LILYGO T-ETH-Elite: An ESP32-S3 Board with Stackable LoRaWAN and Cellular Expansion Modules

LILYGO has introduced the T-ETH-Elite, an ESP32-S3-powered IoT board featuring an Ethernet RJ45 port with Power over Ethernet (PoE) support and a 40-pin GPIO header for stackable shields. This board is designed for building IoT gateways with versatile connectivity options, including Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, GNSS, LoRaWAN, and cellular (2G, NB-IoT, 4G LTE) technologies.

At the core of the T-ETH-Elite is the Espressif ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 module, which is powered by the ESP32-S3R8 dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller running at up to 240 MHz, with 512KB SRAM and up to 8MB PSRAM. The board offers 16MB of flash storage and comes equipped with a MicroSD card slot for additional storage. In terms of connectivity, it supports WiFi 4, Bluetooth LE 5, and has a PCB antenna. The 10/100Mbps Ethernet RJ45 port is facilitated by a W5500 SPI to Ethernet chip.

The board includes a USB Type-C port for power and programming and features a 40-pin GPIO header that is compatible with Raspberry Pi shields. This header supports up to 23 GPIOs, USB 2.0, UART, 5V, 3.3V, and GND connections. Additional features include reset and boot buttons, user and power LEDs, and a USB OTG switch. The board can be powered through the USB-C port (5V/500mA) or via PoE (802.3af), ranging from 36V to 57V.

One of the key features of the T-ETH-Elite board is its support for stackable expansion boards, which connect via the 40-pin GPIO header.

Available expansion options include:

• LTE Shield: Features an L76K GPS module and a T-PCIe expansion for cellular mPCIe modules, supporting various models from the company like T-PCIE SIM7000X (2G NB-IoT), T-PCIE SIM7020X (NB-IoT), T-PCIE SIM7600X (4G LTE Cat 4), T-PCIE A7608X-H (4G LTE Cat 4), and T-PCIE A7670X (4G LTE Cat 1).
• Gateway Shield: Includes an L76K GPS module and an mPCIe SX1302 LoRa gateway module. It is similar to the LTE Shield but lacks a SIM card slot, microphone, and speaker connectors, and has a simpler DIP switch configuration.
• LoRa Shield: Comes with an L76K GPS module and offers options for soldering LoRa modules such as LR1121, SX1262, SX1276, or SX1280. Unlike the other shields, it cannot be stacked with the Gateway Shield and can only be used directly with the T-ETH-Elite board.

This is not LILYGO’s first foray into ESP32 Ethernet boards with PoE, as the company has previously released models like the T-Internet-POE and T-ETH-Lite ESP32-S3. The T-ETH-Elite and its associated shields share the same GitHub repository that includes a comprehensive set of PlatformIO/Arduino examples, covering client/server setups, WebSockets, I2C, SPI, and more. Recent updates have added code samples specific to the T-ETH-Elite board and its shields, including examples for LoRa Shield, Gateway Shield, and LTE Shield.

LILYGO T-ETH-Elite ESP32-S3 board can be purchased at the company’s eshop.

You’ll also find the Gateway Shield ($13.98), SX1302 concentrator module with antenna ($59.98), and LTE Shield ($16.98) on that page. You’ll find the T-PCIe cellular modules on a separate page with prices going from $10.98 to $39.98.

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