DEV Community: circuitrocks

ESP32 Bit Pirate v1.7 Adds Browser Tools and LoRa Debugging

circuitrocks — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 04:08:39 +0000

Ever wished the spare ESP32 board in your parts bin could double as a hardware debugging tool?

That is the idea behind ESP32 Bit Pirate, firmware from a developer known as "Geo TP" that turns off-the-shelf Espressif boards into a Bus Pirate style multi-protocol workbench. Instead of buying dedicated debug gear, you flash the firmware onto boards you probably already own: the ESP32-S3-DevKitC, the M5Stack Cardputer, the M5Stick C Plus 2, the Atom S3 Lite, or a LILYGO T-Embed. You then get a serial console for poking at I2C, SPI, UART and other buses, the same job Ian Lesnet's original Bus Pirate has done for years, without the custom PCB.

What is new in v1.7?

The August release adds a "Web Tools" mode. Connect the board to a WebUSB-capable browser like Chrome and you get in-browser programming, debugging, and analysis with zero software installed on your laptop. There is also a new LoRa mode built for Semtech's SX1262 transceiver, so you can send and receive packets and even watch Meshtastic mesh traffic. The update pulls in two long-range boards, the Heltec Vision Master T190 and the WiFi LoRa 32 V4. Everything ships under the MIT license, with source and pre-built binaries on GitHub.

How would you wire it up?

Grab a supported board and check its pinout first. The SDA and SCL pins differ between an S3 DevKit and a Cardputer, so one wrong jumper leaves you staring at a silent bus. Flash the binary, open the USB serial console at 115200 baud, and start issuing mode commands. For LoRa work you need a board carrying an SX1262 radio, while the CC1101-equipped T-Embed handles sub-GHz instead. Mind your logic levels too: ESP32 GPIO runs at 3.3V, so a 5V target needs a level shifter or you risk frying a pin.

Try it this week

If you teach or study electronics, this is a cheap way to hand a whole robotics club a protocol analyzer without a per-seat budget. Pull the v1.7 binaries, flash a spare ESP32-S3, and finally decode that sensor you could never get talking. The full changelog and supported board list are in the original write-up at https://www.hackster.io/news/the-esp32-bit-pirate-project-gets-in-browser-web-app-support-lora-mode-and-promises-more-to-come-122b3a07d4e0

Originally published on blog.circuit.rocks.

esp32 #esp8266 #iot #wifi #circuitrocks

Build a Wi-Fi NeoPixel Art Display with the Raspberry Pi Pico 2W

circuitrocks — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 03:46:54 +0000

What if the lamp on your desk could change its glow from any phone on your Wi-Fi network?

That is the trick behind The Blossom, an open-source build from maker TheFargo that Adafruit featured this week. It tucks a Raspberry Pi Pico 2W and a 16-light RGBW NeoPixel ring inside a 20-petal capiz shell lotus candle holder, then serves a small web page so anyone on the local network can pick a color, run an ambient scene, or start a guided meditation. Part art object and part teaching tool, the guide is written to give newer makers a real reason to wire up their first addressable LEDs. A frosted glass cabochon over the ring softens the light into something you would actually keep on a nightstand.

How does the Pico 2W drive the lights?

The Pico 2W pairs the RP2350 dual-core chip with an onboard 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi radio, so a single board can host the control page and update the ring at the same time. The 16 RGBW pixels share one data line, and each pixel adds a dedicated white LED beside the red, green, and blue channels for cleaner pastel tones. Here is the gotcha: NeoPixels expect 5V power, but the Pico's GPIO puts out 3.3V logic, so the data pin usually needs a level shifter or a tolerant first pixel to latch the 800 kHz signal reliably. Budget the current too, because 16 RGBW pixels at full white can pull close to 1A, more than a laptop USB port likes to hand over.

Try it yourself

Start with a Pico 2W, a 16-pixel RGBW ring, a 74AHCT125 level shifter, and a 5V supply rated for at least 2A. Flash MicroPython, wire the ring's data line through the shifter to a spare GPIO, and load a small web server so the browser can toggle colors. Read TheFargo's full parts list and code on the source guide at Adafruit, then swap the capiz shell for any diffuser you have on the shelf. If the ring flickers, add a 300 to 500 ohm resistor on the data line before you blame your code.

