ESP-SensairShuttle Kit Combines Bosch BME690 with BMI270 and BMM350 Sensors

The ESP-SensairShuttle is a small modular dev kit jointly developed by Espressif Systems and Bosch Sensortec to make “multimodal” sensing demos easier to assemble: swap in an environmental board when you want air-quality-style data, or swap in a motion/heading board when you want gestures, orientation and compass-like behaviour. The core board is built around Espressif’s ESP32-C5 wireless SoC family, so it’s also a handy vehicle for trying out dual-band Wi-Fi 6 alongside Bluetooth LE and 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread/Matter).

What you get in the kit

At the centre is the ESP-SensairShuttle mainboard, which uses an ESP32-C5-WROOM-1-N16R8 module with 16 MB SPI flash and 8 MB PSRAM. The rig includes the ESP32-C5’s single-core 32-bit RISC-V application CPU (up to 240 MHz) plus a separate low-power RISC-V core (40 MHz) intended for power-sensitive tasks. Wireless support spans dual-band 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi 6 (with backwards compatibility to older Wi-Fi modes), Bluetooth 5 LE (including Mesh), and an 802.15.4 radio for Zigbee/Thread-class stacks.

On the interaction side, the kit includes a small integrated display: a 1.83-inch 240×284-pixel touchscreen driven by an ST7789P3 controller over 4-wire SPI. Audio is handled via simple connectors for an external analogue microphone and an external speaker, positioning the board for voice-assistant and “talking device” prototypes where sensing drives spoken feedback (or where voice drives actions that can be confirmed by sensor input).

Shuttle boards: environmental versus motion

Espressif and Bosch bundle two interchangeable Bosch Sensortec “Shuttle Board” daughterboards. The first is ShuttleBoard-BME690, based on Bosch’s BME690. It’s a four-in-one environmental part that provides temperature, humidity, pressure, and gas sensing (gas resistance), and Bosch positions it for indoor air-quality monitoring and detection of volatile organic compounds and related gases. On this kit, the BME690 board can speak I2C or SPI back to the ESP32-C5.

The second is ShuttleBoard-BMI270&BMM350, combining the BMI270 IMU with the BMM350 magnetometer. The BMI270 provides 3-axis acceleration and 3-axis angular rate (gyroscope) and supports I2C or SPI. Bosch pitches it as an ultra-low power “smart IMU” with on-chip motion-triggered features such as gesture/context/activity recognition and a step counter. The BMM350 adds 3-axis magnetic field sensing over I2C; Bosch highlights its TMR technology, low noise, and a “field shock recovery” feature aimed at maintaining accuracy after exposure to strong external fields.

Interfaces, expansion, and power

The mainboard is designed to be a small hub for demos rather than a bare module breakout. A USB-C port is used for power, charging, programming, and debugging, while a 2-pin connector supports a 3.7 V Li-Po battery for untethered operation. Espressif’s user guide also describes external interfaces that make the kit easier to extend: a 4-pin external I2C header for additional sensors or peripherals, a small external pin header (GPIO4 and GPIO5, plus power and ground), and an external RGB strip connector intended for WS2812-type LEDs (useful for “status as light” prototypes without needing to wire up extra drivers).

The sensor-board interface itself uses a pair of fine-pitch female headers (called out by CNX Software as 9 + 7 pin, 1.27 mm pitch) to accept supported Bosch shuttle boards (Espressif notes support for shuttle board 3.0 revisions). That approach makes the kit feel more like a modular reference platform than a one-off demo board: you’re meant to swap sensor capability quickly, without rewiring, and keep the same interaction hardware (screen, audio, power options) in place.

Software: enough to get you moving, but still early

Espressif hosts a dedicated ESP-SensairShuttle user guide covering hardware, pinouts, power options and the LCD interface. Software guidance in the docs is light beyond the standard ESP-IDF setup. The practical starting point, though, is the esp-dev-kits repository on GitHub, which includes factory firmware and ESP-IDF components for the platform. The code supports both the BME690 and the BMI270+BMM350 shuttle boards, showing live environmental readings (temperature, humidity, pressure, gas resistance) on the LCD for the BME690 board, and providing sensor-status output for the motion/compass board.

The “multimodal sensing + interaction” framing also fits into the broader Bosch/Espressif collaboration story I covered earlier when I looked at the Bosch–Espressif partnership behind ESP-SensairShuttle. In practice, the kit is a neat physical bundle for developers who want to experiment with sensor fusion (environment + motion + heading), show results on a small screen, and then add voice I/O — all without building the stack from scratch.

Price and availability

On AliExpress, the ESP-SensairShuttle Espressif Systems AIoT Smart Sensor Kit is listed at $49.40 (exclusding shipping). That price point puts it in the “throw it in the parts drawer” class for dev kits, especially given the inclusion of a touchscreen and two sensor boards.