Supported Boards

Complete list of hardware platforms supported by ZeroClaw

Supported Boards

ZeroClaw supports a wide range of microcontrollers and single-board computers. Each board has different capabilities, transport protocols, and use cases.

Board Comparison

Board	Architecture	Transport	GPIO	ADC	I2C/SPI	Flash Tool	Status
Raspberry Pi	ARM (all models)	Native	✅	✅	✅	N/A (native)	✅ Stable
STM32 Nucleo-F401RE	ARM Cortex-M4	USB Serial	✅	✅	✅	OpenOCD	✅ Stable
Arduino Uno	ATmega328P	USB Serial	✅	✅	✅	avrdude	✅ Stable
Arduino Uno R4 WiFi	RA4M1 + ESP32	USB Serial / Bridge	✅	✅	✅	Custom	✅ Stable
ESP32 (RISC-V)	ESP32-C3, C2	Serial / WiFi	✅	✅	✅	espflash	✅ Stable
ESP32 (Xtensa)	ESP32, S2, S3	Serial / WiFi	✅	✅	✅	espflash	🚧 Experimental

Raspberry Pi

Models Supported

• Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB recommended for robots)
• Raspberry Pi 4 (4GB+)
• Raspberry Pi 3 B+
• Raspberry Pi Zero W (ARMv6, requires special build)
• Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W

Features

• GPIO: 40-pin header, BCM pin numbering
• Transport: Native (rppal library)
• Firmware: None required (ZeroClaw runs directly on Pi)
• Use Cases: Edge-native AI, autonomous robots, production deployments

Configuration

[[peripherals.boards]]
board = "rpi-gpio"
transport = "native"

Build Requirements

# Enable peripheral-rpi feature
cargo build --features peripheral-rpi

# For Pi Zero W (ARMv6)
cargo build --release --target armv6l-unknown-linux-musleabihf --features peripheral-rpi

Raspberry Pi Setup

Detailed Raspberry Pi setup guide

STM32 Nucleo

Models Supported

• Nucleo-F401RE (primary support)
• Other STM32 Nucleo boards (experimental)

Features

• GPIO: Arduino-compatible headers + Morpho connectors
• Architecture: ARM Cortex-M4, 84 MHz
• Transport: USB Serial (ST-LINK VCP)
• Firmware: firmware/zeroclaw-nucleo/
• Use Cases: Embedded development, rapid prototyping

VID/PID

• Vendor ID: 0x0483 (STMicroelectronics)
• Product ID: 0x374b (ST-LINK/V2.1)

Configuration

[[peripherals.boards]]
board = "nucleo-f401re"
transport = "serial"
path = "/dev/ttyACM0"  # or /dev/cu.usbmodem* on macOS
baud = 115200

Flashing Firmware

# Auto-flash via OpenOCD
zeroclaw peripheral flash-nucleo

# Manual flash
cd firmware/zeroclaw-nucleo
cargo build --release
openocd -f interface/stlink.cfg -f target/stm32f4x.cfg \
  -c "program target/thumbv7em-none-eabihf/release/zeroclaw-nucleo verify reset exit"

STM32 Nucleo Setup

Detailed STM32 Nucleo setup guide

Arduino

Models Supported

• Arduino Uno (ATmega328P)
• Arduino Uno R4 WiFi (RA4M1 + ESP32-S3)

Arduino Uno (Classic)

Features:

• GPIO: 14 digital pins (6 PWM), 6 analog inputs
• Architecture: AVR ATmega328P, 16 MHz
• Transport: USB Serial (CH340 or ATmega16U2)
• Firmware: firmware/zeroclaw-arduino/zeroclaw-arduino.ino
• Use Cases: Education, simple projects

VID/PID:

• CH340: 0x1a86:0x7523
• ATmega16U2: 0x2341:0x0043

Configuration:

[[peripherals.boards]]
board = "arduino-uno"
transport = "serial"
path = "/dev/ttyUSB0"  # or /dev/cu.usbserial-* on macOS
baud = 115200

Flashing:

# Via ZeroClaw (uses avrdude)
zeroclaw peripheral flash --port /dev/ttyUSB0

# Via Arduino IDE
# 1. Open firmware/zeroclaw-arduino/zeroclaw-arduino.ino
# 2. Select Board: Arduino Uno
# 3. Select Port
# 4. Upload

Arduino Uno R4 WiFi (Uno Q)

Features:

• GPIO: 14 digital pins, 6 analog inputs
• Architecture: Renesas RA4M1 (ARM Cortex-M4, 48 MHz)
• WiFi: ESP32-S3 co-processor
• Transport: Bridge (WebSocket to Arduino Cloud)
• Use Cases: IoT projects, remote control

Configuration:

[[peripherals.boards]]
board = "arduino-uno-q"
transport = "bridge"