Originally published on blog.circuit.rocks.

raspberrypi #rpi #singleboardcomputer #linux #circuitrocks

MaTouch ESP32-S3 MaUWB: UWB Indoor Positioning On-Screen

circuitrocks — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:06:40 +0000

What if you could stand up a working indoor positioning demo before your coffee gets cold? That is the pitch behind Makerfabs' MaTouch ESP32-S3 MaUWB, a board that promises a live Ultra-Wideband ranging result on-screen in about three minutes.

What the board actually does

Indoor positioning is the awkward gap in most navigation projects. GPS falls apart the moment you walk through a doorway, so tracking a robot or a tagged asset inside a lab or classroom needs a different trick. Ultra-Wideband fills that gap. It is a low-power, short-range radio that measures time-of-flight and time-difference-of-arrival between devices, the same method Apple's AirTag and Samsung's SmartTag+ use to point you at your keys. Makerfabs bundles the radio, an ESP32-S3, and a touchscreen onto one board so the ranging numbers show up directly on the display instead of scrolling past in a serial monitor.

How does the hardware add up?

The brain is an Espressif ESP32-S3 with 8MB of PSRAM and 16MB of flash, wired to Makerfabs' in-house MaUWB module. That radio is IEEE 802.15.4-2011 compliant and runs on Channel 5 at 6489.6MHz. On the front sits a 3.95-inch capacitive touchscreen at 480x320 resolution, driven over SPI through an ST7796 controller. The setup scales to 8 anchors and 64 tags, which is enough to cover a full classroom or a small warehouse aisle. You also get native USB plus a USB-UART debug port through a CH340K chip, a microSD slot, USB-C charging for an optional LiPo battery, and an expansion header that breaks out the unused GPIO pins for your own sensors.

Try it yourself

At $59.80 (roughly PHP 3,400) the MaTouch is not a throwaway part, but the schematics, board files, and a sample positioning app are all published to the Makerfabs GitHub, so you can read the code before you buy. For a thesis on indoor robot navigation or a classroom demo on time-of-flight math, that reference project is the real head start. Wire up one board as an anchor, a second as a tag, and watch the distance update on-screen, then swap in your own logic on the free GPIO. Full teardown and specs are on the original writeup at Hackster.io.

Originally published on blog.circuit.rocks.

esp32 #esp8266 #iot #wifi #circuitrocks

Challenger+ RP2350 NB-IoT: Cellular IoT on a Breadboard

circuitrocks — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 07:53:25 +0000

What if one breadboard-friendly stick could reach a cellular tower, fix its own GPS position, and still run CircuitPython? That is the pitch behind iLabs' new Challenger+ RP2350 NB-IoT.

The board drops Raspberry Pi's RP2350 microcontroller onto a Feather-format stick and pairs it with an STMicroelectronics ST87M01-1301 NB-IoT radio. NB-IoT is the low-power, narrowband cellular standard built for sensors that send small packets over long distances on battery, so a soil probe or a parking counter can phone home without WiFi or a nearby gateway. Because it follows the Feather footprint, it slots into the Challenger ecosystem and sits on a standard breadboard, and it charges a LiPo battery straight over USB-C. You can flash it from Arduino, MicroPython, or CircuitPython.

What are you actually getting?

The RP2350 is a two-of-four-core part: you pick any two from a pool of Arm Cortex-M33 and open-hardware Hazard3 RISC-V cores, clocked up to 150MHz, with 520kB of on-chip SRAM and 8MB of external flash. A PIO block hands you 12 state machines for bit-banging custom protocols. The ST87M01 module speaks 3GPP Release 15 Cat-NB2 across bands B1, B3, B5, B8, B20, and B28, pushing 159kb/s uplink and 127kb/s downlink. It also carries a GNSS receiver running GPS L1 and Galileo in concurrent mode with assisted-GNSS, and it can scan 2.4GHz 802.11b access points for rough indoor positioning. The 0.1" headers break out SPI, I2C, UART, ADC/DAC, and PWM.

Worth putting on your bench?

If your thesis or capstone has to report data from somewhere with no WiFi, a rice field, a rooftop, a moving jeepney, this is the kind of board that deletes the gateway from your bill of materials. Read Pontus Oldberg's full spec rundown on Hackster before you commit, then check whether Cat-NB2 is live on your local carrier, since NB-IoT coverage still varies by region. Start small: wire one I2C sensor to the SDA and SCL pins, log a reading, and push it over the cellular link.

