Bee Motion Mini

ESP32-C3 board with onboard motion sensor - ideal for gesture detection, presence tracking, and smart alerts.

USB-C Native USB
Bee Motion Mini board
ESP32-C3
RISC-V MCU
160MHz
clock
4MB
flash
400KB
SRAM
4· Two 12-bit, 6 Channels ADC
GPIO
BLE 5.0+ WiFi
radio
On this page

Pinout

4 pins
View:
PinGPIOLabelsStatusCapabilitiesNotes
15PIRPWMstrapping-
29BOOT_BTNPWMstrapping-
320RXPWMuartuart
421TXPWMuartuart

Fine - with a little care

sampled at boot or shared with debug/serial
PinLabelWhat to knowRole
PIRMTDIUsed during boot; JTAG TDI for debugging; acts as Quad-SPI flash IO (write-protect data line) in internal-flash variantsJTAG
BOOT_BTNGPIO9Controls boot mode on reset (HIGH for normal flash boot, LOW enters serial download mode)Strapping
RXU0RXDUsed as UART0 receive (console/bootloader); repurposing may disable serial programming and debug logsUART
TXU0TXDUsed as UART0 transmit (console/bootloader); repurposing may disable serial console output and printingUART
These are recommendations, not hard rules - with the right pull-ups, timing and boot-state awareness most pins can be made to work. When in doubt, start green.
Pinout notes All 4 pins on the Bee Motion Mini are usable GPIO. Peripheral wiring is straightforward: TX / RX on GPIO21 and GPIO20 cover serial logging and flashing. 4 of…

All 4 pins on the Bee Motion Mini are usable GPIO.

Peripheral wiring is straightforward: TX/RX on GPIO21 and GPIO20 cover serial logging and flashing.

4 of the exposed pins carry boot-time or system duties on the ESP32-C3 (PIR, BOOT_BTN, RX and 1 more) - check the guidance above before wiring anything to them.

Getting started

flash your first firmware in ~2 minutes
Tool:
1
Connect over USB
Native USB - no driver, no serial chip. Not detected? Hold BOOT while plugging in.
2
Flash with your tool
Arduino IDE, PlatformIO, ESPHome or esptool - copy the settings on the right.
3
Verify it runs
The blink example uses GPIO8 - swap for your board's LED pin if different.
Tools → Board settings Copy
Board:            Bee Motion Mini
USB CDC On Boot:  Enabled
Flash Size:       4MB · DIO
Upload Speed:     921600

// blink
pinMode(8, OUTPUT);
digitalWrite(8, LOW);   // on (often inverted)
platformio.ini Copy
[env:Bee_Motion_Mini]
platform = espressif32
board = esp32-c3-devkitm-1
framework = arduino
monitor_speed = 115200
upload_speed = 921600
device.yaml Copy
esp32:
  board: esp32-c3-devkitm-1
  variant: Bee_Motion_Mini
  framework:
    type: esp-idf

# blink - GPIO8
output:
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 8
    id: led_out
light:
  - platform: binary
    name: "LED"
    output: led_out
shell Copy
esptool.py --chip esp32c3 --port /dev/ttyACM0 \
  write_flash 0x0 firmware.bin
Build details: sketch space 1310720 B · data 327680 B · DIO

Specifications

ESP32-C3
Compute
MCU
ESP32-C3 · RISC-V
Clock
160 MHz
SRAM · Flash
400 KB · 4MB
Radio
Wi-Fi
802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth
5.0 LE
Antenna
PCB
I/O
GPIO · ADC
4 · Two 12-bit, 6 Channels
UART · I²C · SPI
2 · 1 · 3
PWM
6 channels
Power
USB
USB-C
Serial
Native (CDC)
Boot address
0x0
Flashing
Upload · OTA
esptool_py · esp_ota
Flash · Boot mode
DIO · QIO
Sketch · Data
1.25 MB · 320 KB
The Bee Motion Mini uses esptool_py for firmware uploads, esp_ota for over-the-air (OTA) updates. Flash mode is DIO with QIO boot mode. The maximum sketch size is 1.25 MB with 320 KB available for data.

About this board

Inside sits the ESP32-C3 - a single-core RISC-V and the budget low-power pick.

At $18.00 it's on the expensive side for an ESP32-C3 board - most land around $10.

Only 4 GPIO are broken out, where most ESP32-C3 boards manage about 13 - worth checking the pinout covers what you need.

Around the module: a motion sensor, battery charging via JST-PH 2.0, status LEDs (User) and Reset/Boot buttons.

It flashes over native USB - no serial-converter driver needed, which isn't a given among ESP32-C3 boards.

Where to buy

prices are typical street prices
Bee Motion Mini
Bee Motion Mini
$18.00per unit, typical

Resources

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