Our New KickStarter! Espruino Pico

Would Socket Support enable the SMTP protocol to be implemented? It would be great if simple emails could be sent when the Espruino encountered certain conditions/errors.

I was thinking of implementing a simple REST API on another web server which Espruino could call using HTTP to send emails but it would be great if this could be done without the need for another web server to relay the message.

(Maybe this could be done currently without socket support?)

The Espruino Pico is a battery miser.

You could purchase one, off the shelf, AA Duracell Quantum (primary cell, Alkaline) 1.5 VDC @ 3900 mAh and ten year shelf life.

Then use the Tindie step-up booster converter which idles at 55uA and use the Espruino Pico @ 10-12 uA at idle / sleep.

Just at idle, you have over 6 years before the battery capacity is drained. Best of all, there is a power check, on the side of this battery to indicate battery capacity.

Note: The TPS61200 booster step-up DC to DC converter makes sure every joule of usable battery energy is used before shutting down.

https://www.tindie.com/products/BBTech/tps61200-power-step-up-converter-booster-v1/

I'll have a look at that - routing is a bit tight so I'm using SMD wherever possible - but IIRC there may be some free space around there.

Yeah, the area around those pads looks like just about the only part of the board with a few square millimeters not filled with something.

I've been talking to ST, and they seem pretty happy to do a deal on the F401CD for me

Booyaaah! 96k SRAM? 96k SRAM! 5.x k JSVARS?

SMTP

With sockets I think you could implement SMTP quite easily... BUT every server I've seen recently uses TLS or some kind of encryption, and that's probably not doable at the moment I'm afraid.

Booyaaah! 96k SRAM? 96k SRAM! 5.x k JSVARS?

Yep, sounds about right :) It's going to make this really exciting.

And wow, first animated gif on the forum I think. Congratulations!

Quick question - have you tried the pin-header on the end of the board? Does it work out okay?

Yes, it's ok, although not perfect because the board is extra thick. Having the edge does mean that adaptor boards could just be soldered right on the end.

I'm wondering now whether to have one full hole and then a half hole on the end. It depends how easily that can be done by the pcb manufacturer.

Board variations 1..3: Either 1 or 3. Variation 3 is still 1" and with USB 1-1/2" long. A possible combination of 1 and 3 (with manufacturing price impact?) could be a 'break off' of a double row of through holes.

Another suggestion I have is to have through wholes for GND and 5V+ in/on the USB (or 5V separate) just close to the board like the battery connectors on 1v3 regular board. The USB socket contact piece is a bit set back compared to the socket face. Using that space for the holes allow to solder wires (with connector) to power supply and still plug-into socket of cable or computer. Using this space though prevents the idea from having the pads for soldering a mini usb onto it.

There are already pads for a JST battery connector on the Espruino Pico, if that's what you meant?

I'd considered the break-off bit, but as the board will be 2mm thick I kind of think the force needed to snap the end off might risk damaging something on the board.

How simple would it be to re-attached a transflash holder/connector to the new Espruino Pico?
Would the same d2,pb13-15 pins do?

duplicate

Congratulation, you reached the £50 000 pledged last night...

@user7114 It should be very easy - I'll be adding the ability to use the filesystem API on any pins, so you should be able to just connect an SD connector on wherever you want.

@asez73 Thanks! Yes, yesterday was pretty awesome :)

Congrads on reaching the 50,000 stretch goal! I purchased the last EARLY BIRD - ONE Espruino Pico without pins :)

Just out of curiosity, why Kickstarter instead of indiegogo?

Thanks!

At least a year ago, KickStarter seemed to have a bit more traffic to it than Indiegogo. It's maybe not so good this time around though - I did notice that things on Indiegogo seems to pull in a bit more funding...

Personally I also think that KickStarter vets projects a bit more thoroughly than Indiegogo. I see some stuff on Indiegogo that's so obviously a fraud (or just a copy of something else). I think being on KickStarter makes it seem a bit more legitimate :)

Why not use a 2x5 or bigger 1,27mm pitch pin header instead (see picture). So we can use this as a "pico mini extender". Minimum 2x5 because of GND and VCC (and/or 5V). One can solder the header on top, on the bottom or not at all (breadboarding). There are ribbon cable connectors available for this kind of pin headers. Probably we should go for more pins (2x7 is doable without problem) to acheive a "universal" extender. say at least a combination I2C, USART , SPI and GPIO (analog capable) should be there. Should be able to use I2C, SPI and USART in parallel.

