– https://forum.pycom.io/topic/7728/pycom-alternatives
Walter ESP32-S3
Daan Pape (DPTechnics) aims to step in.
https://linuxgizmos.com/open-source-esp32-module-supports-5g-and-gps-connectivity/
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Hi,
Our Walter module wil launch soon on Crowd Supply, subscribe to be one of the first to play with Walter: Walter
Kind regards,
Daan
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Dear Daan,
I was just looking after your product today and tried to discover any news about it. Now that you are writing here feels like transmission of thought works well. 
Good luck for the launch!
With kind regards,
Andreas.
P.S.: As winter is approaching, if we can get a hand on your module, we may try to give GitHub - hiveeyes/terkin-datalogger: Datalogger for MicroPython and CPython. a refresh, by running it on Walter, if you like that idea.
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G’day Andreas, I’ve been using waveshare RP2040s with the simcom 7020 & 7080 daughter boards since pycom went belly up. I went with them because waveshare at least make an effort to provide the user with some upython code examples. Sadly these modems don’t seem to have a pass through mode so I had to re do any of my code that used urequests, which was all of it!
Haggarman’s review of the challenger @ https://ilabs.se/product/challenger-rp2040-lte/ really resonates with me. He seems to have persisted with the board, GitHub - Haggarman/IceWatch_Challenger_RP2040_LTE: IOT Temperature Alarm System using hologram.io cellular service, but looks like he’s doing it in C rather than upython. At least his table of AT cmds gives a clue of what to expect from the SARA R4.
I’m sure LTE tech could be a bit more ‘plug & play’ but Blues Wireless seem to be the only modem provider with a user friendly mindset & you’re locked into their ecosystem if you go with them.
I miss our chats about the dreaded gpy sequans from a few years ago. Those were interesting, steep learning curve days.
PS: A bit off topic but I’ve had great success with the astronode satellite modem. Data is limited to 160 bytes about 3 times a day but, in contrast to the hard yards needed to deploy cellular, the astronode S is a dream. Just queue messages to it. It does it’s own power management, has it’s own inbuilt ephemeris & I got it working in days rather than months.
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@kjm nice to see that LTE modules come to the RP2040 / Raspberry Pi Pico also and make it so more usable. But the downside is the high deep sleep current consumption with 800 uA (called dormant mode at Pi Pico). So it’s not an alternative to the PyCom boards, at least for low power applications.
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I’m very sorry again with my late reply. Walter is finally available on Crowd Supply and Andreas Spiess made a video about https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PLnpPH8_Ic.
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For Walter we have been optimizing the deep sleep current and I’m proud to say that Walter consumes 9.8uA when using PSM.
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There is also a German article about Walter on heise:
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Hi @all, I’m really glad to announce that Walter is now a finished product and in-stock for next-day delivery: Walter - Multi-radio (LTE-M, NB-IoT, GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth) module with ESP32-S3
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Walter
listed @ Mouser, congrats!
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Thank you, it’s already sold out on Mouser but a shipment is leaving very soon to replenish the stock. Meanwhile there is still stock on TinyTronics.nl