Deneyap Mini

ESP32-S2 board for education and prototyping - offers basic I/O and USB support in a compact format.

Micro-USB Native USB
Deneyap Mini board
50 × 20.32 mm
ESP32-S2
MCU
240MHz
clock
4MB
flash
320KB
SRAM
24· 7 ADC
GPIO
Wi-Fi
radio
On this page

Deneyap Mini Pinout

24 pins · 2.54 mm pitch
PinGPIOLabelsStatusCapabilitiesNotes
10GPKEYD13strapping-
28A0T0PWMsafeadc · touch
39A1T1PWMstrappingadc · touch
410A2T2PWMstrappingadc · touch
511A3T3PWMstrappingadc · touch
612A4T4PWMstrappingadc · touch
713A5T5PWMstrappingadc · touch
816A6PWMstrappingadc
917D12DAC0PWMsafedac
1018D11DAC1PWMsafedac
1121SSD10PWMsafespi
1226D9PWMsafe-
1333LEDGD15PWMsafe-
1434LEDRD16PWMsafe-
1535LED_BUILTINLEDBD14PWMsafe-
1636SDAD8PWMsafei2c
1737SCLD7PWMsafei2c
1838SCKD6PWMsafespi
1939MISOD5PWMstrappingspi
2040MOSID4PWMstrappingspi
2141D3PWM1PWMstrapping-
2242D2PWM0PWMstrapping-
2343TXD1PWMuartuart
2444RXD0PWMuartuart
24 GPIOs broken out 13 free · 11 need care · 0 to avoid

Start with these

13 pins with no boot or system involvement
A0GPIO8D12GPIO17D11GPIO18SSGPIO21D9GPIO26LEDGGPIO33LEDRGPIO34LED_BUILTINGPIO35SDAGPIO36SCLGPIO37SCKGPIO38TXGPIO43RXGPIO44

Freely assignable - no strapping, flash, USB or JTAG duties. Ideal first picks for buttons, sensors and LEDs.

Fine - with a little care

11 pins · 7 things to know
GPKEYGPIO0 Bootstrapping pin; selects boot mode (SPI Boot vs UART Download). Strapping

Must be pulled high for normal boot; pulling low at reset enters bootloader (download mode). Also serves as SPI flash data-in (SPID) line when using external flash memory.

A1GPIO9A2GPIO10A3GPIO11A4GPIO12A5GPIO13 General-purpose SPI2 (FSPI) IO MUX pins Other

IO MUX pin of the general-purpose SPI2 (FSPI) bus, not of the in-package flash - that sits on GPIO26-32. The datasheet does not restrict it, so it is only taken if your board wires flash, an SD card or a display to FSPI.

  • A1General-purpose SPI2 (FSPI) IO MUX pin - hold/data line (FSPIHD)
  • A2General-purpose SPI2 (FSPI) IO MUX pin - chip select (FSPICS0)
  • A3General-purpose SPI2 (FSPI) IO MUX pin - data in (FSPID)
  • A4General-purpose SPI2 (FSPI) IO MUX pin - clock (FSPICLK)
  • A5General-purpose SPI2 (FSPI) IO MUX pin - data out (FSPIQ)
A6GPIO16 32.768 kHz RTC crystal negative input (XTAL_32K_N); also GPIO16 (U0CTS, ADC2_CH5). Other

If using an external 32 kHz crystal, this pin is connected to the crystal and should not be used as general I/O.

MISOGPIO39 JTAG test clock pin (MTCK); also usable as GPIO39 or as a clock output (CLK_OUT3). JTAG

Used for JTAG debugging interface; using this pin for other purposes will disable JTAG clock input.

MOSIGPIO40 JTAG test data-out pin (MTDO); also GPIO40, supports CLK_OUT2. JTAG

Part of JTAG interface (TDO); should be avoided as GPIO if JTAG debugging is needed.

D3GPIO41 JTAG test data-in pin (MTDI); also GPIO41, supports CLK_OUT1. JTAG

Part of JTAG interface (TDI); avoid using as GPIO to retain ability for JTAG debug.

D2GPIO42 JTAG test mode select pin (MTMS); also GPIO42. JTAG

JTAG TMS pin; should not be repurposed if JTAG debugging or programming via JTAG is required.

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.

All 24 pins on the Deneyap Mini are usable GPIO, spaced at the standard 2.54 mm pitch.

