In answer to quite a few requests for a prototype shield, similar to my ESP32-S Dev Prototype shield, but for use with the ESP-12E DEV board, I have decided to do a quick design, and make it available publicly
This is the MakerIOT2020 ESP12E-DEV Prototype Shield. It is similar in purpose to the above-mentioned ESP32-S Dev Prototype shield, but I have also added some additional cosmetic changes to make it a little easier to use as well.
With many of my prototype designs, I tend to sometimes leave out something, as I usually use it for my own purposes only, but with this design, as many people specifically asked for it, I took a bit more care, as it is no longer just a prototype, right?
What has changed?
The most obvious is the increased prototyping area. The initial ESP32-S version had a 60-hole breadboard-style prototyping area. The new design has 128 prototype holes.
There is also a dedicated power input header, something that I somehow left out on the ESP32-S version… The Flash and Reset push-buttons were also moved inline, and to the bottom of the shield, making it more comfortable to use.
The design retains the plated through-hole design on the prototype area with connecting tracks on both sides of the PCB to allow for a bit more current.
The big ground plane on both sides of the PCB has also been retained.
PCB Design and Schematic
Top Layer LayoutBottom Layer Layout
The prototype shield is for all purposes a breadboard. I did thus not bother with a formal schematic. I believe that it is easy enough to understand the connections by just looking at the two images above.
Manufacturing
The PCB for this project has been manufactured at PCBWay. Please consider supporting them if you would like your own copy of this PCB, or if you have any PCB of your own that you need to have manufactured.
While my recent ESP32-S Dev Board really does the trick to help my development cycle along, I very quickly ran into another obstacle, in the sense that, after doing stuff on the breadboard, moving those components onto a more permanent location, either as a next stage prototype or more likely that the project is so small and insignificant not to warrant the effort actually to design a PCB for it. This could be rectified by using another one of my recent designs, an SMD breadboard PCB, but that would not always do either.
MakerIoT SMD Prototype development PCB
That got me thinking, and while staring at the ever-present Arduino Uno on its corner of the work-bench, I suddenly remembered that I have once seen an Arduino Prototype Shield, like a plug-on breadboard, with breakouts of all the pins etc…
While I do not personally own a lot of commercial Arduino Shields, as I tend to build my own or design a custom-purpose PCB instead, it did not take me long to settle on a new design, that could potentially solve my problem, and hopefully, someone else’s as well…
So what is on this PCB?
To start off, the PCB is in the same form factor as the ESP32-S Dev Board, namely the Arduino Uno form factor. There are however a few changes, mainly in the number of pins in the headers. This is mainly to accommodate as many of the ESP32-S’s gpio’s as possible. ( Actually, they are all broken out, EXCEPT for the 6 gpio’s that are usually used with the internal Flash memory.)
The PCB is designed to be stacked either on top of, or even below, the ESP32-S Dev Board, depending of course on the type of headers that you decide to solder onto the PCB.
In order to make connecting to the gpio pins easier, each header row is in fact a double row, with solderable pads in parallel for each gpio on the header row.
Flash and Reset buttons are available on top of the shield, they can be fitted of left off, depending on personal preference, as well as how the shield will ultimately be used.
The prototyping area in the centre has been slightly reduced from the standard 5-pin-spacer-5-pin column of the traditional breadboard to a 3-pin-gnd-3v-3-pin column layout. the prototyping holes are at a standard 0.1″ or 2.54mm pitch.
In total, 60 prototype holes, divided into rows of 10, 3 columns deep, are provided, labelled A-F and 1-10.
3.3v and ground are provided in the centre-two rows, to make power easily accessible.
ESP32-S DEV Prototype ShieldESP32-S Dev Prototype Shield – Back
The PCB Design
As this design is basically just two rows of header pins, with a few switches, and a big unconnected prototype area, I did not bother to do a formal schematic for this PCB, but instead jumped straight into the PCB design software and manually designed and routed the tracks and pads that make up this shield.
