“I bought the Seeed XIAO ESP32C3 board for a small smart plant project and I’m really impressed with it. The size is probably the best thing about it – it’s tiny but still very powerful. It was perfect for my project where I needed something compact to fit inside a small sensor enclosure.
Setting it up with ESPHome was straightforward and it connected to Wi-Fi without any issues. I’m using it with a soil moisture sensor and a battery, and the deep sleep works great which helps a lot with battery life.
The build quality is excellent and the loose headers were actually useful because I could solder them the way I needed for my setup. Overall it’s a great little board for DIY electronics or Home Assistant projects. I’ll definitely be using more of these in the future.”
“These little microcontrollers are great, I use them all the time. Buying from a reputable company like Pihutgives me the piece of mind that I'm not going to get any cheap alternatives turn up.”
“Pros:
Extremely small footprint for the performance it provides.
USB-C
Good documentation, although sometimes you have to go digging through forums and Reddit to find more detailed information.
Plenty of designs for 3D printable cases on Printables, Makerworld, Thingiverse, etc.
Fully supported by ESPHome, ESPresence, etc.
Decent amount of exposed IO. You aren't getting all of the available IO of the ESP32-C3 chip, but enough for a single-purpose project board.
Plenty of addon modules/HATs in the Seeed/Xiao ecosystem to choose from.
Cons (more like gotchas, really):
Flashing it over a USB cable can be finicky for two reasons:
1. Depending on the state of the unit, it can sometimes not show in available devices, or allow you to connect until you've hard reset it or forced it into Download Mode (Hold 'boot', hold 'reset', release 'reset', release 'boot').
2. After flashing, the unit can get stuck in Download Mode but there's no clear guidance on what to do about it (hit the Reset button or power cycle it).
The WiFi range is pathetic without the external antenna attached. Bluetooth is okay, but good luck getting it to connect to an AP in the next room over without the antenna. Fortunately, it comes with an antenna, which isn't obvious from the product description.
Incapable of USB-PD negotiation, so might refuse to be powered by a PD-capable supply.”
