RAK3112
Overview
The RAK3112 is a low-power, long-range LoRaWAN module based on the Espressif ESP32-S3 MCU with an integrated Semtech SX1262 LoRa transceiver. Supporting LoRa, BLE, and Wi-Fi, this module is ideal for various IoT applications such as home automation, sensor networks, building automation, and other IoT network applications.
Hardware
It is designed for easy access to the pins on the board and to simplify the evaluation of the RAK3112 module.
The main hardware features are:
RAK3112 based on Espressif ESP32-S3, dual-core Xtensa® LX7 CPU up to 240 MHz
Semtech SX1262 for LoRa® modulations
Integrated 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n) and Bluetooth® LE 5
512 KB of SRAM and 384 KB of ROM on the chip
IPEX connectors for the antennas
I/O ports:
UART
I2C
SPI
GPIO
ADC

For more information about the RAK3112 stamp module:
Supported Features
The rak3112
board supports the hardware features listed below.
- on-chip / on-board
- Feature integrated in the SoC / present on the board.
- 2 / 2
-
Number of instances that are enabled / disabled.
Click on the label to see the first instance of this feature in the board/SoC DTS files. -
vnd,foo
-
Compatible string for the Devicetree binding matching the feature.
Click on the link to view the binding documentation.
rak3112/esp32s3/appcpu
target
Type |
Location |
Description |
Compatible |
---|---|---|---|
CPU |
on-chip |
Espressif Xtensa LX7 CPU2 |
|
ADC |
on-chip |
ESP32 ADC2 |
|
Bluetooth |
on-chip |
Bluetooth HCI for Espressif ESP321 |
|
CAN |
on-chip |
ESP32 Two-Wire Automotive Interface (TWAI)1 |
|
Clock control |
on-chip |
ESP32 Clock (Power & Clock Controller Module) Module1 |
|
Counter |
on-chip |
ESP32 Counter Driver based on RTC Main Timer1 |
|
on-chip |
|||
on-chip |
ESP32 counters4 |
||
DMA |
on-chip |
ESP32 GDMA (General Direct Memory Access)1 |
|
Flash controller |
on-chip |
ESP32 flash controller1 |
|
GPIO & Headers |
on-chip |
ESP32 GPIO controller2 |
|
I2C |
on-chip |
ESP32 I2C2 |
|
I2S |
on-chip |
ESP32 I2S2 |
|
Input |
on-chip |
ESP32 touch sensor input1 |
|
Interrupt controller |
on-chip |
ESP32 Interrupt controller1 |
|
IPM |
on-chip |
ESP32 soft inter processor message1 |
|
Mailbox |
on-chip |
ESP32 soft mailbox1 |
|
Memory controller |
on-chip |
ESP32 pseudo-static RAM controller1 |
|
MTD |
on-chip |
Flash node1 |
|
on-chip |
Fixed partitions of a flash (or other non-volatile storage) memory1 |
||
Pin control |
on-chip |
ESP32 pin controller1 |
|
PWM |
on-chip |
ESP32 LED Control (LEDC)1 |
|
on-chip |
ESP32 Motor Control Pulse Width Modulator (MCPWM)2 |
||
RNG |
on-chip |
ESP32 TRNG (True Random Number Generator)1 |
|
SDHC |
on-chip |
ESP32 SDHC controller1 |
|
on-chip |
ESP32 SDHC controller slot2 |
||
Sensors |
on-chip |
ESP32 temperature sensor1 |
|
on-chip |
ESP32 Pulse Counter (PCNT)1 |
||
Serial controller |
on-chip |
ESP32 UART3 |
|
on-chip |
ESP32 UART1 |
||
SPI |
on-chip |
ESP32 SPI2 |
|
SRAM |
on-chip |
Generic on-chip SRAM2 |
|
USB |
on-chip |
ESP32 USB-OTG (DWC2 compatible controller)1 |
|
Video |
on-chip |
ESP32 LCD CAM Peripheral interface1 |
|
Watchdog |
on-chip |
ESP32 XT Watchdog Timer1 |
|
on-chip |
ESP32 watchdog2 |
||
Wi-Fi |
on-chip |
ESP32 SoC Wi-Fi1 |
rak3112/esp32s3/procpu
target
Type |
Location |
Description |
Compatible |
---|---|---|---|
CPU |
on-chip |
Espressif Xtensa LX7 CPU2 |
|
ADC |
on-chip |
ESP32 ADC2 |
|
Bluetooth |
on-chip |
Bluetooth HCI for Espressif ESP321 |
|
CAN |
on-chip |
ESP32 Two-Wire Automotive Interface (TWAI)1 |
|
Clock control |
on-chip |
ESP32 Clock (Power & Clock Controller Module) Module1 |
|
Counter |
on-chip |
ESP32 Counter Driver based on RTC Main Timer1 |
|
on-chip |
ESP32 general-purpose timers4 |
||
on-chip |
ESP32 counters4 |
||
DMA |
on-chip |
ESP32 GDMA (General Direct Memory Access)1 |
|
Flash controller |
on-chip |
ESP32 flash controller1 |
|
GPIO & Headers |
on-chip |
ESP32 GPIO controller2 |
|
I2C |
on-chip |
ESP32 I2C2 |
|
I2S |
on-chip |
ESP32 I2S2 |
|
Input |
on-chip |
ESP32 touch sensor input1 |
|
Interrupt controller |
on-chip |
ESP32 Interrupt controller1 |
|
IPM |
on-chip |
ESP32 soft inter processor message1 |
|
LoRa |
on-board |
Semtech SX1262 LoRa Modem1 |
|
Mailbox |
on-chip |
ESP32 soft mailbox1 |
|
Memory controller |
on-chip |
ESP32 pseudo-static RAM controller1 |
|
MTD |
on-chip |
Flash node1 |
|
on-chip |
Fixed partitions of a flash (or other non-volatile storage) memory1 |
||
Pin control |
on-chip |
ESP32 pin controller1 |
|
PWM |
on-chip |
ESP32 LED Control (LEDC)1 |
|
on-chip |
ESP32 Motor Control Pulse Width Modulator (MCPWM)2 |
||
RNG |
on-chip |