PCB – Top Layer PCB – Bottom Layer – Note that this is a “TOP-Down” view, and should be mirrored for actual production
Note that there are big copper pours on both top and bottom layers, in an attemp to reduce electrical noise and provide better shielding.
Manufacturing
The PCB for this project has been manufactured at PCBWay. Please consider supporting them if you would like your own copy of this PCB, or if you have any PCB of your own that you need to have manufactured.
Top viewTop view – Not assembledBottom view – AssembledBottom view – Not assembledSide-by sideSide by SideStacked – Side viewStackedStacked – top viewStacked – from front
Conclusion
Some final thoughts on the completed PCB. While definitely useful, I have made a purpuseful design flaw on this board, by not including a breakout for the VIN pin. My reasoning at that stage was that I would always be powering the device directly from 3.3v, and would therefor not need access to the VIN pin for power.
Upon completion of the device, and while testing it in a stacked configuration, I realised that that VIN pin would have been quite nice to have access to.
Not a big problem though, as if is very easy to add a 2-pin connector to the power rails, or even solder a wire directly to VIN. Ugly, but totally doable, as this is in fact still a prototype, and it can grow and be fine-tuned to my exact requirements over time.
Most of us will not know about RISC-V, or have had access to a RISC-V Chip. This will thus be truly one of the most difficult posts I have written, due to many factors…
To name a few of these: – The learning curve is extremely steep because there is extremely limited information available on the chip – I can not at the moment allowed to divulge any information on the chip used, as I have received a few “sneak-preview” modules, and the manufacturer, who shall also remain anonymous for now, has not released it to the public yet. – Most of the information available on the BL-602 ( on which the chip is based) is in relation to the BL-IOT-SDK, or Apache NuttX, an RTOS for use with microcontrollers. While the NuttX project has excellent documentation, it is written in a very technical style, and focused on very basic, very advanced or very specific things. This will hopefully be improved upon to make it more “new-end-user-that-is-learning” friendly in future.
As most of us can no doubt see, This post is quite a challenge. I will thus focus on the PCB I designed to use with the “mystery BL-602” chip, and provide a lot of links to where you can get information on Apache NuttX, as well as how to use it with the BL-602 in general.
Once the module has been officially released, I will do a followup-post, with specific documentation etc, which, although I have already got some of it in my possession, I can not release at the moment for ethical reasons.
I think it fair to tell you all this much, and , unintentionally, have to create anticipation on what and where etc… My apologies for that, but rules are rules, and secrets are meant to be kept, until told otherwise…
So, lets get started. Some links to get you started and show you where this is going…
Apache Nuttx is the RTOS that you will most likely have to use to do anything useful with the BL-602 chip, as well as other microcontrollers, notably the ESP32-S3 and some of the STM32 chips.
Bouffalo Labs are the people behind the BL-602, as well as the BL-IOT-SDK, which will also be quite useful in designing solutions around the BL-602
LEE Lup Yuen seems to be the kind person who has written most of the extensive and useful documentation on NuttX and the BL-602, amongst others…
NuttX Incubator on Github is a very detailed source, also by Mr Lee Lup Yuen, that aims to get us started with the BL-602 and NuttX – This link is HIGHLY recommended!
My Prototype PCB
Carrier PCB – Disclaimer – I have edited the silkscreen to remove Chip markings- This will be released to the public at a later stage. As mentioned above, it is necessary at this moment to keep this information confidential.
I decided to design an extremely basic, bare PCB with basically just the BL-602 chip and its supporting circuitry. This will allow me to focus only on the chip, as well as provide maximum flexibility in the future by the addition of add-on shields with specific functions. with this in mind, I purposely chose a PCB footprint similar to the Arduino UNO.
It is also worth mentioning that the chip module used on this PCB IS NOT a standard BL-602, although the footprint looks similar.
At the moment, I am however pulled between being frustrated at the lack of available information and also being excited at the possibilities that are already there or will open up in the future.
Needless to say, some people will be frustrated at the “seeming lack of details in this post”. Lets all stay calm, and remember that I will post a followup, with all the details soon.
