Two new-ish MCU's from Winnermicro - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: jscottbee
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: February 04, 2022, 09:12:02 pm
content: After getting a W806 board last month, I ordered two other new boards based on the Winnermicro line.The first is the W801-C400. It's the same size as the W806-C200, but with Wifi. The board is by HLK (Hlink). The chip uses the same compiler toolset (csky-elfabiv2) and the wmtool for flashing the chips.Now for the "biscuit burner"They both use different SDK's. Not just linker and flash tools settings, it's a different function set. The W806 uses a HAL type SDK similar to the STM32. etc, while the W801 has a tls_ function set like the W600 uses. This is not a big problem I guess, just seems like they are kind of all over the place though. Standards inside a company are good sometimes.The next chip/board I received this week is the Air101 LuatOS board. It's listed as a Risk-V (but it's not) After typing to connect to LuatOS on the board (with no success), I started to dig in and look at what it uses underneath. It appears to be a rebranded W800-C400 (32-pin and no wifi). The SDK is based on the tls_ function set like the W800/W801. I was able to use the W800 SDK and cobble a blinky program and flash it to the chip.At this point, I think the Air101 board is a "skip-it" board. The W801 seems promising, due to Wifi and 40+ usable GPIOs. I plan to do a bit of playing with it this weekend.

author: thm_w
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 04, 2022, 11:24:13 pm
content: They just sanded the top off and marked it as "AIR101"Previous thread:https://www.eevblog.com/forum/microcontrollers/hlk-w806-what-is-this-mistery-very-cheap-and-powerfull-cpu/msg3905274/#new

author: englishrupe01
author_rank: Newbie
timestamp: October 05, 2022, 01:32:32 pm
content: I wonder why almost no-one else has picked up on this pretty cool board? I got half a dozen W801's from AliExpress for around two bucks each delivered....way cheaper than an ESP32.

author: GromBeestje
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2022, 07:01:33 pm
content: I've got some of those W806 boards, they've been catching dust for months.The main reason I haven't touched them is the lack of a debugger. I know it should probably work with a CKLink debugger. The CKLink should be for C-Sky based chips, and this is a C-Sky based chip. The thing costs €50+ on AliExpress, and I am not even sure it will work with these boards, so I haven't ordered one yet.Maybe I am spoiled with ARM Cortex-M* based MCUs and cheap JTAG/SWD debuggers, but that's what's keeping me from trying them.

author: SiliconWizard
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2022, 07:17:04 pm
content: I personally do not care too much for a debugger on MCUs. Haven't evalutated those W80x yet though. What bothers me a bit more is the architecture (C-sky). Does anyone here have any experience with it? Is there good support in GCC and LLVM, or does this require a patched version?

author: GromBeestje
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: October 05, 2022, 09:04:50 pm
content: As there are options for the c-sky architecture on the gnu site, it looks like gcc support is upstreamed.https://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/C-SKY-Options.html