QT Py ESP32-S3

Board Overview

QT Py ESP32-S3

Name:

adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3

Vendor:

Adafruit Industries, LLC

Architecture:

xtensa

SoC:

esp32s3

Browse board sources

Overview

An Adafruit based Xiao compatible board based on the ESP32-S3, which is great for IoT projects and prototyping with new sensors.

For more details see the Adafruit QT Py ESP32S3 [1] product page.

Hardware

This board comes in 2 variants, both based on the ESP32-S3 with WiFi and BLE support. The default variant supporting 8MB of flash with no PSRAM, while the psram variant supporting 4MB of flash with 2MB of PSRAM. Both boards have a USB-C port for programming and debugging and is based on a standard XIAO 14 pin pinout.

In addition to the Xiao compatible pinout, it also has a RGB NeoPixel for status and debugging, a reset button, and a button for entering the ROM bootloader or user input. Like many other Adafruit boards, it has a SparkFun Qwiic [4]-compatible STEMMA QT [5] connector for the I2C bus so you don’t even need to solder.

ESP32-S3 is a low-power MCU-based system on a chip (SoC) with integrated 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth® Low Energy (Bluetooth LE). It consists of high-performance dual-core microprocessor (Xtensa® 32-bit LX7), a low power coprocessor, a Wi-Fi baseband, a Bluetooth LE baseband, RF module, and numerous peripherals.

Supported Features

The adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3 board supports the hardware features listed below.

on-chip / on-board

Feature integrated in the SoC / present on the board.

2 / 2

Number of instances that are enabled / disabled.
Click on the label to see the first instance of this feature in the board/SoC DTS files.

vnd,foo

Compatible string for the Devicetree binding matching the feature.
Click on the link to view the binding documentation.

adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3

@

psram

/

esp32s3/appcpuesp32s3/procpu

adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3@/esp32s3/appcpu target

Type	Location	Description	Compatible
CPU	on-chip	Espressif Xtensa LX7 CPU2	espressif,xtensa-lx7
ADC	on-chip	ESP32 ADC2	espressif,esp32-adc
Bluetooth	on-chip	Bluetooth HCI for Espressif ESP321	espressif,esp32-bt-hci
CAN	on-chip	ESP32 Two-Wire Automotive Interface (TWAI)1	espressif,esp32-twai
Clock control	on-chip	ESP32 RTC (Power & Clock Controller Module) Module1	espressif,esp32-rtc
Counter	on-chip	ESP32 Counter Driver based on RTC Main Timer1	espressif,esp32-rtc-timer
	on-chip	ESP32 general-purpose timers1 3	espressif,esp32-timer
DMA	on-chip	ESP32 GDMA (General Direct Memory Access)1	espressif,esp32-gdma
Flash controller	on-chip	ESP32 flash controller1	espressif,esp32-flash-controller
GPIO & Headers	on-chip	ESP32 GPIO controller2	espressif,esp32-gpio
I2C	on-chip	ESP32 I2C2	espressif,esp32-i2c
I2S	on-chip	ESP32 I2S2	espressif,esp32-i2s
Input	on-chip	ESP32 touch sensor input1	espressif,esp32-touch
Interrupt controller	on-chip	ESP32 Interrupt controller1	espressif,esp32-intc
IPM	on-chip	ESP32 soft inter processor message1	espressif,esp32-ipm
Mailbox	on-chip	ESP32 soft mailbox1	espressif,mbox-esp32
Memory controller	on-chip	ESP32 pseudo-static RAM controller1	espressif,esp32-psram
MTD	on-chip	Flash node1	soc-nv-flash
	on-chip	Fixed partitions of a flash (or other non-volatile storage) memory1	fixed-partitions
Pin control	on-chip	ESP32 pin controller1	espressif,esp32-pinctrl
PWM	on-chip	ESP32 LED Control (LEDC)1	espressif,esp32-ledc
	on-chip	ESP32 Motor Control Pulse Width Modulator (MCPWM)2	espressif,esp32-mcpwm
RNG	on-chip	ESP32 TRNG (True Random Number Generator)1	espressif,esp32-trng
SDHC	on-chip	ESP32 SDHC controller1	espressif,esp32-sdhc
	on-chip	ESP32 SDHC controller slot2	espressif,esp32-sdhc-slot
Sensors	on-chip	ESP32 temperature sensor1	espressif,esp32-temp
	on-chip	ESP32 Pulse Counter (PCNT)1	espressif,esp32-pcnt
Serial controller	on-chip	ESP32 UART3	espressif,esp32-uart
	on-chip	ESP32 UART1	espressif,esp32-usb-serial
SPI	on-chip	ESP32 SPI2	espressif,esp32-spi
SRAM	on-chip	Generic on-chip SRAM2	mmio-sram
Video	on-chip	ESP32 LCD CAM Peripheral interface1	espressif,esp32-lcd-cam
Watchdog	on-chip	ESP32 XT Watchdog Timer1	espressif,esp32-xt-wdt
	on-chip	ESP32 watchdog2	espressif,esp32-watchdog
Wi-Fi	on-chip	ESP32 SoC Wi-Fi1	espressif,esp32-wifi

adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3@/esp32s3/procpu target

Type	Location	Description	Compatible
CPU	on-chip	Espressif Xtensa LX7 CPU2	espressif,xtensa-lx7
ADC	on-chip	ESP32 ADC2	espressif,esp32-adc
Bluetooth	on-chip	Bluetooth HCI for Espressif ESP321	espressif,esp32-bt-hci
CAN	on-chip	ESP32 Two-Wire Automotive Interface (TWAI)1	espressif,esp32-twai
Clock control	on-chip	ESP32 RTC (Power & Clock Controller Module) Module1	espressif,esp32-rtc
Counter	on-chip	ESP32 Counter Driver based on RTC Main Timer1	espressif,esp32-rtc-timer
	on-chip	ESP32 general-purpose timers3 1	espressif,esp32-timer
DMA	on-chip	ESP32 GDMA (General Direct Memory Access)1	espressif,esp32-gdma
Flash controller	on-chip	ESP32 flash controller1	espressif,esp32-flash-controller
GPIO & Headers	on-chip	ESP32 GPIO controller2	espressif,esp32-gpio
	on-board	GPIO pins exposed on Seeeduino Xiao (and compatible devices) headers1	seeed,xiao-gpio
	on-board	STEMMA QT is a 4-pin JST-SH connector for I2C devices1	stemma-qt-connector
I2C	on-chip	ESP32 I2C2	espressif,esp32-i2c
I2S	on-chip	ESP32 I2S2	espressif,esp32-i2s
Input	on-chip	ESP32 touch sensor input1	espressif,esp32-touch
	on-board	Group of GPIO-bound input keys1	gpio-keys
Interrupt controller	on-chip	ESP32 Interrupt controller1	espressif,esp32-intc
IPM	on-chip	ESP32 soft inter processor message1	espressif,esp32-ipm
LED strip	on-board	Worldsemi WS2812 LED strip, SPI binding1	worldsemi,ws2812-spi
Mailbox	on-chip	ESP32 soft mailbox1	espressif,mbox-esp32
Memory controller	on-chip	ESP32 pseudo-static RAM controller1	espressif,esp32-psram
MTD	on-chip	Flash node1	soc-nv-flash
	on-chip	Fixed partitions of a flash (or other non-volatile storage) memory1	fixed-partitions
Pin control	on-chip	ESP32 pin controller1	espressif,esp32-pinctrl
PWM	on-chip	ESP32 LED Control (LEDC)1	espressif,esp32-ledc
	on-chip	ESP32 Motor Control Pulse Width Modulator (MCPWM)2	espressif,esp32-mcpwm
RNG	on-chip	ESP32 TRNG (True Random Number Generator)1	espressif,esp32-trng
SDHC	on-chip	ESP32 SDHC controller1	espressif,esp32-sdhc
	on-chip	ESP32 SDHC controller slot2	espressif,esp32-sdhc-slot
Sensors	on-chip	ESP32 temperature sensor1	espressif,esp32-temp
	on-chip	ESP32 Pulse Counter (PCNT)1	espressif,esp32-pcnt
Serial controller	on-chip	ESP32 UART1 2	espressif,esp32-uart
	on-chip	ESP32 UART1	espressif,esp32-usb-serial
SPI	on-chip	ESP32 SPI2	espressif,esp32-spi
SRAM	on-chip	Generic on-chip SRAM2	mmio-sram
Video	on-chip	ESP32 LCD CAM Peripheral interface1	espressif,esp32-lcd-cam
Watchdog	on-chip	ESP32 XT Watchdog Timer1	espressif,esp32-xt-wdt
	on-chip	ESP32 watchdog1 1	espressif,esp32-watchdog
Wi-Fi	on-chip	ESP32 SoC Wi-Fi1	espressif,esp32-wifi

adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3@psram/esp32s3/appcpu target

Type	Location	Description	Compatible
CPU	on-chip	Espressif Xtensa LX7 CPU2	espressif,xtensa-lx7
ADC	on-chip	ESP32 ADC2	espressif,esp32-adc
Bluetooth	on-chip	Bluetooth HCI for Espressif ESP321	espressif,esp32-bt-hci
CAN	on-chip	ESP32 Two-Wire Automotive Interface (TWAI)1	espressif,esp32-twai
Clock control	on-chip	ESP32 RTC (Power & Clock Controller Module) Module1	espressif,esp32-rtc
Counter	on-chip	ESP32 Counter Driver based on RTC Main Timer1	espressif,esp32-rtc-timer
	on-chip	ESP32 general-purpose timers1 3	espressif,esp32-timer
DMA	on-chip	ESP32 GDMA (General Direct Memory Access)1	espressif,esp32-gdma
Flash controller	on-chip	ESP32 flash controller1	espressif,esp32-flash-controller
GPIO & Headers	on-chip	ESP32 GPIO controller2	espressif,esp32-gpio
I2C	on-chip	ESP32 I2C2	espressif,esp32-i2c
I2S	on-chip	ESP32 I2S2	espressif,esp32-i2s
Input	on-chip	ESP32 touch sensor input1	espressif,esp32-touch
Interrupt controller	on-chip	ESP32 Interrupt controller1	espressif,esp32-intc
IPM	on-chip	ESP32 soft inter processor message1	espressif,esp32-ipm
Mailbox	on-chip	ESP32 soft mailbox1	espressif,mbox-esp32
Memory controller	on-chip	ESP32 pseudo-static RAM controller1	espressif,esp32-psram
MTD	on-board	Flash node1	soc-nv-flash
	on-chip	Fixed partitions of a flash (or other non-volatile storage) memory1	fixed-partitions
Pin control	on-chip	ESP32 pin controller1	espressif,esp32-pinctrl
PWM	on-chip	ESP32 LED Control (LEDC)1	espressif,esp32-ledc
	on-chip	ESP32 Motor Control Pulse Width Modulator (MCPWM)2	espressif,esp32-mcpwm
RNG	on-chip	ESP32 TRNG (True Random Number Generator)1	espressif,esp32-trng
SDHC	on-chip	ESP32 SDHC controller1	espressif,esp32-sdhc
	on-chip	ESP32 SDHC controller slot2	espressif,esp32-sdhc-slot
Sensors	on-chip	ESP32 temperature sensor1	espressif,esp32-temp
	on-chip	ESP32 Pulse Counter (PCNT)1	espressif,esp32-pcnt
Serial controller	on-chip	ESP32 UART3	espressif,esp32-uart
	on-chip	ESP32 UART1	espressif,esp32-usb-serial
SPI	on-chip	ESP32 SPI2	espressif,esp32-spi
SRAM	on-chip	Generic on-chip SRAM2	mmio-sram
Video	on-chip	ESP32 LCD CAM Peripheral interface1	espressif,esp32-lcd-cam
Watchdog	on-chip	ESP32 XT Watchdog Timer1	espressif,esp32-xt-wdt
	on-chip	ESP32 watchdog2	espressif,esp32-watchdog
Wi-Fi	on-chip	ESP32 SoC Wi-Fi1	espressif,esp32-wifi

adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3@psram/esp32s3/procpu target