Manufacturing
Over the past eight years, PCBWay has continuously upgraded their MANUFACTURING plants and equipment to meet higher quality requirements, and now THEY also provide OEM services to build your products from ideas to mass production and access to the market.
The PCB for this project has been manufactured at PCBWay. Please consider supporting them if you would like your own copy of this PCB, or if you have any PCB of your own that you need to have manufactured.
If you would like to have PCBWAY manufacture one of your own, designs, or even this particular PCB, you need to do the following… 1) Click on this link 2) Create an account if you have not already got one of your own. If you use the link above, you will also instantly receive a $5 USD coupon, which you can use on your first or any other order later. (Disclaimer: I will earn a small referral fee from PCBWay. This referral fee will not affect the cost of your order, nor will you pay any part thereof.) 3) Once you have gone to their website, and created an account, or login with your existing account,
4) Click on PCB Instant Quote
5) If you do not have any very special requirements for your PCB, click on Quick-order PCB
6) Click on Add Gerber File, and select your Gerber file(s) from your computer. Most of your PCB details will now be automatically selected, leaving you to only select the solder mask and silk-screen colour, as well as to remove the order number or not. You can of course fine-tune everything exactly as you want as well.
7) You can also select whether you want an SMD stencil, or have the board assembled after manufacturing. Please note that the assembly service, as well as the cost of your components, ARE NOT included in the initial quoted price. ( The quote will update depending on what options you select ).
8) When you are happy with the options that you have selected, you can click on the Save to Cart Button. From here on, you can go to the top of the screen, click on Cart, make any payment(s) or use any coupons that you have in your account.
Then just sit back and wait for your new PCB to be delivered to your door via the shipping company that you have selected during checkout.
Last month I spent quite a lot of time on expansion modules for use with the ESP-12E I2C Base Card. While the system worked exceptionally well as a prototyping and firmware testing platform ( as originally intended ), I immediately saw that the physical size of everything ( base board, with the cards) would be a problem inside any enclosure, when used with a real-world project.
At the same time, I have an ongoing need to design and manufacture a device for a friend, that will have very limited space inside the enclosure due to other essential components.
I have thus decided to combine the functionality of two of the IO Expander cards into a more compact design, on a single PCB ( Which I plan to use to power and control an Air Assist blower on my desktop CNC/Laser cutter, as well as function as a next step prototype for my other project.
The PCB
Let us take a quick look at the PCB.
Starting from the top left, we have the Blower/Fan Header. This supplies 12v DC to the Blower/Fan motor, as well as the PWM signal to control the speed. ( Level converted up from 5v DC to 12V, and then reduced to 3.3v ) This may seem strange.
Let me explain for some more clarity… The PWM input on the Blower/Fan is internally pulled HIGH to 12v ( by the motor driver circuitry – I can not change that, as it is a commercial unit.) The datasheet however calls for a 0v to 3.3v PWM signal to control the speed.
There is also a further input from the fan, which is a pulsed speed indicator (Fan RPM). This signal is 5v.
Next to that header, is a UART Header, with Rx, Tx and DTR signals, with a ground. I do no longer add USB-to-UART chips to my designs because they are not used a lot, take up unnecessary space, and I tend to program with ICSP anyway.
On the right of that, (Red/Blue/Yellow Header) are 5v, Gnd and 6 Analog inputs(A0-A3, A6,A7) [A4 and A5 being used for I2C]
The ICSP programming header is below that, with a jumper to select PCF8574 interrupt on Pin D2 or not
This is followed by 6 GPIO (P2-P7) from the IO Expander, and additional GPIO (D10, D11, D12, D13) , as well as (D7,D8,D9) [To be used with a Rotary Encoder]
Another 6way Ground header, as well as the 12v input (red), follows.
Finally, we have J1 and J2, which will switch 12v through BSS138 Mosfets to control static speed 12v cooling Fans (Only one of these is PWM capable)
The 2 Relays are optically isolated from the controller and mains isolation cutouts are provided to further keep DC and AC voltages well away from each other. [ they really don’t play well together, don’t they ?]
This wraps up the quick PCB description.
