HN Explorer

29 comments

[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 57.2 ms ] thread
tmpfs
This is a very cool experiment, even if the board doesn't end up being that practical (the antenna hack is going to be an ongoing issue I think) your documentation looks great at a glance!
anyg
If it is a little bigger to incorporate a bigger chip antenna and some GPIO pins, it is going to be very useful for a lot of IoT projects!!
pegor
Definitely would be more functional with more of the GPIOs exposed.
PunchyHamster
there is plenty of those already and not all too hard to make yourself, see LilyGo T01-C3

Its of format of original ESP8 so you get serial + 3 IO pins

venusenvy47
Can anyone suggest a small module that supports 5 GHz WiFi?
NuclearPM
> This can be seen in my highly necessary depiction below.

I love this. Fun and insightful article. Thank you.

pegor
Thanks for checking it out!
unwind
Me too, but that particular picture was confusing. Shouldn't the board be with the human, 120 ft from the wifi access point being connected to? Now it looks as if the human screams at the board from 120 ft away, or something.

Other than that, hugely impressive project of course, it makes any board I've tried to design/assemble look impossibly huge. :)

jacquesm
If you add another GPIO and make a silicone mold you could make an in-cable eavesdropper on USB connections that streams out the data via the wifi. That would be a pretty scary tool in the right circumstances.
Gys
> PCBWay does also offer assembly services

Seriously? For a tiny board like this also? Genuine question.

puzzlingcaptcha
01005? Oh no no no. I can barely do 0402s by hand and those are _2.5x_ larger.
uticus
Step 1: build a robotic arm with larger components...
Rebelgecko
Really cool. I just ran into a situation where it would be handy to have a small Bluetooth device that plugs into USB-C. However soldering something like this seems a bit beyond me, is there a more turnkey solution?
myself248
There's no makerspace nearby that could give you access to the tools and supplies to upgrade your skills?
stavros
This is great, well done! I don't know where I'd use this, but I'd definitely want to use it.
allenrb
Jesus. You had me at “hand-soldered 01005 components”.

I’m tempted to try a few of these just to see how disastrous my build efforts are.

Swannie
I was thinking "how much smaller than the cheap 30mm x 25mm boards on AliE can you go?" ... much smaller!

Very nice.

actinium226
Neat! I just sent out an order to JLCPCB for an ESP32 based board. I don't have a rework station or any experience with SMT so I decided to go for their assembly options. It's 80 per board, but would probably be cheaper per board if I got more than 2 (I also have more components on my board than you).

Question about the instructions in your README, you say that once you're done with the top side, repeat for the bottom, but when you're working on the bottom side, what stops the elements on the top side from falling off once the heat passes through the board and melts the solder on that side?

brokenmachine
"Bottom side must be done using a rework hot air gun, not possible with hotplate."

Basically you're hoping the bottom side doesn't get hot enough for everything to move or fall off.

4b11b4
Surface tension of solder in liquid state can hold the parts while upside down. Depends on weight of component & geometry of pads
pegor
Working on the bottom side I only used the heat gun really carefully on the resistors then used a soldering iron with a fine tip for the usb-c connector since the leads are fairly large.
wkat4242
People that hide exploit devices in public chargers are going to love this one lol. Cheap, small and enough power