The SparkFun Thing Plus Matter board is the first Matter-compliant, an easy-to-use board that integrates with SparkFun’s Qwiic ecosystem and a host of communication protocols like Zigbee for agile development and prototyping of Matter-based IoT devices at just $24.95 plus shipping.
The Matter is a new standard for smart home devices that offers advantages such as interoperability, increased compatibility with voice assistants and platforms, enhanced security, simplified setup, and future-proofing. Matter devices can communicate with each other regardless of the manufacturer, protocol, or operating system, which simplifies smart home ecosystem integration.
The board contains MGM240P wireless module, which is built around EFR32MG24 Wireless SoC which works with common 802.15.4 wireless protocols like Zigbee, Matter, OpenThread, and Bluetooth Low Energy 5.3. This module can be directly integrated into Silicon Lab’s Matter IoT protocol for home automation. Apart from this, the MGM240P has built-in support for Silicon Lab’s Secure Vault for applications involving Thread protocol like smart home.
Apart from the ease of connectivity and support for a wide range of communication protocols, it also includes a µSD card slot for any external memory needs and MCP73831 single-cell LiPo charger as well as MAX17048 fuel gauge to charge and monitor a connected battery. Also, it contains Qwiic and LiPo battery connectors, as well as multiple GPIO pins capable of complete multiplexing through software. Software Multiplexing is a highly important feature that is significant for some IoT use cases where multiple devices need to share the same physical resource, such as a communication channel or a physical I/O pin.
SparkFun Thing Plus Matter MGM240P Board Specifications
MGM240P Wireless module
- EFR32MG24 microcontroller (SoC)
- 32-bit Arm Cortex-M33 CPU @ 39 MHz
- 1536kB Flash Memory and 256kB RAM
- Wireless – 802.15.4 wireless protocols support Zigbee, OpenThread, and Bluetooth Low Energy 5.3
- Matter-Compliant with Secure Vault Support for thread applications
- Built-in Antenna
Expansion
- 21x GPIO configurable header pins as I2C, SPI, UART, I2S, 6x Analog Inputs, and Reset, Enable, and power signals
- 4-pin JST Qwiic connector
Misc
- Reset button
- 4x LEDs for Power, Status, Charging, and Debugging
Power Supply
- 5V via USB-C port
- 2-Pin JST connector for LiPo battery with MC73831 LiPo charger and MAX17048 LiPo fuel gauge
- Power consumption – 15µA (MGM240P – Low Power mode)
Dimensions – 5.84 x 22.9 cm (Feather-compatible); 2x mounting holes
The board supports a USB Type-C port for rich connectivity, along with an option for a MicroSD card socket for expanding the storage. You can use Simplicity Studio IDE for software development for this board, as well as other Bluetooth and Silicon Labs SDK applications.
To learn more about the SparkFun Thing Plus Matter MGM240P board, visit the official product page.
Hrushikesh Vazurkar is an alumni of VNIT Nagpur, CSE Department. He is passionate about competitive programming, web development and AI.
