Access point boards

Choosing an access point board

The AP firmware runs on several ESP32 boards. All of them do the same job: the HTTP API, the dashboard, storing what each label shows, drawing the screens, and the 802.15.4 radio to the labels.

Board	Labels	Price (about)	Status
ESP32-C6 (Super Mini)	about 500	5 $	supported, the one tested most
ESP32-C6 with screen	about 500	10 $	supported
ESP32-C5 N16R8	1000	10–15 $	experimental
ESP32-S3 + C6 (with or without screen on the C6)	1000	10 $ + a C6	supported (with the screen on the C6: experimental)
ESP32-S3 + wireless C6 (no wire between them)	not decided	10 $ + a C6	experimental, not secure yet, with real limits

"Experimental" means the firmware builds and is in every release, but it has not been tried on that board yet. Reports are welcome.

What each board has

	C6 / C6 with screen	C5	S3 + C6 (cable, with or without screen)	S3 + wireless C6
Dashboard on the AP (/dashboard)	yes	yes	yes	yes
Pictures on the labels (Dashboard, Send, "A picture")	yes	yes	yes	yes, slower: over WiFi in pauses

Pictures need AP firmware 0.6.0 or newer (PUT /api/tags/{mac}/image): the web page's Dashboard tab, over USB or the bridge in tools/esl-client, sends them to any board with it, and the dashboard an AP serves itself has "A picture" from firmware 0.9.0. Each picture takes up to 5 KB of the AP's NVS, shared with the content of every label, so how many fit depends on the AP; a full NVS answers "no room to save the picture". With the wireless C6 a picture goes over WiFi in pauses, like every screen (limits).

Which one?

• Start with an ESP32-C6. One small, cheap board does WiFi and the label radio, and it is flashed from the web page.
• Take the one with a screen if you want to see the AP's address, WiFi and label count without opening anything. Handy while setting up.
• Go for the S3 + C6 when you need more than about 500 labels, or want the label radio never to wait for WiFi.
• The S3 with a wireless C6 is for when the radio cannot sit next to the AP. Changes reach the labels up to 10 s later (30 s when busy), big updates take longer, and some replies are missed; read its limits first.
• The C5 is one chip with room for 1000 labels and WiFi on 5 GHz, but it is newer and less common.

For more labels than one AP takes, use several APs on different radio channels.

Changing board later is a backup and a restore: the labels follow without being paired again (Moving to a new AP).

What each board has

	C6 / C6 with screen	C5	S3 + C6 (cable, with or without screen)	S3 + wireless C6
Dashboard on the AP (/dashboard)	yes	yes	yes	yes
Settings page: poll interval, webhook, name, WiFi, API token	yes	yes	yes	yes
Settings page: time zone and NTP server	yes, firmware 0.9.0 or newer	yes, firmware 0.9.0 or newer	yes, firmware 0.9.0 or newer	yes, firmware 0.9.0 or newer
Backup and restore from the dashboard	yes	yes	yes	yes
Label designer on the AP (Design tab)	no: on the web page	yes	yes	yes

The dashboard, with its Settings page and backup, also works from the web page's Dashboard tab over USB, for every board. The time zone and NTP server need AP firmware 0.9.0 or newer; on older firmware the Settings page says so, and the rest works.

The full comparison with antennas: docs/access-points.md. Each board's files: ap/boards.