Schematic
The Schematic is below, along with a download link ( zip format, with PNG image files)
I use stencils with almost all of my SMD assembly. It saves a lot of time, makes for even solder paste application, and prevents the mess associated with applying solder paste with a syringe, or even worse a skewer-stick or something similar. They do cost extra though, but I find it well worthwhile in comparison to the mess and time that they save.
Manufacturing
Over the past eight years, PCBWay has continuously upgraded their MANUFACTURING plants and equipment to meet higher quality requirements, and now THEY also provide OEM services to build your products from ideas to mass production and access to the market.
The PCB for this project has been manufactured at PCBWay. Please consider supporting them if you would like your own copy of this PCB, or if you have any PCB of your own that you need to have manufactured.
If you would like to have PCBWAY manufacture one of your own, designs, or even this particular PCB, you need to do the following… 1) Click on this link 2) Create an account if you have not already got one of your own. If you use the link above, you will also instantly receive a $5 USD coupon, which you can use on your first or any other order later. (Disclaimer: I will earn a small referral fee from PCBWay. This referral fee will not affect the cost of your order, nor will you pay any part thereof.) 3) Once you have gone to their website, and created an account, or login with your existing account,
4) Click on PCB Instant Quote
5) If you do not have any very special requirements for your PCB, click on Quick-order PCB
6) Click on Add Gerber File, and select your Gerber file(s) from your computer. Most of your PCB details will now be automatically selected, leaving you to only select the solder mask and silk-screen colour, as well as to remove the order number or not. You can of course fine-tune everything exactly as you want as well.
7) You can also select whether you want an SMD stencil, or have the board assembled after manufacturing. Please note that the assembly service, as well as the cost of your components, ARE NOT included in the initial quoted price. ( The quote will update depending on what options you select ).
8) When you are happy with the options that you have selected, you can click on the Save to Cart Button. From here on, you can go to the top of the screen, click on Cart, make any payment(s) or use any coupons that you have in your account.
Then just sit back and wait for your new PCB to be delivered to your door via the shipping company that you have selected during checkout.
The I2C IO Card for ESP-12E I2C Base Card is another expander card for the ESP-12E I2C Base Card Project. This PCB is an address-selectable I2C module with two relays and six (6) GPIO pins, all driven from a single PCF8574 running at 3v. The relays are optically isolated, and generous mains isolation cutouts were provided to reduce the possibility of mains voltage tracking. A jumper to enable/disable the i2c pullup-resistors is also provided on the PCB.
The relays are powered from a single LDO regulator, accepting 12v DC from the 2x20pin female header on the bottom of the card. 3.3v and ground should also be applied to the card at the 2x20pin header.
It is worth mentioning that this circuit does not contain level converting circuitry and that the i2c bus thus runs at 3.3v to be compatible with ESP chips.
It is possible to use the card with other processors if the appropriate level converters are used on the i2c bus.
The Schematic
Manufacturing the PCB
Over the past eight years, PCBWay has continuously upgraded their MANUFACTURING plants and equipment to meet higher quality requirements, and now THEY also provide OEM services to build your products from ideas to mass production and access to the market.
The PCB for this project has been manufactured at PCBWay. Please consider supporting them if you would like your own copy of this PCB, or if you have any PCB of your own that you need to have manufactured.
If you would like to have PCBWAY manufacture one of your own, designs, or even this particular PCB, you need to do the following… 1) Click on this link 2) Create an account if you have not already got one of your own. If you use the link above, you will also instantly receive a $5 USD coupon, which you can use on your first or any other order later. (Disclaimer: I will earn a small referral fee from PCBWay. This referral fee will not affect the cost of your order, nor will you pay any part thereof.) 3) Once you have gone to their website, and created an account, or login with your existing account,
4) Click on PCB Instant Quote
5) If you do not have any very special requirements for your PCB, click on Quick-order PCB
6) Click on Add Gerber File, and select your Gerber file(s) from your computer. Most of your PCB details will now be automatically selected, leaving you to only select the solder mask and silk-screen colour, as well as to remove the order number or not. You can of course fine-tune everything exactly as you want as well.