Originally published on blog.circuit.rocks.

iot #smarthome #homeautomation #connecteddevices #circuitrocks

A Raspberry Pi Zero Cyberdeck That Fits Inside an Altoids Tin

circuitrocks — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 22:08:38 +0000

Cramming a whole computer into an Altoids tin looks like a party trick, but the tight space is exactly what makes it worth building. Every millimeter forces a real decision about power, layout, and which GPIO pins you can actually reach. That kind of constraint teaches more about practical electronics than any roomy project box, which is why a pocket cyberdeck makes a strong portfolio piece for an ECE or robotics student.

What the build packs in

Maker Mason, who posts as Exercising Ingenuity, squeezed a Raspberry Pi Zero, a 2-inch LCD, and a hand-built keyboard into a single mint tin. The keyboard is a dot-matrix layout soldered onto protoboard, driven by a Waveshare RP2040 Zero acting as its own microcontroller so the Pi does not have to scan the keys itself. A UPS HAT and a small battery make it run untethered, and a tiny USB hub adds an external port. Fifteen GPIO pins are broken out on the outside of the tin for on-the-go hardware hacking, with the labels engraved straight into the metal.

The tricky parts

The leftover 2-inch screen refused to work with the newest Raspberry Pi OS, so Mason dropped back a couple of OS versions and edited display settings through raspi-config until it behaved. Space was the other enemy. He desoldered unused components from both the RP2040 Zero and the Pi Zero, then joined parts directly together instead of running wires, which saved several precious millimeters. The 5V UPS HAT and battery had to share the same cavity as everything else, and even the hinges needed reshaping to close.

Build a smaller one yourself

You do not need a tin to start. Grab a Raspberry Pi Zero (or a Zero 2 W for more headroom), a 2-inch SPI LCD, a UPS HAT, and any RP2040 board to run a key matrix. A few gotchas from this build worth stealing:

Test your LCD against your exact OS image before you commit the wiring. A driver that worked last year may not load on the current release.
Keep the full 40-pin header accessible if you can, or at least break out the SDA and SCL lines for I2C add-ons later.
Direct board-to-board soldering saves room but makes rework painful, so flash and test each module first.

Mason wrote the full build up in Raspberry Pi Official Magazine #167, which is free to read online. See the original feature at raspberrypi.com for the wiring shots and the beige faceplate that ties the whole thing together.

Originally published on blog.circuit.rocks.

raspberrypi #rpi #singleboardcomputer #linux #circuitrocks

Build a Classroom Robot with Adafruit CRICKIT and CircuitPython

circuitrocks — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:08:33 +0000

What you'll need to get a robot moving

Grab a CRICKIT board, a Circuit Playground Express or any Feather, four AA batteries or a 5V supply, and a couple of hobby DC motors or micro servos. That short list is enough to build a line-following buggy, a wobbly walking bot, or a sensor-triggered desk toy. CRICKIT (Creative Robotics and Interactive Construction Kit) is the part that turns a bare microcontroller into something that can push, spin, and light up without a breadboard full of driver chips.

What the board actually does

CRICKIT stacks onto boards a lot of students already own. There are versions for the Circuit Playground Express, for any Feather, and a HAT that bolts onto a Raspberry Pi. It talks to the host over I2C using Adafruit's seesaw co-processor, so the heavy motor switching happens on the CRICKIT itself and your main chip stays free for program logic. You can write for it in CircuitPython, MakeCode, or Arduino, which means a Grade 7 class and a college capstone team can share the exact same hardware.

The specs that decide your build

One CRICKIT drives up to 4 DC motors or 2 stepper motors, 4 standard servos, and 4 capacitive-touch inputs, plus a NeoPixel output and a small onboard speaker driver for beeps and sound effects. The motor channels push about 1A each at 5V, which is fine for TT gearmotors and a small robot arm but not for a power drill. Wiring uses solderless spring terminals, so students clamp motor leads straight in with no soldering iron. In code, driving a motor is two lines: import the crickit object, then set crickit.dc_motor_1.throttle = 0.5. A bumper switch is just crickit.touch_1.value on touch pad 1.

Where to start

Flash CircuitPython onto your host board, drop the seesaw and CRICKIT libraries into the lib folder, and copy a demo script from the Adafruit Learning System at https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-crickit-creative-robotic-interactive-construction-kit. Run a single servo sweep first, confirm the board answers on I2C, then add a motor. If nothing moves, check that the CRICKIT has its own battery pack connected, because it will not turn motors off USB power alone.

