Arduino Mini 3.3v with integrated Bluetooth or WiFi

Projects General Guidance
1

Hi everyone. Thanks for having me on this forum.

I've taken up an interest in Arduino and I would like to embark on my first project.

I want to power a small electronic-ink display and have it refresh wirelessly at given intervals (once every x hours, for example). I would like the setup to be small and, if possible, run on a disk battery for months at a time. I'm thinking of using a small Raspberry Pi to send the updates to the display.

According to my research, an Arduino Mini Pro might be best suited for this project. It is small and runs on 3.3v with an 8Mghz clock. I believe it is capable of using a timer to wake itself up (although, I prefer if it were passive and have the Raspberry Pi wake it up if new information arrives).

My problem is that I can not find a mini that has integrated BlueTooth or WiFi, which would greatly simplify my project. I'm a novice in electronics and having to wire up a Bluetooth or a WiFi chip to an Arduino mini might be well beyond my current abilities.

I know there is an Arduino BLE and Arduino BLE sense, but they are much too big and expensive for my needs.

Are there any off-the-shelf Mini or similar controllers that come with BlueTooth or WiFi? And am I biting off more than I can chew for a novice/first project?

Your thoughts are much appreciated.

2

Connecting a BlueTooth adaptor to the Arduino is going to be no more difficult than connecting the e-Ink display that you are going to need to do anyway

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Thank you, @UKHeliBob. I'm not sure why the obvious had not occurred to me.

If I wanted to make a lot of these devices, however, having the Bluetooth chip already integrated would be very helpful. Do you know of an Arduino board with a similar profile that comes with BT?

4

Take a look at the Arduino Nano 33 boards. Some have built in WiFi and/or Bluetooth but they are relatively expensive

If you are going to make a lot of your devices then consider creating your own PCB and use it as a carrier board for a small Arduino board, a Bluetooth module and the display or take it one step further and create your own "Arduino" on the board

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