7) You can also select whether you want an SMD stencil, or have the board assembled after manufacturing. Please note that the assembly service, as well as the cost of your components, ARE NOT included in the initial quoted price. ( The quote will update depending on what options you select ).
8) When you are happy with the options that you have selected, you can click on the Save to Cart Button. From here on, you can go to the top of the screen, click on Cart, make any payment(s) or use any coupons that you have in your account.
Then just sit back and wait for your new PCB to be delivered to your door via the shipping company that you have selected during checkout.
As part of my recent ESP-12E I2C Base Board project, I designed an ATMega 328P Based PWM controller card, that can be used as an add-on card with the existing project, or standalone as a custom Arduino Nano compatible development board.
What is on the PCB?
The PWM controller card contains standard Arduino Nano circuitry running at 16MHz, without the USB to Serial converter, as well as a 3v to 5v level converter on the I2C port ( A4 and A5 ), as well as another 12v to 5v level converter, with a build in resistor-divider circuit, used to drive a 12v blower with 3.3v PWM control circuitry.
All analog inputs are broken out to make attaching additional sensors easier.
All the other unused GPIO pins are also broken out, either directly to headers on the PCB (D6~,D7,D8,D9~), D11,D12,D12 (ISCP Header) and D3 ( Marked RPM on the Fan Header)
Most of these pins are also additionally broken out onto the 2x20p female header at the bottom of the card ( See schematic for more details)
The board is designed to be powered from 12v DC (via the VIN pins on the 2x20p header) which is internally regulated down to 5v via an LDO voltage regulator.
External 3.3v should also be supplied to the 2x20Pin header to enable the I2C level converters on the same header. I2C is not directly broken out onto the PCB in this version of the PCB.
A reset button, and power led, as well as the standard led on D13 is also provided.
Manufacturing the PCB
Over the past eight years, PCBWay has continuously upgraded their MANUFACTURING plants and equipment to meet higher quality requirements, and now THEY also provide OEM services to build your products from ideas to mass production and access to the market.
The PCB for this project has been manufactured at PCBWay. Please consider supporting them if you would like your own copy of this PCB, or if you have any PCB of your own that you need to have manufactured.
If you would like to have PCBWAY manufacture one of your own, designs, or even this particular PCB, you need to do the following… 1) Click on this link 2) Create an account if you have not already got one of your own. If you use the link above, you will also instantly receive a $5 USD coupon, which you can use on your first or any other order later. (Disclaimer: I will earn a small referral fee from PCBWay. This referral fee will not affect the cost of your order, nor will you pay any part thereof.) 3) Once you have gone to their website, and created an account, or login with your existing account,
4) Click on PCB Instant Quote
5) If you do not have any very special requirements for your PCB, click on Quick-order PCB
6) Click on Add Gerber File, and select your Gerber file(s) from your computer. Most of your PCB details will now be automatically selected, leaving you to only select the solder mask and silk-screen colour, as well as to remove the order number or not. You can of course fine-tune everything exactly as you want as well.
7) You can also select whether you want an SMD stencil, or have the board assembled after manufacturing. Please note that the assembly service, as well as the cost of your components, ARE NOT included in the initial quoted price. ( The quote will update depending on what options you select ).
8) When you are happy with the options that you have selected, you can click on the Save to Cart Button. From here on, you can go to the top of the screen, click on Cart, make any payment(s) or use any coupons that you have in your account.
Then just sit back and wait for your new PCB to be delivered to your door via the shipping company that you have selected during checkout.
In a recent article, I took a look at the new VC-01 and VC-02 Voice offline voice modules from AI-Thinker. I mentioned that I was working on a very simple prototype PCB to do some more tests, as well as make practical use of the module in real life.
In this very short post, I will show off the initial prototype that I came up with. While I have to admit that it is still in an extremely basic stage, It is already definitely useful.
Part of the reason for this is that there is not a lot of information available on the VC-01 and VC-02 at this stage, as well as the fact that more exotic features like I2C and SPI are still not accessible in the current firmware. I thus had to work with what was available, as well as take into consideration what will work with the standard factory firmware as well.
