Adafruit AirLift Bitsy Add-On – ESP32 WiFi Co-Processor

Give your ItsyBitsy project WiFi connectivity with the Adafruit AirLift Bitsy Add-On. This compact daughterboard uses an ESP32 as a WiFi co-processor, handling all the heavy lifting of network connections and TLS/SSL encryption so your main microcontroller can focus on your application logic.

The ESP32 communicates over 8 MHz SPI for high-speed data transfer, requiring just an SPI bus and 2 control pins. It comes pre-programmed with WiFi co-processor firmware (a variant of Arduino WiFiNINA) and has root certificates pre-burned in for secure HTTPS connections. A tri-state chip on MISO allows sharing the SPI bus with other devices.

Key Features

• ESP32 WiFi Co-Processor – Handles WiFi networking and TLS/SSL encryption
• 8 MHz SPI Interface – High-speed communication with just SPI + 2 control pins
• Pre-Programmed Firmware – Ready to use out of the box with Arduino and CircuitPython
• TLS/SSL Support – Root certificates pre-burned for secure connections
• Shared SPI Bus – Tri-state MISO allows sharing with other SPI devices
• ItsyBitsy Form Factor – Designed to stack directly on top of ItsyBitsy boards

Compatibility

• Arduino – Works with ItsyBitsy M0, M4 and similar 3V logic boards (recommended: M4 or higher for best results)
• CircuitPython – Requires ItsyBitsy M4 or equivalent SAMD51/Cortex M4 minimum
• Not compatible with ItsyBitsy 32u4 5V (wrong voltage level)

Also Available

• AirLift ESP32 WiFi Breakout – Universal breakout version for any microcontroller

Ideal For

• Adding WiFi to ItsyBitsy projects
• IoT data logging and cloud connectivity
• Web API integrations
• Secure HTTPS communication

Package Contents

• 1× Adafruit AirLift Bitsy Add-On (assembled and tested)
• 1× Header strip