Macchina’s SuperB Is an ESP32-Based Module with an XBee Form Factor

Macchina describes the SuperB as “the marriage of two of hardware’s ubiquitous names — the ‘Bee’ form factor and ESP32. The Bee form factor was derived from Digi’s XBee industrial grade IoT boards.” It’s clear to see why that form factor was chosen — it takes up less real estate than the ESP32, which is an excellent solution for smaller projects requiring wireless communication.

The specs for the SuperB are based on the ESP32 SoC, and although it’s not stated, it probably rolls with an Xtensa dual-core processor (@ 240MHz) with 520KiB of SRAM. The board packs the same Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth Classic and BLE solutions of its larger counterpart. It also sports 4Mb of Flash (upgradable to 16Mb) and fully-certified integrated antenna with software stacks. The 3.3V levels, UART, SPI, and GPIOs have all been broken out to headers, allowing for the XBee form factor.

Macchina has even designed an OBD-II connector/development board for car hacks that pairs well with the SuperB. Macchina notes the M2 is great for vehicle tuning, diagnostics, total customization, security, telematics or prototyping, and should work with just about any vehicle manufactured after 1996. The M2 features an XBee socket, 12V I/O (UART, SPI, I2C, Analog, etc.), 6X LEDs (1X RGB), 2X momentary switches, 2X CAN transceivers, 2X LIN/K-LINE transceivers, single wire CAN, J1850 VPW/PWM, EEPROM, micro SD support, and micro USB connectivity.

For those interested, Macchina is currently offering both the SuperB and M2 on Crowd Supply with pledges starting at $23 for the SuperB and $116 for a SuperB and M2 package.