The prototype carrier PCB will thus only have two optically isolated relays and their supporting circuitry. I intend to actually use the PCB in my EE LAb area to control some of the lights in the area.
The Schematic
The schematic shows the relay control circuitry, comprising of my standard optic isolator-based relay driver, as well as headers to accept the VC-01 or VC-02 offline voice module kit PCB.
Testing the PCB
The PCB was tested using the standard factory firmware, as well as my custom firmware, kindly provided by AI-Thinker. Below is a short video of that in action. Please note that the relays was not yet connected to any external devices at this stage.
Manufacturing the PCB
Over the past eight years, PCBWay has continuously upgraded their MANUFACTURING plants and equipment to meet higher quality requirements, and now THEY also provide OEM services to build your products from ideas to mass production and access to the market.
The PCB for this project has been manufactured at PCBWay. Please consider supporting them if you would like your own copy of this PCB, or if you have any PCB of your own that you need to have manufactured.
If you would like to have PCBWAY manufacture one of your own, designs, or even this particular PCB, you need to do the following… 1) Click on this link 2) Create an account if you have not already got one of your own. If you use the link above, you will also instantly receive a $5 USD coupon, which you can use on your first or any other order later. (Disclaimer: I will earn a small referral fee from PCBWay. This referral fee will not affect the cost of your order, nor will you pay any part thereof.) 3) Once you have gone to their website, and created an account, or login with your existing account,
4) Click on PCB Instant Quote
5) If you do not have any very special requirements for your PCB, click on Quick-order PCB
6) Click on Add Gerber File, and select your Gerber file(s) from your computer. Most of your PCB details will now be automatically selected, leaving you to only select the solder mask and silk-screen colour, as well as to remove the order number or not. You can of course fine-tune everything exactly as you want as well.
7) You can also select whether you want an SMD stencil, or have the board assembled after manufacturing. Please note that the assembly service, as well as the cost of your components, ARE NOT included in the initial quoted price. ( The quote will update depending on what options you select ).
8) When you are happy with the options that you have selected, you can click on the Save to Cart Button. From here on, you can go to the top of the screen, click on Cart, make any payment(s) or use any coupons that you have in your account.
Then just sit back and wait for your new PCB to be delivered to your door via the shipping company that you have selected during checkout.
Most of us are familiar with voice assistants these days; Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa are obviously the most well-known of these. They all share a common problem though: They are online, and can thus secretly record everything you say around them, for later use by their respective owners [ The Companies that created them ]. Having a true offline voice assistant can thus seem like the holy grail for privacy and security-minded people.
Introducing VC-01/VC-02
I was recently contacted by AI-Thinker and asked if I was interested to play with a new product of theirs, an offline voice module. I immediately jumped at the opportunity, as this was something that I wanted to get my hands on for a long time, providing it works of course…
AI-Thinker’s offline voice module is available in two models, the VC-01 and the VC-02.
My Sales Representative (Kat ) sent me both models, in a kit format, complete with speaker and microphone. The kit PCB also provides a USB port with a ch340 chip, as well as two push buttons (reset and wake-up) as well as 3 built-in LEDs ( White, Orange and Blue ).
These light up with the factory firmware, depending on what commands are issued to the device…
Let us take a look at how the factory firmware works; Thank you to Kat from Ai-Thinker for uploading the video, and sending the link to me 🙂
As we can see in the video above, the module seems to work very well… The question now arises if it can be customised to do what we want it to…
Custom Firmware – Do-able, but with a few caveats
Information in English on this module is very sparse. This is due to it being very new, and with AI-Thinker focusing most of their efforts for this module on the Chinese market for the time being. Which makes sense in one way, but also doesn’t in another.
After spending quite a bit of time trying to get information, my Sales Rep eventually gave me access to an online configuration utility, now be warned: This is not for the faint of heart. The entire interface is in Chinese ( They are working on an English version, with time-to-completion between one (1) to four(4) weeks from starting the project. I can however not give any accurate dates at this stage, but was told that this development is underway).
