effort to get those information's.