ESP32 TRNG (True Random Number Generator)1 |
|
SDHC |
on-chip |
ESP32 SDHC controller1 |
|
on-chip |
ESP32 SDHC controller slot2 |
||
Sensors |
on-chip |
ESP32 temperature sensor1 |
|
on-chip |
ESP32 Pulse Counter (PCNT)1 |
||
Serial controller |
on-chip |
||
on-chip |
ESP32 UART1 |
||
SPI |
on-chip |
||
SRAM |
on-chip |
Generic on-chip SRAM2 |
|
USB |
on-chip |
ESP32 USB-OTG (DWC2 compatible controller)1 |
|
Video |
on-chip |
ESP32 LCD CAM Peripheral interface1 |
|
Watchdog |
on-chip |
ESP32 XT Watchdog Timer1 |
|
on-chip |
|||
Wi-Fi |
on-chip |
ESP32 SoC Wi-Fi1 |
System requirements
Espressif HAL requires WiFi and Bluetooth binary blobs in order work. Run the command below to retrieve those files.
west blobs fetch hal_espressif
Note
It is recommended running the command above after west update
.
Programming and Debugging
The rak3112
board supports the runners and associated west commands listed below.
flash | debug | rtt | attach | debugserver | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
esp32 | ✅ (default) | ||||
openocd | ✅ | ✅ (default) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
Simple boot
The board could be loaded using the single binary image, without 2nd stage bootloader. It is the default option when building the application without additional configuration.
Note
Simple boot does not provide any security features nor OTA updates.
MCUboot bootloader
User may choose to use MCUboot bootloader instead. In that case the bootloader must be built (and flashed) at least once.
There are two options to be used when building an application:
Sysbuild
Manual build
Note
User can select the MCUboot bootloader by adding the following line to the board default configuration file.
CONFIG_BOOTLOADER_MCUBOOT=y
Sysbuild
The sysbuild makes possible to build and flash all necessary images needed to bootstrap the board with the ESP32 SoC.
To build the sample application using sysbuild use the command:
west build -b <board> --sysbuild samples/hello_world
By default, the ESP32 sysbuild creates bootloader (MCUboot) and application images. But it can be configured to create other kind of images.
Build directory structure created by sysbuild is different from traditional Zephyr build. Output is structured by the domain subdirectories:
build/
├── hello_world
│ └── zephyr
│ ├── zephyr.elf
│ └── zephyr.bin
├── mcuboot
│ └── zephyr
│ ├── zephyr.elf
│ └── zephyr.bin
└── domains.yaml
Note
With --sysbuild
option the bootloader will be re-build and re-flash
every time the pristine build is used.
For more information about the system build please read the Sysbuild (System build) documentation.
Manual build
During the development cycle, it is intended to build & flash as quickly possible. For that reason, images can be built one at a time using traditional build.
The instructions following are relevant for both manual build and sysbuild. The only difference is the structure of the build directory.
Note
Remember that bootloader (MCUboot) needs to be flash at least once.
Build and flash applications as usual (see Building an Application and Run an Application for more details).
# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b <board> samples/hello_world
The usual flash
target will work with the board configuration.
Here is an example for the Hello World
application.
# From the root of the zephyr repository
west build -b <board> samples/hello_world
west flash
Open the serial monitor using the following command:
west espressif monitor
After the board has automatically reset and booted, you should see the following message in the monitor:
***** Booting Zephyr OS vx.x.x-xxx-gxxxxxxxxxxxx *****
Hello World! <board>
Board variants using Snippets
ESP32 boards can be assembled with different modules using multiple combinations of SPI flash sizes, PSRAM sizes and PSRAM modes.
The snippets under snippets/espressif
provide a modular way to apply these variations at build time without duplicating board definitions.
The following snippet-based variants are supported:
Snippet name |
Description |
---|---|
Flash memory size |
|
|
Board with 4MB of flash |
|
Board with 8MB of flash |
|
Board with 16MB of flash |
|
Board with 32MB of flash |
PSRAM memory size |
|
|
Board with 2MB of PSRAM |
|
Board with 4MB of PSRAM |
|
Board with 8MB of PSRAM |
PSRAM utilization |
|
|
Relocate flash to PSRAM |
|
Wi-Fi buffers in PSRAM |
To apply a board variant, use the -S
flag with west build:
west build -b <board> -S flash-32M -S psram-4M samples/hello_world
Note: These snippets are applicable to boards with compatible hardware support for the selected flash/PSRAM configuration.