Being no stranger to different languages, I thought to use google translate to translate the website. No, that didn’t work. Google refuses or the Chinese Website doesn’t allow it to?No answer as of yet. Any readers who do know any reasons for this, please comment below.
I was sort of successful in manually copy pasting line by line into google translate and got some translation back, but it was not very useful.
My next point to try was asking AI-Thinker to generate some firmware with the web tool. They gladly did that, and that works great. It is however not feasible in the long term to go that route every time.
This was possible because the AI-Thinker engineers, using the firmware development software, currently only available in Chinese, can set custom wake words and train voice commands with a 95% accuracy rate, before generating firmware and flashing it onto the respective module.
Write your own, someone will obviously say, and that was my next attempt. There is an API, and source code on GitHub, as well as Gitee ( The Chinese version of GitHub) The two sources are however not synced, and I was still not successful in getting anything useful from Gitee, once again due to a language issue, as well as the fact that some of the sources depend on 32bit dependencies for Ubuntu, whereas I am running a 64bit version… I did try it though, and can not report any success on that venture at all.
Once again, I will advice us all to wait for AI-Thinker to release an English version of the SDK and API for us all to use, which I am sure they will do at some stage in the near future.
See the video below of my custom firmware, once again demonstrated by Kat from AI-Thinker
Custom Firmware – Test 01
As we can see, it once again performs well, with a few issues, but quite acceptable…
Hardware access to the real world
As we have just seen in the video, there is also hardware access via pins, to the real world. There are however a few issues there as well…
Hardware pins are limited. I2C and SPI, although advertised, are apparently not yet supported in any of the current firmware – Someone with information, please comment…
As a proof of concept, I have decided to design a quick prototype with relays to use as a more detailed test. I will update information on that soon…
My Conclusion
I definitely see potential here. This is a product which can be quite useful in the future, providing that the following is done:
Proper detailed documentation is provided in English as well as Chinese API and SDK access is made available in English as well as Chinese Firmware be updated to make all features available
Having said all of that, I do understand that development, and especially R&D do take a lot of time. Translating documents accurately does too.
I want to congratulate AI-Thinker on producing a very well-made unit, that will definitely bring the dream of a totally offline voice assistant a little bit closer to being a reality.
Voice recognition with my bastard South-African/British English Accent, heavily influenced by Afrikaans, went extremely well, even with the factory firmware. I do thus not think anybody that can speak passable English will have a problem using the unit.
As a follow-up on the ESP-12E Card, today we will look at the prototype base card that this was designed to slot into – The ESP-12E I2c Base Card.
Initial Features ( To be expanded in future versions )
4 x 40Pin Expansion slots, with access to 12v, 3.3v and Gnd on each slot. 2 x “IRQ” pins per slot ( serviced by a single PCF8574 ) I2C bus access on each slot (3.3v ) UART Header Reset and Flash Header GPIO Header ( Direct access to the ESP-12E GPIO Pins ) Analog Input Header (a Single input – A0, as per ESP-12E limitation) Buck Converter Power Supply Module, capable of up to 2A of current
Over the past eight years, PCBWay has continuously upgraded their MANUFACTURING plants and equipment to meet higher quality requirements, and now THEY also provide OEM services to build your products from ideas to mass production and access to the market.
The PCB for this project has been manufactured at PCBWay. Please consider supporting them if you would like your own copy of this PCB, or if you have any PCB of your own that you need to have manufactured.
If you would like to have PCBWAY manufacture one of your own, designs, or even this particular PCB, you need to do the following… 1) Click on this link 2) Create an account if you have not already got one of your own. If you use the link above, you will also instantly receive a $5 USD coupon, which you can use on your first or any other order later. (Disclaimer: I will earn a small referral fee from PCBWay. This referral fee will not affect the cost of your order, nor will you pay any part thereof.) 3) Once you have gone to their website, and created an account, or login with your existing account,
4) Click on PCB Instant Quote
5) If you do not have any very special requirements for your PCB, click on Quick-order PCB
6) Click on Add Gerber File, and select your Gerber file(s) from your computer. Most of your PCB details will now be automatically selected, leaving you to only select the solder mask and silk-screen colour, as well as to remove the order number or not. You can of course fine-tune everything exactly as you want as well.
