ESP32 As Your Raspberri Pi’s Linux Wireless Co-processor

Using ESP32 modules as a wireless co-processor for Linux single-board computers via the esp-hosted project is explained in depth, covering both the esp-hosted-mcu and esp-hosted-linux variants. The guide walks through wiring an ESP32 over SDIO or SPI, freeing up the SDIO interface on a Raspberry Pi, compiling and flashing firmware, building the kernel driver, and persisting it with modprobe. Practical tips cover chip choice (ESP32-C5 over C6 for 5GHz support), power requirements, layout advice for SDIO traces, and known rough edges like missing device-tree and dkms integration. The approach yields decent throughput (40-50 Mbps), clean handling of hardware power switches, and potential for future use as a Bluetooth, Zigbee, Thread, or LoRa/Meshtastic co-processor as more of the ESP32 WiFi stack gets reverse-engineered.

Source: https://hackaday.com/2026/10/07/esp32-as-your-raspberri-pis-linux-wireless-co-processor. 8 Sync News only summarizes and links out; content copyright belongs to the authors and original sources.