Features​

• Utilizes the ESP32-C5-MINI-1 series module, equipped with a RISC-V 32-bit processor running at up to 240MHz.
• Integrated with 384KB SRAM, 320KB ROM, and 4MB Flash
• Integrates dual-band 2.4GHz & 5GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5 (LE), and IEEE 802.15.4 (supporting Zigbee 3.0 and Thread) wireless communication, delivering excellent RF performance.
• Features a reversible USB Type-C connector.
• Exposes rich peripheral interfaces with a castellated module design, facilitating soldering and integration onto user-designed carrier boards.
• Supports various low-power operating states, allowing flexible adjustment between communication range, data rate, and power consumption to meet the power requirements of various application scenarios.

Resource Interface​

1. ESP32-C5-MINI-1 module
2. RGB indicator
3. Charging indicator
4. BAT pins for connecting battery positive, GND for battery negative
5. BOOT button Press while resetting to enter download mode
6. RESET button Reset button
7. USB Type-C port For program downloading and serial debugging

Dimensions​

Pinout Definition​

This chapter introduces the Arduino development environment for the ESP32-C5-MINI-KIT and the example programs provided in examples/Arduino/examples.

• Setting Up the Development Environment
• Installing the Libraries
• Example

Setting Up the Development Environment​

1. Install Arduino IDE and ESP32 Board Support Package​

Please refer to the tutorial Install and Configure Arduino IDE to download and install the Arduino IDE and add ESP32 support.

After installing Arduino IDE, add the Espressif Arduino-ESP32 board index in "Preferences -> Additional Boards Manager URLs", and install the Arduino-ESP32 version that supports ESP32-C5 via the "Boards Manager". After installation, select ESP32C5 Dev Module in "Tools -> Board".

Connect the board via USB and select the corresponding serial port in "Tools -> Port". Unless otherwise noted, all examples in this directory use the serial monitor with baud rate set to 115200.

Arduino support for ESP32-C5 depends on the board package version. If the ESP32-C5 board option is not available in the IDE, please upgrade the Espressif Arduino-ESP32 board package first before compiling the examples.

2. Open an Example​

Each example directory contains a .ino main file with the same name as the directory. Open that .ino file with the Arduino IDE to compile and upload.

Installing the Libraries​

00_Board_Info, 01_WS2812_RGB, 02_WiFi_DualBand, and 03_UART_Loopback only depend on the components provided by the Arduino-ESP32 board package.

04_1.83inch_Touch_LCD_LVGL_GFX requires the following graphics libraries. This project already provides matching versions in examples/Arduino/libraries; it is recommended to use the libraries from this directory to avoid API version mismatches.

You can install the library packages via "Sketch -> Include Library -> Add .ZIP Library" in the Arduino IDE, or copy the two directories above to the libraries folder under your Arduino Sketchbook and restart the IDE.

Example​

The example programs are located in this directory. Examples with external interfaces require connecting the corresponding devices or buses before running.

00_Board_Info​

The program prints chip model, chip revision, CPU frequency, Flash size, compiled program size, remaining heap memory, and base MAC address after startup, then stays running. This example requires no extra hardware and is the preferred first test for verifying board connection, upload, and serial configuration.

01_WS2812_RGB​

The onboard WS2812 RGB LED data pin is GPIO27. The program uses the Arduino-ESP32 rgbLedWriteOrdered() interface, sets brightness to 32, and toggles between red, green, blue, white, and off every second; the serial port simultaneously outputs the current RGB value.

This example does not rely on third-party libraries. If the LED color does not match expectations, check whether COLOR_ORDER needs to match the actual color order of the LED.

02_WiFi_DualBand​

This example configures the chip in STA mode, scans available networks, and lists RSSI, channel, security status, and band via serial: channels 1 to 14 are marked as 2.4 GHz, others as 5 GHz.

To test network connectivity, first modify the configuration at the top of the source code:

static const char *WIFI_SSID = "MySSID";
static const char *WIFI_PASSWORD = "MyPassWord";

After uploading, the program waits up to 20 seconds to connect to the specified Wi-Fi and prints the IP address, RSSI, channel, and band; if the connection drops, it rescans networks.

03_UART_Loopback​

This example uses UART1 for a self-loopback test with the following initialization:

Connect GPIO0 to GPIO1 with a wire and upload the program. The program sends an incrementing count message via TX every two seconds, and prints [RX Receive] when it receives the same message on RX.

04_1.83inch_Touch_LCD_LVGL_GFX​

This example uses Arduino_GFX to drive a 240 x 284 1.83inch Touch LCD and uses LVGL 8.4.0 to set up the display and touch input device. The touch controller is CST816 and the display controller is ST7789.

On startup, the program blinks the backlight, scans the I2C bus, displays five solid colors (red, yellow, blue, green, white) in sequence, and then initializes LVGL. After entering the main screen, you can draw black dots on a white canvas via touch. Before compiling, install LVGL and Arduino_GFX according to the versions listed in Installing the Libraries.

This chapter includes the following sections, please read as needed:

• ESP-IDF Getting Started
• Setting Up the Development Environment
• Example

ESP-IDF Getting Started​

New to ESP32 ESP-IDF development and looking to get started quickly? We have prepared a general Getting Started Tutorial for you.

• Section 1: Environment Setup
• Section 2: Running Examples
• Section 3: Creating a Project
• Section 4: Using Components
• Section 5: Debugging
• Section 6: FreeRTOS
• Section 7: Peripherals
• Section 8: Wi-Fi Programming
• Section 9: BLE Programming

Please Note: This tutorial uses the ESP32-S3-Zero as a teaching example, and all hardware code is based on its pinout. Before you start, it is recommended that you check the pinout of your development board to ensure the pin configuration is correct.