Originally published on blog.circuit.rocks.

robotics #robots #engineering #stem #circuitrocks

Inside the Runaway Mini Fridge Robot: Jetson, ESP32 and ROS 2

circuitrocks — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 04:14:42 +0000

A refrigerator that chases you across the kitchen sounds like a party gag, but the wiring behind Dorian Todd's runaway mini fridge is the same split-brain design that runs warehouse robots and self-driving research rigs. One processor thinks, a smaller one drives the motors, and a serial link keeps them honest. Get that split working and you can steer almost any autonomous project a school robotics team dreams up.

What Dorian actually built

The fridge rolls on a tank-style track drivetrain turned by two Repeat Robotics Ultra Mk2 brushless gear motors, the same units built for 12-pound combat robots. Todd first sketched a six-legged hexapod, then dropped the idea once he pictured a stomping gait sloshing every carbonated drink inside. Pick a mode and the fridge either trails about a meter behind you carrying a cold drink, or bolts the opposite direction the moment you reach for it.

The two-brain electronics

An NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano Super running Ubuntu and ROS 2 Jazzy does the heavy thinking. A YOLO model accelerated with TensorRT spots people in real time, and the ROS 2 Nav2 stack builds a live obstacle map from a Manifold Tech Odin 1 module that supplies depth sensors, an RGB camera, an IMU, and onboard SLAM. The Jetson then hands off to an ESP32 acting as the robot's spinal cord, sending a four-byte serial packet that carries the drive command and the door position. The ESP32 turns that into motor and servo signals, including a 25 kg-cm servo that swings the magnet-latched door open on cue.

Build a smaller version yourself

You do not need a Jetson to copy the pattern. Wire an ESP32 to a pair of motor drivers and one servo, then feed it short serial packets from a laptop or a Raspberry Pi running a lightweight person-detector. Keep every packet a fixed four bytes so a single dropped byte never desyncs the two boards, and tie your grounds together: Todd rewired the fridge's cooling loop to a 12-volt supply, so the logic and power rails must share a common reference. Watch Todd's full teardown on Hackster before you scale the idea up.

Originally published on blog.circuit.rocks.

esp32 #esp8266 #iot #wifi #circuitrocks

NXP's RW610FML Crams Wi-Fi 6, BLE, and a Cortex-M33 in One Module

circuitrocks — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 09:07:33 +0000

A single module that carries Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth Low Energy, and its own 260MHz microcontroller changes what a "wireless add-on" can be. NXP's new RW610FML does exactly that, folding the radio and a full Arm Cortex-M33 core into one part small enough to drop onto a sensor node or a classroom robot.

What NXP actually built

The RW610FML is a combo module built around the RW610 system-on-chip. It speaks IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ac/ax for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth LE in the same package, so one part handles both radios instead of bolting on two separate chips. The interesting twist for makers is that the on-board Cortex-M33 can either sit quietly as a communications coprocessor next to your main MCU, or run the whole show itself and drive your hardware directly. That flexibility means a thesis project could start with the module offloading Wi-Fi from an existing Arduino, then later collapse into a single-chip design once you trust the RW610 to handle GPIO, PWM, and sensor reads on its own.

The specs that matter

The Cortex-M33 runs at up to 260MHz with 1.2MB of on-chip SRAM and 8MB of flash, plus quad-SPI execute-in-place support if you want to run code straight from external flash. The Wi-Fi 6 radio is a 1x1 dual-band design covering 2.4GHz and 5GHz at 20MHz channel width, peaking at 114Mb/s, while the BLE side hits 2Mb/s in high-speed mode. Peripheral coverage is generous: SDIO 3.0, USB, UART, I2C, SPI, I2S, ADCs and DACs, an analog comparator, and JTAG plus SWD for debugging. There is even an LCD interface and a microphone input, which opens the door to voice or display projects without extra breakout boards.

Build it yourself

The part is still in pre-production, so pricing has not been posted yet. If you want to prototype now, NXP pairs the module with a carrier board called the FRDM-RW610FML that breaks out the peripheral pins for easy breadboard and jumper access. A practical first build: wire an I2C temperature sensor to the module, publish readings over MQTT on your school Wi-Fi, and use the spare BLE radio to push the same data to a phone. Watch the 3.3V logic levels on your sensor lines, and check the pull-up requirements on the I2C bus before you power up. Full details on both the module and the FRDM board are on NXP's product page.