7) You can also select whether you want an SMD stencil, or have the board assembled after manufacturing. Please note that the assembly service, as well as the cost of your components, ARE NOT included in the initial quoted price. ( The quote will update depending on what options you select ).
8) When you are happy with the options that you have selected, you can click on the Save to Cart Button. From here on, you can go to the top of the screen, click on Cart, make any payment(s) or use any coupons that you have in your account.
Then just sit back and wait for your new PCB to be delivered to your door via the shipping company that you have selected during checkout.
A few months ago, I started working on an MCU Card design, which borrows from the idea of a standard desktop PC, in which there are a main-board, MCU and expansion slots, to add and remove peripherals as needed quickly.
The ESP-12E Card is a continuation of that project, with the ultimate goal to have a universal “main-board” that can accept various MCUs and standardised “expansion modules” that perform a specific task.
ESP-12E Card
The PCB
The ESP-12E Card contains the bare minimum components to allow the chip to function. There are no power regulators or USB-to-TTL converters onboard. Code is flashed via an external USB-to-TTL converter, with Flash and Reset buttons on the actual PCB, or available in the 2×20 Pin female header at the bottom of the card.
Most of the GPIO is also broken out to the 2×20 pin header, with the exception of the 6 GPIO that is usually connected to the internal Flash on the ESP-12E module.
I have made provision for enough power and ground pins on the header as well.
As far as GPIO is concerned, They have been grouped together by function, as much as possible at least, to make interfacing with the base-board as easy as possible.
The Schematic
ESP-12E Card Schematic
The schematic is not complicated. It is a standard ESP-8266 configuration, with all non-essential components removed.
The “base-board” ( a sneak preview )
Sneak preview of the Base Card
In a future article, I will tell you more about this ( for the time being limited to I2C ) base card. [ a quick explanation: When I mean limited to I2C, it relates to the fact that at the moment, the base card, ( a prototype ) can only communicate back to the MCU via I2C protocol from each of the expansion slots, as well as via two dedicated IRQ lines from each slot ]Power is supplied via a small SMPS module.
Manufacturing the PCB
Over the past eight years, PCBWay has continuously upgraded their MANUFACTURING plants and equipment to meet higher quality requirements, and now THEY also provide OEM services to build your products from ideas to mass production and access to the market.
The PCB for this project has been manufactured at PCBWay. Please consider supporting them if you would like your own copy of this PCB, or if you have any PCB of your own that you need to have manufactured.
If you would like to have PCBWAY manufacture one of your own, designs, or even this particular PCB, you need to do the following… 1) Click on this link 2) Create an account if you have not already got one of your own. If you use the link above, you will also instantly receive a $5 USD coupon, which you can use on your first or any other order later. (Disclaimer: I will earn a small referral fee from PCBWay. This referral fee will not affect the cost of your order, nor will you pay any part thereof.) 3) Once you have gone to their website, and created an account, or login with your existing account,
4) Click on PCB Instant Quote
5) If you do not have any very special requirements for your PCB, click on Quick-order PCB
6) Click on Add Gerber File, and select your Gerber file(s) from your computer. Most of your PCB details will now be automatically selected, leaving you to only select the solder mask and silk-screen colour, as well as to remove the order number or not. You can of course fine-tune everything exactly as you want as well.
7) You can also select whether you want an SMD stencil, or have the board assembled after manufacturing. Please note that the assembly service, as well as the cost of your components, ARE NOT included in the initial quoted price. ( The quote will update depending on what options you select ).
8) When you are happy with the options that you have selected, you can click on the Save to Cart Button. From here on, you can go to the top of the screen, click on Cart, make any payment(s) or use any coupons that you have in your account.
Then just sit back and wait for your new PCB to be delivered to your door via the shipping company that you have selected during checkout.