Peripheral wiring is straightforward: I²C is mapped to SDA on GPIO36 and SCL on GPIO37; the SPI bus (MOSI, MISO, SCK, SS) is broken out in full; TX/RX on GPIO43 and GPIO44 cover serial logging and flashing.

Beyond plain digital I/O you get 7 ADC-capable pins for sensors and battery monitoring, 6 capacitive-touch inputs and 2 true DAC outputs.

11 of the exposed pins carry boot-time or system duties on the ESP32-S2 (GPKEY, A1, A2 and 8 more) - check the guidance above before wiring anything to them. A0, D12, D11, SS and 9 more are free of any such role - the safest first picks.

Getting started

flash your first firmware in ~2 minutes
Tool:
1
Connect over USB
Native USB - shows up as a port right away, no driver needed. Not detected? Hold BOOT while plugging in.
2
Match & flash
Set the Tools options shown, then click Upload.
3
Verify it runs
GPIO8 toggles - wire an LED and resistor to it, or change the pin to your board's own LED.
Set these in Tools · leave everything else at default
Arduino IDE 2.x - Tools Copy
Board: "ESP32S2 Dev Module"▸
USB CDC On Boot: "Enabled"▸
Flash Size: "4MB (32Mb)"▸
Flash Mode: "DIO"▸
Partition Scheme: "Default 4MB with spiffs (1.2MB APP/1.5MB SPIFFS)" (default)▸
Upload Speed: "921600"▸
▸ every other Tools option - leave at default
Board: ESP32S2 Dev Module
USB CDC On Boot: Enabled
Flash Size: 4MB (32Mb)
Flash Mode: DIO
Partition Scheme: Default 4MB with spiffs (1.2MB APP/1.5MB SPIFFS)
Upload Speed: 921600
Find it: Tools ▸ Board ▸ ESP32 Arduino ▸ ESP32S2 Dev Module
blink.ino Copy
// toggle GPIO8 - wire an LED and resistor to it
void setup() {
  pinMode(8, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(8, HIGH); delay(500);
  digitalWrite(8, LOW);  delay(500);
}
board to selectesp32-s2-saola-1⧉ copy
platformio.ini Copy
[env:deneyapmini]
platform = espressif32
board = esp32-s2-saola-1
framework = arduino
monitor_speed = 115200
upload_speed = 921600
Find it: PlatformIO Home ▸ Boards, search esp32-s2-saola-1 - or type it after board =.
board to selectesp32-s2-saola-1⧉ copy
device.yaml Copy
esp32:
  board: esp32-s2-saola-1
  variant: esp32s2
  framework:
    type: esp-idf

# blink - GPIO8
output:
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 8
    id: led_out
light:
  - platform: binary
    name: "LED"
    output: led_out
Find it: search ESPHome's board list for esp32-s2-saola-1 (same ids as PlatformIO).
esptool doesn't pick board settings - a prebuilt .bin already has them baked in. This is just the raw flash command.
terminal Copy
esptool.py --chip esp32s2 --port /dev/ttyACM0 \
  --baud 921600 write_flash 0x1000 firmware.bin
--port = your /dev/tty* (macOS/Linux) or COMx (Windows).
Build details: sketch space 1310720 B · data 327680 B · DIO

Specifications

ESP32-S2 · 50 × 20.32 mm · vs other ESP32 chips →
Compute
MCU
ESP32-S2
Clock
240 MHz
SRAM · Flash
320 KB · 4MB
Radio
Wi-Fi
802.11 b/g/n 2.4 GHz
Bluetooth
-
Antenna
PCB
I/O
GPIO · ADC
24 · 7
UART · I²C · SPI
2 · 2 · 2
PWM
8 channels
Power
USB
Micro-USB
Serial
Native (CDC)
Boot address
0x1000
Electrical
Input
5V USB · 3.3-5.5V
Consumption
-
Regulator
-
Flashing
Upload · OTA
esptool_py · esp_ota
Flash · Boot mode
DIO · QIO
Sketch · Data
1.25 MB · 320 KB

Dimensions

20.32 mm50 mm
50 × 20.32 mm · pin pitch 2.54 mm
The Deneyap 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-S2 - a single-core Xtensa with native USB-OTG and no Bluetooth.

At $5.37 it's cheaper than most ESP32-S2 boards, which usually run around $20.

Around the module: status LEDs (RGB) and GPKEY buttons.

It flashes over native USB - no serial-converter driver needed, which isn't a given among ESP32-S2 boards.

Where to buy

prices are typical street prices
Deneyap Mini
Deneyap Mini
$5.37per unit, typical

Resources

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