Originally published on blog.circuit.rocks.

iot #smarthome #homeautomation #connecteddevices #circuitrocks

SPOKE: The RP2040 Touch Controller That Plays Music From Fruit

circuitrocks — Sat, 08 Aug 2026 04:08:10 +0000

Cheap microcontrollers have quietly turned music-making into a hardware hobby. Boards built around the RP2040 now sit at the center of homemade synths, MIDI pads, and touch instruments that would have cost hundreds a decade ago. The SPOKE fits right into that wave: a CD-sized board covered in capacitive touch pads that plays a note the moment you brush a finger across it.

What the SPOKE actually is

The SPOKE looks like a 1990s indie album, cardboard sleeve art and all, but its 27 copper touch pads each wire to a GPIO pin on an onboard RP2040 chip. Plug it into a computer over USB-C and the default firmware registers as a standard MIDI controller. Head to spokeboard.com, grant your browser MIDI access, and every pad triggers a note. The site layers on audio visualisers, a Harmonic Table that maps 100 polygons to notes, a one-shot drum kit, and an Audio Playground for loading clips from Freesound.org or your own recordings.

The technical bits worth knowing

Because the firmware runs CircuitPython, you program the SPOKE exactly like a Raspberry Pi Pico, editing code in Thonny or the browser-based Code Playground over serial. The pads default to a pentatonic scale, five notes per octave, and you change that by editing note values in the default program. Two Qwiic / STEMMA QT ports let you bolt on extra sensors, though wiring them up disables a couple of pads. Each pad also drives a NeoPixel that shifts colour on touch. One gotcha: press the Reset button to recalibrate touch sensitivity whenever you connect something new.

What to try next

The real fun starts when you extend the pads with anything conductive. Copper tape, conductive thread, pencil graphite, even crocodile clips onto a banana all register as touch inputs, so a bowl of fruit becomes a drum kit. From there, load an arpeggiator or step sequencer from the code examples, or remap the scale for your own track. If you would rather build the concept from scratch, a Raspberry Pi Pico plus a few copper pads and CircuitPython's touchio library gets you most of the way. Full details and every play mode are on the original write-up at raspberrypi.com.

Originally published on blog.circuit.rocks.

raspberrypi #rpi #singleboardcomputer #linux #circuitrocks

Build a Retro Handheld Inside an NES Gamepad with an ESP32-S2

circuitrocks — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 22:06:31 +0000

Here is a Saturday build you can actually finish before the weekend runs out: a full retro handheld that hides inside an old NES-style controller. YouTuber Logic Gate Labs cracked one open, noticed the shell was mostly empty air, and turned that dead space into a pocket emulator that plays 8-bit classics and even Doom.

What Logic Gate Labs packed in

The original board comes out first, leaving just the plastic shell, the D-pad, and the face buttons. Into that gap goes a Wemos ESP32-S2 Mini, a 1.54-inch 240 x 240 TFT screen, a MicroSD module for ROM storage, a 500 mAh lithium-polymer cell, a TP4056 charging board, a tiny speaker, and a slide switch for power. An ESP32-S3 with PSRAM would have run ROMs straight from memory with less stutter, but the bigger board simply would not fit the housing, so the S2 won the slot on size alone.

The parts-and-cost reality

Logic Gate Labs pegs the whole build at roughly $17 with commonly stocked parts, or about half that if you source directly from overseas sellers. That puts a working emulator handheld somewhere near PHP 500 to PHP 1000 in real money. The fiddly part is not the price, it is the fit: internal ribs get trimmed with a knife, fresh holes are drilled for the screen, USB port, card slot, switch, and speaker, and a thick bare copper wire runs through as a single ground rail so you are not soldering a dozen separate ground leads back to the microcontroller. Thinner signal wires let the two halves close again.

Spend a Sunday on it

Software is where you will lose an afternoon. The handheld runs the Retro-Go emulator framework, compiled with ESP-IDF and CMake because the ESP32-S2 is not a stock Retro-Go target, so expect to edit a config or two before it flashes clean. Doom runs too, using the PrBoom-Go engine and a Freedoom WAD dropped on the SD card. If you have a drawer full of dead controllers and a spare ESP32, this is the weekend project that turns one back into something you will actually pick up. Full build notes are on the original write-up at Hackster.io.

