Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3

The Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3 is a general purpose board supplied by Seeed Studio and it is compatible with the Espressif ESP32S3 ecosystem, sharing the same MCU as ESP32-S3-DevKitC.

../../../../../_images/xiao-esp32s3.jpg

Features

  • ESP32-S3R8 Xtensa LX7 dual-core, 32-bit processor that operates at up to 240 MHz

  • On-chip 8M PSRAM & 8MB Flash

  • USB Type-C interface

  • Wireless: Complete 2.4GHz Wi-Fi subsystem;

  • BLE: Bluetooth 5.0, Bluetooth mesh

  • 1x UART, 1x I2C, 1x I2S, 1x SPI, 11x GPIOs (PWM), 9x ADC

  • 1 user LED, 1 power LED

  • 1 RESET button, 1 BOOT button

NSH Console

The NuttShell (NSH) console is available over USB using the CDC/ACM serial interface. To access the console, connect via a terminal emulator at 115200 baud, 8 data bits, no parity, and 1 stop bit (115200-8N1).

User LED

The USER LED, a yellow LED located on the XIAO ESP32S3 board, is connected to GPIO21 as indicated in the board’s schematic. This LED can be controlled through NuttX by configuring GPIO21 as an output and toggling its state.

Buttons

The RESET and BOOT buttons can be used to enter “Bootloader” mode by press and hold the BOOT key while powering up and then press the RESET key once.

Pin Mapping

Pads numbered anticlockwise from USB connector.

Pad

Signal

Notes

0

GPIO01

D0/A0

1

GPIO02

D1/A1

2

GPIO03

D2/A2

3

GPIO04

D3/A3

4

GPIO05

D4/SDA

5

GPIO06

D5/SCL

6

GPIO43

D6/Default TX for UART0 serial console

7

GPIO44

D7/Default RX for UART0 serial console

8

GPIO07

D8/SCK

9

GPIO08

D9/MISO

10

GPIO09

D10/MOSI

11

3V3

Power output to peripherals

12

Ground

13

VIN

+5V Supply to board

Power Supply

The working voltage of the MCU is 3.3V. Voltage input connected to general I/O pins may cause chip damage if it’s higher than 3.3V.

Installation

  1. Configure and build NuttX:

$ git clone https://github.com/apache/nuttx.git nuttx
$ git clone https://github.com/apache/nuttx-apps.git apps
$ cd nuttx
$ make distclean
$ ./tools/configure.sh xiao-esp32s3:usbnsh
$ make V=1

2. Connect the Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3, and enter “Bootloader” mode, then, flash the nuttx.hex file using esptool: (https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esptool/en/latest/esp32/)

Example command:

make flash ESPTOOL_PORT=/dev/ttyACM0 ESPTOOL_BINDIR=./

Configurations

usbnsh

Basic NuttShell configuration using CDC/ACM serial (console enabled in USB Port, at 115200 bps).

NuttShell (NSH) NuttX-12.8.0
nsh> uname -a
NuttX 12.8.0 2c845426da-dirty Apr  6 2025 22:53:57 xtensa esp32s3-xiao

combo

This configuration enabled NuttShell via USB and enabled led and gpio examples:

Testing leds:

nsh> leds
leds_main: Starting the led_daemon
leds_main: led_daemon started

led_daemon (pid# 10): Running
led_daemon: Opening /dev/userleds
led_daemon: Supported LEDs 0x01
led_daemon: LED set 0x01
nsh> led_daemon: LED set 0x00
led_daemon: LED set 0x01
led_daemon: LED set 0x00
led_daemon: LED set 0x01
led_daemon: LED set 0x00

Testing gpios:

PIN/GPIO

Mode

Device

D1/GPIO2

Output

/dev/gpio0

D0/GPIO1

Input

/dev/gpio1

D2/GPIO3

Input

/dev/gpio2

 
nsh> ls /dev
/dev:
 console
 gpio0
 gpio1
 gpio2
 null
 ttyACM0
 ttyS0
 userleds
 zero
nsh> gpio -o 1 /dev/gpio0
Driver: /dev/gpio0
  Output pin:    Value=0
  Writing:       Value=1
  Verify:        Value=1
nsh> gpio -o 0 /dev/gpio0
  Driver: /dev/gpio0
  Output pin:    Value=1
  Writing:       Value=0
  Verify:        Value=0
nsh> gpio /dev/gpio1
Driver: /dev/gpio1
  Input pin:     Value=0
nsh> gpio /dev/gpio1
Driver: /dev/gpio1
  Input pin:     Value=1
nsh> gpio /dev/gpio1
Driver: /dev/gpio1
  Input pin:     Value=0
nsh> gpio -w 1 /dev/gpio2
Driver: /dev/gpio2
  Interrupt pin: Value=0
  Verify:        Value=1
nsh> gpio -w 1 /dev/gpio2
Driver: /dev/gpio2
  Interrupt pin: Value=0
  Verify:        Value=1