IoT Platforms: Which Hardware?

For ease of use, I recommend boards with built-in WiFi or Bluetooth capability. Relying on a shield is possible, but is often more difficult to configure and more expensive to buy.

The links redirect to the reviews of the boards.

​Since the initial release on April 2020, almost all the boards recommended have disappeared. The market has consolidated and only a limited set of boards are available now.

Arduino

• Arduino Nano 33 IoT

The new compact series of Arduino Nano 33 offers interesting options for IoT with the Arduino Nano 33 IoT, 33 BLE, and 33 BLE Sense.

Software is excellent with almost a library for each possible application. A special note on the Arduino Nano 33 BLE Sense (pictured) which brings different environmental sensors. 

Espressif ESP32

The ESP32 MCU features WiFi and Bluetooth. It comes with an Arduino port and powers many different boards from different vendors.

Espressif sells the ​Espressif ESP32-DevKitC board and the compact ​Espressif ESP32-Pico board. The ESP-Prog is a programmer-debugger.

Contrary to the previous generation of the ESP8266, the ESP32 is well documented. It even includes a JTAG connection for debugging.

Posted: 23 Nov 2021
​Updated: