Walter is a small-form-factor IoT system-on-module (SoM) that combines a powerful ESP32-S3 system-on-chip (SoC) with a second-generation Sequans GM02SP LTE-M/NB-IoT 5G modem and GNSS receiver. Its ESP32-S3 provides many built-in peripherals as well, including UART, SPI, I²C, CAN, Wi-Fi b/g/n, and Bluetooth 5. Walter is the only module that packs all of these connectivity options into such a small package.
We have certified Walter for FCC, CE, UKCA, IC, and RCM (for Australia and New-Zealand). Unless you add another radio to your Walter-based product, your certification costs and risks will be minimal.
To help you get the most out of Walter, we have published the schematic and the KiCAD footprint, both of which are available on GitHub, along with our datasheet, which describes all pins and test pads so you don’t have to go hunting for them.
The main CPU of walter is the ESP32-S3 with 16MiB of flash and 2MiB of RAM. There is a dual core 32-bit CPU and also an ultra low power Risc-V co-processor.
Walter comes with a range of fully open-source software libraries so you can jumpstart your 5G IoT project in minutes using your preferred languages and toolchains. It supports ESP-IDF, Arduino, MicroPython, and Toit. No special dongles are needed to program Walter – just connect it directly to your dev machine using a regular USB Type-C cable.
For many battery-powered applications, Walter will spend most of its time in deep sleep. It is therefore critical that we consume as little power as possible in this mode, which was among our key requirements during the design stage. We are extremely proud of the result and have validated that Walter only consumes 9.8 µA in deep sleep mode.
There are many products on the market that are based on the PyCom GPy, which is EoL and no longer available. Walter is fully pin compatible with the GPy and can be swapped in without redesigning carrier boards. PyCom’s closed-source solution suffered from various hardware shortcomings, as well. We have addressed all of those issues, making Walter not just a replacement, but a serious upgrade.
We have certified Walter for FCC, CE, UKCA, IC, and RCM (for Australia and New-Zealand). Unless you add another radio to your Walter-based product, your certification costs and risks will be minimal.