Type	Location	Description	Compatible
CPU	on-chip	Espressif Xtensa LX7 CPU2	espressif,xtensa-lx7
ADC	on-chip	ESP32 ADC2	espressif,esp32-adc
Bluetooth	on-chip	Bluetooth HCI for Espressif ESP321	espressif,esp32-bt-hci
CAN	on-chip	ESP32 Two-Wire Automotive Interface (TWAI)1	espressif,esp32-twai
Clock control	on-chip	ESP32 RTC (Power & Clock Controller Module) Module1	espressif,esp32-rtc
Counter	on-chip	ESP32 Counter Driver based on RTC Main Timer1	espressif,esp32-rtc-timer
	on-chip	ESP32 general-purpose timers3 1	espressif,esp32-timer
DMA	on-chip	ESP32 GDMA (General Direct Memory Access)1	espressif,esp32-gdma
Flash controller	on-chip	ESP32 flash controller1	espressif,esp32-flash-controller
GPIO & Headers	on-chip	ESP32 GPIO controller2	espressif,esp32-gpio
	on-board	GPIO pins exposed on Seeeduino Xiao (and compatible devices) headers1	seeed,xiao-gpio
	on-board	STEMMA QT is a 4-pin JST-SH connector for I2C devices1	stemma-qt-connector
I2C	on-chip	ESP32 I2C2	espressif,esp32-i2c
I2S	on-chip	ESP32 I2S2	espressif,esp32-i2s
Input	on-chip	ESP32 touch sensor input1	espressif,esp32-touch
	on-board	Group of GPIO-bound input keys1	gpio-keys
Interrupt controller	on-chip	ESP32 Interrupt controller1	espressif,esp32-intc
IPM	on-chip	ESP32 soft inter processor message1	espressif,esp32-ipm
LED strip	on-board	Worldsemi WS2812 LED strip, SPI binding1	worldsemi,ws2812-spi
Mailbox	on-chip	ESP32 soft mailbox1	espressif,mbox-esp32
Memory controller	on-chip	ESP32 pseudo-static RAM controller1	espressif,esp32-psram
MTD	on-board	Flash node1	soc-nv-flash
	on-chip	Fixed partitions of a flash (or other non-volatile storage) memory1	fixed-partitions
Pin control	on-chip	ESP32 pin controller1	espressif,esp32-pinctrl
PWM	on-chip	ESP32 LED Control (LEDC)1	espressif,esp32-ledc
	on-chip	ESP32 Motor Control Pulse Width Modulator (MCPWM)2	espressif,esp32-mcpwm
RNG	on-chip	ESP32 TRNG (True Random Number Generator)1	espressif,esp32-trng
SDHC	on-chip	ESP32 SDHC controller1	espressif,esp32-sdhc
	on-chip	ESP32 SDHC controller slot2	espressif,esp32-sdhc-slot
Sensors	on-chip	ESP32 temperature sensor1	espressif,esp32-temp
	on-chip	ESP32 Pulse Counter (PCNT)1	espressif,esp32-pcnt
Serial controller	on-chip	ESP32 UART1 2	espressif,esp32-uart
	on-chip	ESP32 UART1	espressif,esp32-usb-serial
SPI	on-chip	ESP32 SPI2	espressif,esp32-spi
SRAM	on-chip	Generic on-chip SRAM2	mmio-sram
Video	on-chip	ESP32 LCD CAM Peripheral interface1	espressif,esp32-lcd-cam
Watchdog	on-chip	ESP32 XT Watchdog Timer1	espressif,esp32-xt-wdt
	on-chip	ESP32 watchdog1 1	espressif,esp32-watchdog
Wi-Fi	on-chip	ESP32 SoC Wi-Fi1	espressif,esp32-wifi

Prerequisites

Espressif HAL requires WiFi and Bluetooth binary blobs in order work. Run the command below to retrieve those files.

west blobs fetch hal_espressif

Note

It is recommended running the command above after west update.