Setup:

zeroclaw peripheral setup-uno-q --host robot.local

Arduino Setup

Detailed Arduino setup guide

ESP32

Variants Supported

ESP32-C3 / ESP32-C2 (RISC-V) — Recommended

• Architecture: RISC-V 32-bit, 160 MHz
• Transport: Serial (USB CDC)
• Firmware: firmware/zeroclaw-esp32/ (Rust, ESP-IDF)
• Status: ✅ Stable

ESP32 / ESP32-S2 / ESP32-S3 (Xtensa)

• Architecture: Xtensa 32-bit, 240 MHz
• Transport: Serial
• Firmware: Same, requires espup toolchain
• Status: 🚧 Experimental

Features

• GPIO: 34+ pins (varies by model)
• WiFi: 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth: Classic + BLE (ESP32 classic)
• Use Cases: IoT, edge-native AI (future)

VID/PID

• CH340 USB-UART: 0x1a86:0x7523
• CP2102 USB-UART: 0x10c4:0xea60

Configuration

[[peripherals.boards]]
board = "esp32"
transport = "serial"
path = "/dev/ttyUSB0"  # or /dev/cu.SLAB_USBtoUART
baud = 115200

Building Firmware

cd firmware/zeroclaw-esp32

# RISC-V (C3, C2) - uses nightly Rust + build-std
export PATH="/opt/homebrew/opt/python@3.12/libexec/bin:$PATH"
cargo build --release

# Xtensa (ESP32, S2, S3) - requires espup
cargo install espup espflash
espup install
source ~/export-esp.sh
cargo build --release --target xtensa-esp32-espidf

Flashing

# RISC-V
espflash flash target/riscv32imc-esp-espidf/release/zeroclaw-esp32 --monitor

# Xtensa
espflash flash target/xtensa-esp32-espidf/release/zeroclaw-esp32 --monitor

ESP32 Setup

Detailed ESP32 setup guide

Pin Mapping Reference

Arduino Uno

Digital: 0-13 (0,1 = Serial)
PWM:     3, 5, 6, 9, 10, 11
Analog:  A0-A5
LED:     Pin 13 (built-in)

Raspberry Pi (40-pin header, BCM numbering)

GPIO:  2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
       16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27
I2C:   GPIO 2 (SDA), GPIO 3 (SCL)
SPI:   GPIO 9 (MISO), GPIO 10 (MOSI), GPIO 11 (SCLK)
PWM:   GPIO 12, 13, 18, 19

ESP32-C3

GPIO:  0-21 (varies by dev board)
UART:  GPIO 20 (RX), GPIO 21 (TX)
I2C:   GPIO 8 (SDA), GPIO 9 (SCL)
SPI:   GPIO 2 (MOSI), GPIO 3 (MISO), GPIO 4 (SCLK)
LED:   GPIO 2 (built-in on some boards)

STM32 Nucleo-F401RE

Arduino headers: D0-D15, A0-A5
Morpho connectors: Full pin access
LED: PA5 (LD2, Arduino D13 equivalent)
Button: PC13 (USER button)

Board Selection Guide

Choose Raspberry Pi if:

• Running edge-native AI agents
• Need full Linux environment
• Building autonomous robots
• Want offline LLM inference (Ollama)

Choose STM32 Nucleo if:

• Embedded development with real-time constraints
• Learning ARM Cortex-M architecture
• Need precise timing or low-level control
• Prototyping custom PCBs

Choose Arduino if:

• Education or hobby projects
• Simple GPIO control
• Quick prototyping
• Large ecosystem of shields/libraries

Choose ESP32 if:

• IoT projects with WiFi
• Battery-powered applications
• Remote sensing/control
• Future edge-native AI (in development)

Adding New Boards

To add support for a new board:

1. Implement the Peripheral trait in src/peripherals/
2. Write firmware (if serial transport) in firmware/
3. Add board type to config schema
4. Add VID/PID to hardware registry
5. Document in docs/datasheets/

See Adding Boards and Tools for details.

Troubleshooting

Board not detected

# List USB devices
lsusb  # Linux
system_profiler SPUSBDataType  # macOS

# Check serial permissions
ls -la /dev/tty*
sudo usermod -aG dialout $USER  # Linux

Serial connection fails

• Verify baud rate matches firmware (usually 115200)
• Check port path (/dev/ttyUSB0 vs /dev/ttyACM0)
• Ensure firmware is flashed correctly
• Try unplugging/replugging USB cable

GPIO operation fails on Raspberry Pi

# Check GPIO permissions
groups  # should include 'gpio'
sudo usermod -aG gpio $USER

# Verify rppal feature is enabled
cargo build --features peripheral-rpi

Next Steps

Raspberry Pi

Set up Raspberry Pi GPIO

STM32 Nucleo

Set up STM32 Nucleo board

Arduino

Set up Arduino board

ESP32

Set up ESP32 board