Why Isn’t Anyone Developing for the Waveshare ESP32-S3 Board?
I’ve been wondering why there isn’t more development happening around the Waveshare ESP32-S3 Microcontroller — a compact, dual-core board running up to 240 MHz with 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi support. On paper, it looks like a solid platform for tinkering and experimentation.
As someone who enjoys playing with pen-testing and DIY devices like the Cardputer, I can’t help but notice how well the Picocalc form factor could complement the kind of software already available for ESP32-based microcontrollers. Think of the M5Stack suite, Bruce, Evil Portal, or even the classic Doom port — all of these could benefit from a device that’s small, versatile, and easy to integrate.
Now, I’m not a developer by trade, so maybe I’m overlooking a major hurdle here. Still, from my limited experience with ESP32 devices, it seems that once the basic hardware support is in place for the Waveshare board, a huge library of existing software could be unlocked and adapted to run on the Picocalc. That feels like an opportunity waiting to happen.
Personally, I enjoy developing for the Pico and the ESP32 does nothing for me.
I felt the PicoCalc was targeted directly at me! This is not a consumer device; it is one for tinkers and developers that are set to make it bend to their will.
I love coming here every day to see what people are doing with it. For instance, I don’t develop in BASIC any more but it is awesome to see what people are doing! I leave a lot of hearts in that community.
So, if you want to see the PicoCalc do something in particular, roll up your sleeves, learn new things and make it happen!
There wouldnt be much advantage in swaping out a Pico 2W for that ESP board really, youde be better off buying something like the Lilygo T Deck.
or if you`re seriously into pen-testing then dropping Parot OS or Kali on a uConsole would be much better!
if you do have a go at this yourself, just be aware that Espressif made some changed to their SDK a while back and a lot of libraries that used to work with esp32s3 chips no longer work, and the original creators of some of these libraries arent around to update them. its one of the reasons I abandoned Arduino and moved to micropython.
The RP2040 and RP2350 are much more open than the ESP32* family is and ever will be, and there is basically nothing the ESP32* can do that the RP2350 plus CYW43439 in the Pico 2W and Pimoroni Pico Plus 2W cannot do. (Yes the CYW43439 requires binary blobs, but its binary blobs are confined to the separate chip and do not take over your main MCU like on the ESP32*.)
My own zeptoforth runs on the bare metal on the RP2040 and RP2350 with no external dependencies for actual execution (as opposed to building, mind you) except for binary blobs for the CYW43439 if you so choose to use zeptoIP with the Pico 2W or Pico Plus 2W. This would not be feasible with the ESP32*, which is meant to be used with Arduino and FreeRTOS rather than for true bare metal programming.