Building & Flashing

The adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3 board supports the runners and associated west commands listed below.

	flash	debug	attach	rtt	debugserver
esp32	✅ (default)
openocd	✅	✅ (default)	✅	✅	✅

Simple boot

The board could be loaded using the single binary image, without 2nd stage bootloader. It is the default option when building the application without additional configuration.

Note

Simple boot does not provide any security features nor OTA updates.

MCUboot bootloader

User may choose to use MCUboot bootloader instead. In that case the bootloader must be built (and flashed) at least once.

There are two options to be used when building an application:

1. Sysbuild

2. Manual build

Note

User can select the MCUboot bootloader by adding the following line to the board default configuration file.

CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y

Sysbuild

The sysbuild makes possible to build and flash all necessary images needed to bootstrap the board with the ESP32 SoC.

To build the sample application using sysbuild use the command:

west build -b adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3 --sysbuild samples/hello_world

By default, the ESP32 sysbuild creates bootloader (MCUboot) and application images. But it can be configured to create other kind of images.

Build directory structure created by sysbuild is different from traditional Zephyr build. Output is structured by the domain subdirectories:

build/
├── hello_world
│   └── zephyr
│       ├── zephyr.elf
│       └── zephyr.bin
├── mcuboot
│    └── zephyr
│       ├── zephyr.elf
│       └── zephyr.bin
└── domains.yaml

Note

With --sysbuild option the bootloader will be re-build and re-flash every time the pristine build is used.

For more information about the system build please read the Sysbuild (System build) documentation.

Manual build

During the development cycle, it is intended to build & flash as quickly possible. For that reason, images can be built one at a time using traditional build.

The instructions following are relevant for both manual build and sysbuild. The only difference is the structure of the build directory.

Note

Remember that bootloader (MCUboot) needs to be flash at least once.

Build and flash applications as usual (see Building an Application and Run an Application for more details).

QT Py ESP32S3QT Py ESP32S3 with PSRAM

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3/esp32s3/procpu samples/hello_world

The usual flash target will work with the adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3 board configuration. Here is an example for the Hello World application.

QT Py ESP32S3QT Py ESP32S3 with PSRAM

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3/esp32s3/procpu samples/hello_world
west flash

Open the serial monitor using the following command:

west espressif monitor

After the board has automatically reset and booted, you should see the following message in the monitor:

***** Booting Zephyr OS vx.x.x-xxx-gxxxxxxxxxxxx *****
Hello World! adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3/esp32s3/procpu

Debugging

ESP32-S3 support on OpenOCD is available at OpenOCD ESP32 [3].

ESP32-S3 has a built-in JTAG circuitry and can be debugged without any additional chip. Only an USB cable connected to the D+/D- pins is necessary.

Further documentation can be obtained from the SoC vendor in JTAG debugging for ESP32-S3 [2].

Here is an example for building the Hello World application.

QT Py ESP32S3QT Py ESP32S3 with PSRAM

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3/esp32s3/procpu samples/hello_world
west debug

You can debug an application in the usual way. Here is an example for the Hello World application.

QT Py ESP32S3QT Py ESP32S3 with PSRAM

# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b adafruit_qt_py_esp32s3/esp32s3/procpu samples/hello_world
west debug

References

[1]

https://www.adafruit.com/product/5426

[2]

https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/esp32s3/api-guides/jtag-debugging/

[3]

https://github.com/espressif/openocd-esp32/releases

[4]

https://www.sparkfun.com/qwiic

[5]

https://learn.adafruit.com/introducing-adafruit-stemma-qt