1 Attachment

Thanks - it's a good idea... I'll have a think about it, but initially it looks a bit tricky trying to get it in without making the board longer. I do like the idea of having extra 'shield' boards though.

Problem is, people do hate change. Every time I say I'm changing something (even when it's good) someone complains :)

Problem is, people do hate change. Every time I say I'm changing something (even when it's good) someone complains :)

Boo! Hiss! What a terrible idea! Down with Gordon!

But seriously, that's an interesting idea, I think I'm sold. If you can find space to route the traces, this has a few advantages over the sideways pins. Being able to get GND and VCC onto the header makes doing an expansion board so much easier. On the downside, everyone and their mom has 0.1" pin header, while 1.27mm/0.05" is less common. Looks like that won't be a problem though - despite that I don't think I've ever seen any, a search of ebay turns up plenty of results from the usual suspects.

Female pinheader isn't break-off, but it looks like the relevant sizes are available - digikey (though not ebay sellers, it seems) sells 2x5, 2x6, and 2x7 blocks of 1.27 female pin header - albeit at a steep price (1.50 or so each for 6x2- what's that, 13 cents a pin? ). One can always just cut up the long pieces, and file the ends down so they don't look too crappy. I'd think the female headers should go onto the Pico, on the side opposite whichever one we chose to have the 0.1" pins sticking out from. (female to reduce risk of shorting together VCC and GND - since it'll be on the opposite side as the pins you're probably paying attention to, I think there'd be a higher risk of accidental shorts with male header - plus, you want the addons to use the cheaper male header, right?). You should probably make a decision about what the "right" way around for the pins will be, so we could use eachothers' shield designs.

And - not to be a nudge - did you check regarding replacing the pads for the crystal with holes? The holes can (and probably should) be smaller than most through holes, since the 32 Khz crystals in the can packages have such thin leads - this looks like it might even take less board space than the pads.

Playing with the board image in paint for a bit, it looks like fitting a 1.27mm 2 row header between the board edge and the resonator will be the hard part, more than routing the traces...

And yeah, I think if you could get an SPI, I2C, and UART on there, that'd be critical to making "shields" possible, since you don't know what you'll need for a given piece of hardware. Plus, you want some extra pins for ADC's and chip select and such. I think 2x6 would be preferable... but not sure if it could be crammed in.

Finally: Aw yeah, those pledges been coming in - looks like we're gonna have HID emulation ! I did my part, i'm in the 10-board club - and if even half the rest of the backers upgraded their pledge like I did, we'd have inline C! :-P

@Gordon I updated my pledge to the Ultimate Toy Kit Backer :-) I changed my credit card info to my paypal Credit card. I hope there are no issues with paypal and the exchange rate. If there is, can you send me a paypal money request for Paypal Credit?

Woohoo! 60k with 24 hrs to go!

Thanks! £64.5k now with 13 hours left!

I have no idea what people will order after the KickStarter, but there's a small possibility that with those orders we might even hit the £75k stretch goal!

The crystal through-holes are on my list - I'm not 100% sure, but if I can get a bigger 32k crystal in there the price of it may drop enough that I can fit them to all boards and you won't need the holes.

Male 1.27 on plugin boards would be ideal, because then you get the option of soldering them straight on - saving a bit of money and potentially meaning that you can fit the boards a bit closer together.

I'll try and get extra peripherals on the board, but apart from I2C it's not vital. I will probably add software USART soon (we already have SPI) so while it's not ideal, you'd be able to use whatever pins you wanted.

Ah, lovely, I got the male pin header (gotta be prepared, right?). Yessireee, 5 pcs 1x50 1.27mm pin header!

... (yup, it arrived like that)

Also, interesting - the plastic strip is the same width as on 0.1" pin header, not scaled down 50%. And it still broke :-P

Still waiting on mine...

Regarding 0.05" headers: someone seen adaptors from single row 0.05" to double row 0.10"?

awww crap, I didn't read carefully enough...

The 0.05 is for the little pins that we've been debating the position and form of. One might argue that I'm getting ahead of things by ordering it this early. Good stuff to have anyway though.

The two rows of 9 pins are 0.1". I think the Pico comes with the 2 9 pin long 0.1" pieces of pin header for the sides. 0.1" pin header is something you'll inevitably need though, no harm in buying it. 0.1" is the "standard" size for pin header.