Pycom GPy

ESP32 board with LTE CAT-M1/NB-IoT and Wi-Fi - designed for low-power cellular IoT applications.

Pycom GPy board
55 × 20 mm
ESP32
MCU
240MHz
clock
8MB
flash
520KB
SRAM
27· 18 ADC
GPIO
BLE 4.2+ WiFi
radio
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Pycom GPy Pinout

27 pins
PinGPIOLabelsStatusCapabilitiesNotes
10LED_BUILTINA11T1strappingadc · touch
21TXPWMuartuart
32A12T2PWMstrappingadc · touch
43RXPWMuartuart
54A10T0PWMsafeadc · touch
65LTE_TXPWMstrapping-
712SDAA15T5PWMstrappingadc · touch · i2c
813SCLSCKA14T4PWMstrappingadc · touch · spi · i2c
914A16T6PWMstrappingadc · touch
1015A13T3PWMstrappingadc · touch
1117SSPWMstrappingspi
1218LTE_CTSPWMsafe-
1319LTE_RTSPWMsafe-
1421ANT_SELECTPWMsafe-
1522MOSIPWMsafespi
1623LTE_RXPWMsafe-
1725A18DAC1PWMsafeadc · dac
1826A19DAC2PWMsafeadc · dac
1927LTE_WAKEA17T7PWMsafeadc · touch
2032A4T9PWMsafeadc · touch
2133A5T8PWMsafeadc · touch
2234A6strappingadc
2335A7strappingadc
2436A0strappingadc
2537MISOA1strappingadc · spi
2638A2strappingadc
2739A3strappingadc
27 GPIOs broken out 11 free · 15 need care · 1 to avoid

Start with these

11 pins with no boot or system involvement
A10GPIO4LTE_CTSGPIO18LTE_RTSGPIO19ANT_SELECTGPIO21MOSIGPIO22LTE_RXGPIO23A18GPIO25A19GPIO26LTE_WAKEGPIO27A4GPIO32A5GPIO33

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

Fine - with a little care

15 pins · 12 things to know
LED_BUILTINGPIO0 Bootstrapping pin (enter bootloader when low); internal pull-up. Strapping

Must be HIGH during boot for normal startup; if held LOW on reset, forces flash programming mode.

TXGPIO1 Default UART0 TX pin for USB-serial programming and console. UART

Connected to on-board USB-UART for uploading and logs; drives serial output at boot, so using as GPIO can disrupt programming or console.

A12GPIO2 Bootstrapping pin (must be low or floating at reset); internal pull-down. Strapping

If driven HIGH on reset (while IO0 is LOW), selects an unsupported SDIO boot mode, causing boot failure.

RXGPIO3 Default UART0 RX pin for USB-serial programming (console input). UART

Used for receiving data from USB-UART (programming); also pulled HIGH at boot for console communication, so using as GPIO can disrupt uploads.

LTE_TXGPIO5 Bootstrapping pin; internal pull-up; VSPI CS0 (default SPI chip-select); acts as FSPIWP (flash write-protect) on internal-flash variants. Strapping

Must be HIGH during boot; if pulled LOW at reset, alters SDIO slave timing and may prevent normal boot.

SDAGPIO12 Bootstrapping pin; JTAG TDI; sets flash voltage (VDD_SDIO); also HSPIQ (flash data line). Strapping

Keep LOW during boot (internal PD); pulling HIGH at reset selects 1.8V flash mode, causing flash brownout if 3.3V flash is used.

SCLGPIO13 JTAG clock pin (TCK); also ADC2 channel 4 / Touch4 input. JTAG

Used for JTAG debugging (TCK); avoid using as GPIO if JTAG is needed.

A16GPIO14 JTAG mode select pin (TMS); also HSPI CLK and PWM-capable GPIO. JTAG

Used for JTAG debugging (TMS); driving it as GPIO may interfere with JTAG or produce spurious signals at boot.

A13GPIO15 Bootstrapping pin; JTAG TDO; controls UART0 boot log output; also HSPICS0 (secondary SPI CS). Strapping

Keep HIGH during boot (internal PU); if LOW on reset, bootloader log is silenced and boot mode may change.

A6GPIO34 Input-only GPIO (no output driver); ADC1 channel 6. Other

Cannot be used as output (no drive capability); only suitable for analog/digital input.

A7GPIO35MISOGPIO37A2GPIO38A3GPIO39 Input-only GPIOs with ADC1 channels - no output driver Other

Cannot be used as output; only suitable for input.

  • A7Input-only GPIO (no output driver); ADC1 channel 7.
  • MISOInput-only GPIO (no output); ADC1 channel 1.
  • A2Input-only GPIO (no output); ADC1 channel 2.
  • A3Input-only GPIO (no output); ADC1 channel 3, Hall sensor VN.
A0GPIO36 Input-only GPIO (no output); ADC1 channel 0, Hall sensor VP. Other

Cannot be used as output; only suitable for input (e.g., analog read).

