LILYGO T-Dongle-C5

Overview

The LILYGO T-Dongle-C5 represents a high-density IoT development platform engineered around Espressif’s ESP32-C5HR8 system-on-chip. Delivering native dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0 LE, and 802.15.4 connectivity spanning Thread 1.3 and Zigbee 3.0, the board provides an agile hardware bridge for contemporary wireless mesh networks. Its primary computing cluster pairs a 240 MHz 32-bit RISC-V core with a 40 MHz low-power coprocessor, backed by 384 KB of on-chip SRAM, 8 MB of PSRAM, and 16 MB of onboard SPI flash memory. System integration is exceptionally compact, utilizing a 58.6 x 17.9 x 8.7 mm footprint that nests a full microSD card slot directly inside the male USB Type-A connector alongside a plug-and-play STEMMA QT / Qwiic I2C interface, a programmable RGB LED, and an optional 0.96-inch 160×80 IPS color display.

From an architectural and acoustic standpoint, the solid-state dongle functions completely silently, relying on passive convective heat dissipation across the multi-layer PCB surface to maintain thermal balance during intensive dual-band radio operation. Firmware development is grounded in the mature Espressif ESP-IDF ecosystem, offering stable FreeRTOS primitives and cross-protocol software stacks. The primary engineering compromise involves physical RF reconfiguration: while dual onboard ceramic antennas offer ready-to-run wireless operation, routing RF paths to the secondary IPEX connectors requires manual surface-mount rework to desolder and rotate two onboard resistors. For developers, hardware hackers, and embedded systems engineers, the T-Dongle-C5 delivers a remarkably capable, pocket-sized wireless testbed with versatile local expansion.

Technical Specifications