Both STM32F7 and ESP32-S3 offer a C-based software library, that can be used to access their hardware interfaces. Typically, these software libraries are compatible with a range of MCUs of the same hardware vendor. They offer basic communication interfaces but typically can not keep up with the fast-changing environment of today’s internet. So it can be quite tricky to implement security related protocols (https, certificates,..) or keep up-to-date with encryption requirements. But if you are in a controlled non-critical environment (e.g. private smart home) or you choose to use these MCU-based solutions „on-the-wire“ as add-ons to your systems, they might be an interesting option.
In particular, we were positively surprised by the good quality of the shipped demonstration software of the ESP32-S3-LCD-EV-Board . It shows a smart-home application, you can set the temperature, dim a LED light source and choose the color of a RGB light. The shiped software library of the Espressif ESP32-S3 shows very good support for Wifi and IP stack handling – quite powerful compared to other solutions on the market we know. After having configured a WIFI connection in the demonstration software (see video below), the device automatically sets the time and date (although you are not able to set the timezone, so you are stuck with chinese time and weather data). Updating the WIFI list and connecting to a network is done in a few seconds – very good! I wish my cheap internet radio would handle internet connections as well as this little device!
Short video review: https://youtu.be/n0FG-NwRQ7U
Test setup:
- ESP32-S3-LCD-EV-Board, Espressif LVGL demo
- ST 32F769IDISCOVERY Discovery kit, sequality Qt-for-MCU demo