Originally published on blog.circuit.rocks.

esp32 #esp8266 #iot #wifi #circuitrocks

Antmicro Open-Sources KiCad Files for a 10GbE Thunderbolt NIC

circuitrocks — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 09:07:41 +0000

Open hardware keeps chipping away at the line between buying a finished board and studying how it was actually made. A growing number of companies now publish full circuit sources, not just marketing photos, so anyone with the right software can inspect every trace and pad. Antmicro's latest release lands squarely in that trend: the company posted the complete KiCad project files for a dual-port 10-gigabit-Ethernet card that talks to a host over Thunderbolt.

What Antmicro actually shipped

The board is a Thunderbolt-to-dual-10GbE adapter, released under a permissive license so you can copy, remix, or fabricate it without asking permission. It exposes two independent Ethernet interfaces tunneled over a single Thunderbolt 3.0 link, which carries up to 40Gb/s and can daisy-chain as many as 6 devices from one host. One port can handle local high-bandwidth traffic to an attached device while the second faces the wider network. It plugs in through the same USB-C connector most Thunderbolt gear already uses.

Why the KiCad files matter

Ethernet has climbed a long way since its 10Mb/s coax days at Xerox PARC in the 1970s, through 100Mb/s Fast Ethernet, up to links that now reach 400Gb/s. Routing 10GbE by hand is not beginner territory. You are dealing with controlled-impedance differential pairs, careful ground planes, and connector footprints that punish sloppy layout. A working reference design in KiCad lets you open the schematic, follow how the PCB handles those high-speed pairs, and learn from decisions a professional team already validated. Antmicro pitches it as a starting point for custom builds, from smart cameras to point-of-sale terminals and IoT gateways.

What to try next

You do not need a 10GbE board to get value here. Open the files in KiCad, which is free, and treat the layout as a study guide for differential routing and impedance control. If you are running a school PCB unit or a thesis project, a permissively licensed reference like this beats a locked-down datasheet. The full write-up and the KiCad sources are linked from Hackster's coverage: https://www.hackster.io/news/antmicro-adds-to-its-open-hardware-portfolio-releases-kicad-sources-for-a-thunderbolt-10gbe-nic-35b60efc41e9

Originally published on blog.circuit.rocks.

pcbdesign #kicad #electronics #hardwareengineering #circuitrocks

DOGS2: A Palm-Sized ESP32 Bench Lab You Can Build This Weekend

circuitrocks — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 04:08:27 +0000

Some builds are made for a weekend: enough of a challenge to keep you at the bench past lunch, but scoped tightly enough that you can flip the power on before Sunday dinner. A maker named Sergei packed an entire test bench into one palm-sized gadget called DOGS2, and the design files are open, so it makes a great two-day project.

What Sergei crammed into one box

DOGS2 fits in your hand but swallows half a workbench worth of instruments. Inside a single enclosure you get a dual-channel programmable power supply, a logic probe, a frequency counter, a signal generator, and protocol sniffers for UART, RS485, CAN, and I2C. About the only thing missing is an oscilloscope. Power comes from 5-90V DC or straight off USB-C, with protection against overvoltage, reverse polarity, and inrush current built in.

The specs are not toy-grade either. Channel one uses a low-noise linear regulator good for 20V at 1.5A. Channel two runs a DC-DC converter that pushes 48V at 3A continuously, or 5A in short bursts, and both channels monitor their own current draw. The logic probe reads up to 25V, the frequency counter tracks signals to 100kHz, and the signal generator produces square waves from 1Hz to 100kHz at up to 20V 1A.

Parts reality before you start

DOGS2 is two boards: a main power board and a control panel driven by an ESP32-WROOM. The panel carries an LCD, physical buttons, and Bluetooth, so you can drive the whole thing from your phone and keep the bench clear. The ESP32-WROOM is the cheap part here, usually a few hundred pesos at circuit.rocks. The real cost sits in the power section, where the connectors, the DC-DC converter, and the regulators add up. Budget for careful solder work too, because the high-current traces on that power board are not where you want a cold joint.

Control brain: ESP32-WROOM with LCD and Bluetooth
Input: 5-90V DC or USB-C, fully protected
Outputs: 20V 1.5A linear plus 48V 3A switching

Spend your Sunday on this

Sergei has a working first version and plans to iterate after more testing, so treat the current design as a solid v1 rather than a finished product. Pull the schematics and board files from the build writeup at Hackster, order your ESP32-WROOM, and give your bench one box to replace the other five.

Originally published on blog.circuit.rocks.

esp32 #esp8266 #iot #wifi #circuitrocks