This project was made by a teenager in https://blueprint.hackclub.com, a nonprofit program I'm helping run that helps teenagers learn PCB design and get up to $400 USD in funding to prototype and manufacture their designs!
If you know any teens that want to get into PCB design, please encourage them to join Hack Club and these programs!
proee
Just be aware of dorking around with exposed hardware connected to your $2K MBP. If you end up shorting out your DIY circuit, or have external power supplies connected to your dev board, it's very possible you can fry your laptop.
Best practice is to have a completely opto-isolated USB connection between your dev system and test hardware. You can buy a USB opto-isolated system for like $100 that will tell you downstream currents and isolate your hardware.
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stephen_g
Title is inaccurate, it's really designed to be about the size of a USB-C receptacle , the plug is the other side (in this case the part of the cable that plugs in to this board)
amelius
Does anyone here know the reason why Pcbway stopped accepting credit cards? My colleague asked them but I recall there wasn't a clear answer. It is puzzling why they would make it harder to do business with them from outside China. Jlcpcb doesn't have this problem.
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alnwlsn
I don't think it's smaller, but you can also drop the USB connector and just order the right thickness of PCB:
I recently got my hands on an M5Stack NanoC6 (https://docs.m5stack.com/en/core/M5NanoC6), it's also quite small and I'm pretty happy with it. It has onboard IR and a Grove connector, good enough for IoT projects at home.
pedro_caetano
Question for the people who have used the CH32V003 or more generally WCH, either for hobby or production, what is the current state of documentation and toolchain for these chips? Positive experiences, war stories?
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cbm-vic-20
TIL about "Charlieplexing", or how to use a reduced set of pins to drive a matrixed set of LEDs.
I dream of an open board like the yubikey nano. This is very nice!
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tl2do
I'm interested in this too. I've been using STM32 NUCLEO boards, which are cheap and capable, but even the smallest ones are noticeably larger than this. I'd love to see an STM32 version of this project.
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george_max
Very nice. I am wondering -- why have a devboard this small?
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chrisallick
This looks awesome, I'd love to get one. Question, what's the advantage over something like the ESP32C3 and the like? Just even smaller?
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d0able
Very cool, but what about the $ to manufacture? Things get exponentially(?) harder the smaller it is, especially for custom boards.
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luzionlighting
Miniaturization in electronics is getting impressive. In lighting hardware we see something similar with LED drivers and control systems becoming smaller while handling higher efficiency and thermal management requirements.
polalavik
Why not usb c male?
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vdcjhhhcfdd
That's not a plug. To be precise, that's the opposite of a plug xD
aa-jv
This looks great - how viable would it be to use as a USB Audio class device, perhaps as a synthesizer or effects unit? It'd be simply amazing to be able to add audio/synthesis processing capabilities in such a form factor ..
motorducky
That thing is sexxxy. Very nice board, beautiful documentation.
This project was made by a teenager in https://blueprint.hackclub.com, a nonprofit program I'm helping run that helps teenagers learn PCB design and get up to $400 USD in funding to prototype and manufacture their designs!
We just launched https://stasis.hackclub.com, another similar electronics program.
If you know any teens that want to get into PCB design, please encourage them to join Hack Club and these programs!
Just be aware of dorking around with exposed hardware connected to your $2K MBP. If you end up shorting out your DIY circuit, or have external power supplies connected to your dev board, it's very possible you can fry your laptop.
Best practice is to have a completely opto-isolated USB connection between your dev system and test hardware. You can buy a USB opto-isolated system for like $100 that will tell you downstream currents and isolate your hardware.
Title is inaccurate, it's really designed to be about the size of a USB-C receptacle , the plug is the other side (in this case the part of the cable that plugs in to this board)
Does anyone here know the reason why Pcbway stopped accepting credit cards? My colleague asked them but I recall there wasn't a clear answer. It is puzzling why they would make it harder to do business with them from outside China. Jlcpcb doesn't have this problem.
I don't think it's smaller, but you can also drop the USB connector and just order the right thickness of PCB:
https://github.com/AnasMalas/pcb-edge-usb-c
I recently got my hands on an M5Stack NanoC6 (https://docs.m5stack.com/en/core/M5NanoC6), it's also quite small and I'm pretty happy with it. It has onboard IR and a Grove connector, good enough for IoT projects at home.
Question for the people who have used the CH32V003 or more generally WCH, either for hobby or production, what is the current state of documentation and toolchain for these chips? Positive experiences, war stories?
TIL about "Charlieplexing", or how to use a reduced set of pins to drive a matrixed set of LEDs.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlieplexing
I dream of an open board like the yubikey nano. This is very nice!
I'm interested in this too. I've been using STM32 NUCLEO boards, which are cheap and capable, but even the smallest ones are noticeably larger than this. I'd love to see an STM32 version of this project.
Very nice. I am wondering -- why have a devboard this small?
This looks awesome, I'd love to get one. Question, what's the advantage over something like the ESP32C3 and the like? Just even smaller?
Very cool, but what about the $ to manufacture? Things get exponentially(?) harder the smaller it is, especially for custom boards.
Miniaturization in electronics is getting impressive. In lighting hardware we see something similar with LED drivers and control systems becoming smaller while handling higher efficiency and thermal management requirements.
Why not usb c male?
That's not a plug. To be precise, that's the opposite of a plug xD
This looks great - how viable would it be to use as a USB Audio class device, perhaps as a synthesizer or effects unit? It'd be simply amazing to be able to add audio/synthesis processing capabilities in such a form factor ..
That thing is sexxxy. Very nice board, beautiful documentation.