Only if you know the tricks

1 pins · 1 thing to know
SSGPIO17 PSRAM clock on WROVER-class modules; in-package flash IO1/DO on ESP32-U4WDH. Also UART2 TX. PSRAM

Wired to the memory die on PSRAM-equipped modules (WROVER, PICO-V3-02) and on in-package-memory chip variants (U4WDH, D0WDRH2-V3); an ordinary GPIO on a plain WROOM-32.

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.

The Pycom GPy pinout brings out 27 GPIO pins - every one of them usable in your project.

For peripherals, I²C is mapped to SDA on GPIO12 and SCL on GPIO13; the SPI bus (MOSI, MISO, SCK, SS) is broken out in full; TX/RX on GPIO1 and GPIO3 cover serial logging and flashing.

On the analog side there are 18 ADC-capable pins for sensors and battery monitoring, 10 capacitive-touch inputs and 2 true DAC outputs.

If you want zero surprises, A10, LTE_CTS, LTE_RTS, ANT_SELECT and 7 more are free of any such role - the safest first picks. 15 of the exposed pins carry boot-time or system duties on the ESP32 (LED_BUILTIN, TX, A12 and 12 more).

Getting started

flash your first firmware in ~2 minutes
Tool:
1
Connect over USB
Install your USB-serial driver (CH340 / CP210x) if no port appears. Not detected? Hold BOOT while plugging in.
2
Match & flash
Set the Tools options shown, then click Upload.
3
Verify it runs
GPIO4 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: "ESP32 Wrover Module"▸
Flash Size: "8MB (64Mb)"▸
Flash Mode: "DIO"▸
PSRAM: "QSPI PSRAM"▸
Partition Scheme: "8M with spiffs (3MB APP/1.5MB SPIFFS)" (default)▸
Upload Speed: "921600"▸
▸ every other Tools option - leave at default
Board: ESP32 Wrover Module
Flash Size: 8MB (64Mb)
Flash Mode: DIO
PSRAM: QSPI PSRAM
Partition Scheme: 8M with spiffs (3MB APP/1.5MB SPIFFS)
Upload Speed: 921600
Find it: Tools ▸ Board ▸ ESP32 Arduino ▸ ESP32 Wrover Module
blink.ino Copy
// toggle GPIO4 - wire an LED and resistor to it
void setup() {
  pinMode(4, OUTPUT);
}
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(4, HIGH); delay(500);
  digitalWrite(4, LOW);  delay(500);
}
board to selectesp32dev⧉ copy
platformio.ini Copy
[env:gpy]
platform = espressif32
board = esp32dev
framework = arduino
monitor_speed = 115200
upload_speed = 921600
board_build.arduino.memory_type = qio_qspi
build_flags = -DBOARD_HAS_PSRAM
Find it: PlatformIO Home ▸ Boards, search esp32dev - or type it after board =.
board to selectesp32dev⧉ copy
device.yaml Copy
esp32:
  board: esp32dev
  variant: esp32
  framework:
    type: esp-idf
psram:
  mode: quad
  speed: 80MHz

# blink - GPIO4
output:
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 4
    id: led_out
light:
  - platform: binary
    name: "LED"
    output: led_out
Find it: search ESPHome's board list for esp32dev (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 esp32 --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 · 55 × 20 mm · vs other ESP32 chips →
Compute
MCU
ESP32
Clock
240 MHz
SRAM · Flash
520 KB · 8MB · 4MB (QSPI) PSRAM
Radio
Wi-Fi
802.11 b/g/n
Bluetooth
4.2 LE
Antenna
u.FL
I/O
GPIO · ADC
27 · 18
UART · I²C · SPI
3 · 2 · 2
PWM
16 channels
Power
USB
None
Serial
-
Boot address
0x1000
Electrical
Input
3.5-5.5V VIN
Consumption
-
Regulator
-
Flashing
Upload · OTA
esptool_py · esp_ota
Flash · Boot mode
DIO · DIO
Sketch · Data
1.25 MB · 320 KB

Dimensions

20 mm55 mm
55 × 20 mm
The Pycom GPy uses esptool_py for firmware uploads, esp_ota for over-the-air (OTA) updates. Flash mode is DIO with DIO boot mode. The maximum sketch size is 1.25 MB with 320 KB available for data.

About this board

At its core is the ESP32 - a dual-core Xtensa with both Bluetooth Classic and BLE.

Expect to pay about $54.95 - above the ~$20 typical for ESP32 boards.

Onboard you'll find 4MB (QSPI) PSRAM and cellular connectivity (Sequans Monarch LTE-M/NB-IoT).

  • Triple-network module: LTE-M/NB-IoT (Sequans Monarch), Wi-Fi & BLE
  • Onboard ceramic antenna for Wi-Fi/BLE; u.FL connector for the LTE-M/NB-IoT antenna
  • No onboard USB - needs Pycom Expansion Board, Pysense or Pytrack to connect

Where to buy

prices are typical street prices
Pycom GPy
Pycom GPy
$54.95per unit, typical

Resources

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