GroupGets recently featured the gCore development kit designed for portable GUI-based applications. The dev kit is also compatible with an expansion board and a Teledyne FLIR Lepton FS to obtain thermal imaging capabilities.

The MCU found on the gCore is the ESP32 WRover-B from Expressif Systems. This ESP32 module features two cores with an adjustable clock frequency ranging from 80-240MHz along with 16MB of PSRAM and 16MB of Flash. For external storage, the dev kit includes a MicroSD slot with 4-bit mode data interface for high data transfer. 

gCore block diagram
(click image to enlarge)

The display is a 3.5” TFT LCD (480 x 320) with resistive touch support. The gCore also includes a high-speed SPI bus to 8-bit parallel interface which enables the LCD controller with fast refresh rate. There is also a dimmable backlight controller to adjust the brightness of the LCD.

       
gCore specs
(click image to enlarge)

Other peripherals found on the gCore are a true USB power-bath Li-ion battery charger, a USB-UART bridge with intelligent charging, a 3.3V boost-buck converter, and a soft power control button. Additionally, the dev kit has battery voltage detection and charge state detection features.  

     
gCore capabilities demo
(click images to enlarge)

Documentation including Arduino examples, STL enclosure files, etc.  can be found in this GitHub repo. There is also a Hackaday page with additional information related to the gCore development.  The GUI library is based on the open-source LVGL graphics library.

The gCore is also compatible with the tCam-Mini Rev4 (expansion board) and a Teledyne FLIR Lepton FS camera. The developer company also pledged to provide source code demonstrating the thermal imaging feature. 

 Specifications listed for the gCore Dev Board include:

• Processor System:
  • ESP32 WRover-B MCU, 2-cores (up to 240MHz)
• Memory/Storage:
  • 16MB PSRAM
  • 16MB Flash
  • 1x MicroSD card reader
• Display:
  • TFT 3.5″ 480×320 Touchscreen
• Camera:
  • Teledyne FLIR Lepton FS (optional)
  • Teledyne FLIR Lepton 3.5 (optional)
• Connectivity:
  • 2.4GHz Wi-Fi
  • Bluetooth 4.2 
• USB:
  • 1x USB Type-C
• I/O Peripherals:
  • 1x Qwicc I2C expansion 
  • Expansion header
• Other Features:
  • CP2102 USB UART bridge
  • MCP73871 Load sharing charger
  • TPSS63051 Boost-Buck Converter
• Software:
  • Arduino 
  • Espressif IDF
• Dimensions:
  • 95 x 69 x 11mm

 Further information

The gCore campaign was launched very recently on GroupGets and it’s available for $159.0. The tCam-Mini Rev4 is listed for $79.99 while the Teledyne FLIR Lepton FS is available for $109.0. There is also a FDM enclosure which costs around ~$29.99 but the enclosure STL files are also available in the GitHub repo provided.