Setting Up the Development Environment​

Install the ESP-IDF Development Environment​

1. Download the installation manager from the ESP-IDF Installation Manager page. This is Espressif's latest cross-platform installer. The following steps demonstrate how to use its offline installation feature.

   Click the Offline Installer tab on the page, then select Windows as the operating system and the ESP-IDF version you need (the version shown in the screenshot is for reference only — choose the version that fits your actual needs).

   
   

   After confirming your selection, click the download button. The browser will automatically download two files: the ESP-IDF Offline Package (.zst) and the ESP-IDF Installer (.exe).

   
   

   Please wait for both files to finish downloading.

2. Once the download is complete, double-click to run the ESP-IDF Installer (eim-gui-windows-x64.exe).

   The installer will automatically detect if the offline package exists in the same directory. Click Install from archive.

   
   

   Next, select the installation path. We recommend using the default path. If you need to customize it, ensure the path does not contain Chinese characters or spaces. Click Start installation to proceed.

   
   

3. When you see the following screen, the ESP-IDF installation is successful.

   
   

4. We recommend installing the drivers as well. Click Finish installation, then select Install driver.

   
   

Install Visual Studio Code and the ESP-IDF Extension​

1. Download and install Visual Studio Code.

2. During installation, it is recommended to check Add "Open with Code" action to Windows Explorer file context menu to facilitate opening project folders quickly.

3. In VS Code, click the Extensions icon  in the Activity Bar on the side (or use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + X) to open the Extensions view.

4. Enter ESP-IDF in the search box, locate the ESP-IDF extension, and click Install.

   
   

5. For ESP-IDF extension versions ≥ 2.0, the extension will automatically detect and recognize the ESP-IDF environment installed in the previous steps, requiring no manual configuration.

Example​

This directory contains ESP-IDF example projects for the ESP32-C5-MINI-KIT. The projects are currently configured for the target chip esp32c5 with 4 MB of Flash.

Preparation Before Use​

1. Install and initialize ESP-IDF with ESP32-C5 support. ESP-IDF 6.0.2 is recommended.
2. Open any example directory in a terminal where ESP-IDF has been initialized.
3. Connect the board to your computer via USB, and identify its serial port name (e.g., COM5 under Windows).

Each example is an independent project. After navigating to the corresponding directory, run:

idf.py set-target esp32c5
idf.py build
idf.py -p COM5 flash monitor

Replace COM5 with the actual serial port name. To exit the serial monitor, press Ctrl-]. On the first build, the component manager will automatically download the dependencies declared by the project, so a network connection is required.

ESP-IDF Examples​

01_HelloWorld​

This example prints Hello world!, chip features, Flash size, and minimum free heap size to the serial port; then it outputs a restart countdown every second and reboots automatically when the countdown ends. It can be used to verify that the ESP-IDF environment, flashing path, and serial monitor are working properly.

02_RGB​

This example drives the onboard addressable RGB LED. The current sdkconfig selects the RMT driver, the data pin is GPIO27, and the blinking period is 1000 ms. The RGB value when the LED is on is (16, 16, 16).

03_UART​

This example uses UART1 for asynchronous transmission and reception. The transmit task sends the string Hello waveshare every 2 seconds; the receive task continuously reads and outputs any received data to the serial monitor.

Hardware Connection

Short GPIO4 and GPIO5 to create a loopback (self-transmit and self-receive):

The current communication parameters are 115200 bps, 8 data bits, no parity, 1 stop bit, and no hardware flow control. The baud rate and task stack size can be adjusted in main/Kconfig.projbuild or via idf.py menuconfig; GPIO4 and GPIO5 are defined directly in the source code.

04_WIFI​

This example connects to Wi-Fi, then sends an HTTP request to the OpenWeather API to obtain real-time weather data for Beijing and outputs the server response to the serial port. After one request completes, it waits for 30 minutes before sending the next request.

Before flashing, run idf.py menuconfig and enter the Wi-Fi SSID and password in Example Connection Configuration. When connecting to a 2.4 GHz network, make sure the router has the corresponding band enabled.

Note: The weather API URL, location, and access key are fixed in main/main.c and use plain HTTP. Before using this in a product or on a public network, you should replace these with your own key and use HTTPS, certificate validation, and secure key management.

05_Bluetooth​

This example starts a BLE GATT Server with the advertisement name ESP_GATTS_DEMO, waiting for a phone or other BLE GATT Client to connect. The service contains two 16-bit UUIDs:

Use a phone BLE debugging tool to scan and connect to ESP_GATTS_DEMO, then read or write data. 

06_1.83inch_Touch_LCD_LVGL​

This example drives the 1.83inch Touch LCD, using the ST7789 display controller and CST816 touch controller, and displays three images based on LVGL 9. Swipe left or right on the screen to cycle through the images.

The display resolution is 240 × 284, the display interface is SPI2 with a pixel clock of 40 MHz; the touch interface is I2C0 at 400 kHz. The project depends on esp_lvgl_port, esp_lcd_touch_cst816s, and lvgl, which will be fetched by the component manager on the first build.

LCD Connections

The display and touch pins for this project are defined in main/lcd_driver/lcd_driver.h and main/touch_driver/touch_driver.h. If you use a different screen or wiring, modify these definitions before rebuilding and flashing.

1. Hardware Resources​

• Development Board Design Files

  • Schematic Diagram

2. Technical Manuals​

• ESP32-C5 Chip Official Manuals

  • Datasheet
  • Technical Reference Manual

• Datasheets

  • WS2812B RGB LED Datasheet

3. Software Development Resources​

• ESP32-C5-MINI-KIT Example

4. Debugging Tools​

• Serial Port and Network Debug Assistant
• Flash Debugging Software
• Bluetooth Debugging Assistant

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