WeAct Studio has released the CH32V006F8U6 Mini Core, a compact development board built around WCH's CH32V006 RISC-V microcontroller. The board measures just 3.0 cm (1.2 inches) by 1.8 cm (0.7 inches) and features a USB-C port, reset button, and two 12-pin headers for GPIO access at either 3.3V or 5V voltage levels. The CH32V006 represents a significant upgrade over WCH's earlier CH32V003, quadrupling the SRAM from 2KB to 8KB and nearly octupling the flash storage from 8KB to 62KB.
The board's 32-bit RISC-V2C core runs at up to 48 MHz and provides access to standard peripherals including ADC, USART, I2C, and SPI through the pin headers. A 4-pin debug header allows firmware flashing via an optional WCH-LinkE debugger, which sells separately for around $3 (€3). Linux users have access to mature development tools including the community-maintained PlatformIO platform for CH32V chips with Arduino core support and the open-source wchisp flashing tool. The CH32V006 also has Zephyr Project support for real-time OS development. WeAct Studio provides complete documentation including datasheets, PDF schematics, 3D STEP files, and sample C code through their GitHub repository. Linux users can potentially leverage CNLohr's CH32Fun project for a 32-bit RISC-V toolchain, as the CH32V006 appears in the project's supported devices list.
The WeAct CH32V006F8U6 Mini Core board is available now for approximately $2 (€2) including shipping, with five-board bundles dropping the per-unit cost to around $1.54 (€1.41). The underlying CH32V006 microcontroller itself costs just $0.14 (€0.13) per unit in quantity, making this one of the most accessible entry points for RISC-V embedded development.
