Mononymous maker “Alan” has designed what he proclaims as “the smallest Ethernet module on this planet,” making use of a USB Kind-C connector’s additional capabilities — and powered by the WIZnet ioNIC W55RP20, which mixes the corporate’s W5500 Ethernet controller with a Raspberry Pi RP2040 microcontroller in a single surface-mount package deal.
“The primary chip of this module is WIZnet’s new chip, the W55RP20,” Alan explains. “This chip combines Raspberry Pi’s RP2040 and WIZnet’s W5500. Consider it as including Ethernet performance to the RP2040. This makes it good for small tasks requiring Ethernet connectivity. The design was carried out to create a small microcontroller, much like Pimoroni’s Tiny 2040 or Seeed Studio’s XIAO RP2040. It is a equally sized board, however with Ethernet functionality.”
At first look, Alan’s board design appears to lack Ethernet connectivity — regardless of the usage of the WIZnet’s W55RP20 chip. Just like the boards from which Alan drew inspiration, there’s solely a single USB Kind-C connector for knowledge and energy plus 0.1″ general-purpose enter/output (GPIO) pin headers at both aspect. The key: the USB Kind-C connector is pulling double-duty as an Ethernet port.
“Even with this groundbreaking design, there’s a drawback,” Alan admits. “Whereas this module is designed to allow Ethernet by way of a USB Kind-C connection, the opposite modules it communicates with usually are not. All Ethernet modules geared up with RJ45 that we use function based mostly on their particular pinout. Due to this fact, the pinout of this module have to be aligned with different Ethernet gear. For now, this requires utilizing a jig.”
Whereas the board is, certainly, tiny, accessing Ethernet requires a breakout — or a custom-made Y-splitter cable. (📷: Alan)
The jig in query is a breakout board that connects to Alan’s microcontroller board over a USB 3.0 Kind-A to Kind-C cable, then supplies USB 2.0 and Ethernet RJ45 connectivity on the different finish. In consequence, Alan’s declare to have made “the smallest Ethernet module on this planet” may very well be known as into query by way of the necessity to add the footprint of each boards collectively — however, in Alan’s protection, the breakout board may very well be changed with a custom-made Y-splitter cable to convey the scale again down once more.
The mission is documented on the WIZnet Makers website, cut up into half one and half two.