LILYGO T8 C3

Overview

The LILYGO T8 is a compact development board available in ESP32-C3 and ESP32-S3 variants, offering a small form factor suitable for space-constrained IoT projects. The board features a TF (microSD) card slot for local data logging, a reset button, LiPo battery support via a JST 2-pin 1.25mm connector with battery power detection, and support for both 3D chip antenna and external IPEX antenna for better range.

The ESP32-C3 variant uses a RISC-V 32-bit core at 160MHz with 400KB SRAM and 4MB Flash, with Bluetooth 5 LE support alongside Wi-Fi. The ESP32-S3 variant offers a more powerful dual-core Xtensa LX7 at 240MHz with 512KB SRAM, suitable for more compute-intensive tasks. Both variants use USB Type-C for power and programming.

Note that the T8-C3 requires the T-U2T USB-to-serial adapter for programming, as it does not include an integrated USB-to-serial chip. The T8-S3 variant includes USB connectivity directly. The board supports development in Arduino, ESP-IDF, and MicroPython, and is programmed using C/C++ or MicroPython.

Firmware Compatibility

• Arduino: Supported via the ESP32 Arduino core with ESP32-C3 or ESP32-S3 board target.
• ESP-IDF: Supported with full access to Espressif SDK.
• MicroPython: Supported for rapid prototyping.

Flashing Guide

1. For T8-C3: Connect the T-U2T adapter to the board's UART pins and plug into USB. The auto-download circuit will handle bootloader mode entry.
2. For T8-S3: Connect directly via USB Type-C.
3. In Arduino IDE, select "ESP32C3 Dev Module" or "ESP32S3 Dev Module" as appropriate.
4. Install the ESP32 board support package from Espressif.
5. Upload your sketch. For MicroPython, use esptool.py to flash the appropriate firmware binary from micropython.org.
6. Refer to https://github.com/Xinyuan-LilyGO/T8-C3 for pinout diagrams and examples.