New Espruino Board

... about final Puck.js design: In https://github.com/espruino/Espruino/blo­b/master/boards/PUCKJS.py it seems that you will use D4/D5 for the LED1/LED2 and two pins on the right pin header. Is that true? If so, why did you decide this way?

Ahh, good spot :) That's out of date - I've just pushed the latest version.

D1/D2 are used for those pins instead.

Nice thing about nRF52 is apart from the analogs, it doesn't care which pin is attached to which peripheral so board layout is a lot easier.

Quick update: More info on the Espruino WiFi board is here now: http://www.espruino.com/EspruinoWiFi

I modified the WiFi library to make it do auto on/off, to allow AP + access point connection, and to make it nearer the agreed WiFi API. At some point I'll move over to a native ESP8266 library which should allow a decent Telnet (and serving up of the Web IDE) - but I'm afraid I'm focused on Puck.js for the moment.

I'm going to start selling them via Tindie as soon as the listing is approved by them - so hopefully in the next few days.

Hey looks nice. Noticed the URI you've set up for the board above does not tally with the URI printed on the board itself.

Can't wait! Dontcha just love how tindie sits on listings for random periods of time?

Online now at Tindie.

@Ollie thanks! That was a stupid mistake :) That's what comes of designing them 4 months ago and then sitting on it before making the page. I've just added a redirect.

@DrAzzy at least it wasn't too long this time. The frustrating thing is the URL just 404s to everyone except me until they approve it, so if you link to it it looks like your site's broken :(

@Spocki thanks for the update - got some orders already this morning!

Direct Tindie link: https://www.tindie.com/products/gfwillia­ms/espruino-wifi/

Does it do AES?

Yes - it works just like the Pico, but has a bit more RAM so stuff like AES will be easier.

Ordered mine

Thanks! I literally just handed yours to the postman :)

What happen, @DrAzzy: Doesn't the sun rise in the East? jk ;) ...they will be gone quickly!

Mine arrived today. Very nice looking board. Finish is great.

Can we save a wifi configuration, similar to how ESP8266 wifi.save() implementation works, so the board joins the network or acts as AP when powered up?

FYI, if you ever do another rev, you might want to consider a cut-out in the PCB above the antenna. It makes a difference. Espressif has a pretty good app note about the antenna stuff with test results and the cut out performs better.

What are the connections to the esp8266? Can we flash firmware to the esp8266 "through" the espruino?

@tve thanks! Yeah, I'll have a go at that. There's no copper on that part of the PCB, but it still interferes?

@Ollie thanks! I'm totally sold on matte black now :) right now the ESP8266 itself remembers, but the JS that drives it ignores the reconnect. That could change, but you have to explicitly call something to enable the WiFi anyway (it's off by default) so IMO it's less of a big deal.

@DrAzzy there's pretty much a bare minimum connected to the ESP8266 (boot, Rx, tx, ch_pd and flow control), but yes, that's enough to flash the ESP8266 through Espruino.... Not that I hope you'll have to since the AT firmware seems pretty stable now

Well, maybe the cut-out isn't the biggest improvement. See http://www.espressif.com/sites/default/f­iles/esp-wroom-02_pcb_design_and_module_­placement_guide.pdf page 3 if interested

Wow, thanks for that! The results are a bit strange - I guess the radiation pattern changes and it's pretty hard to measure that with any certainty... At least what I'm doing isn't the worst though :)

It's not like it'd hurt removing the PCB though - I guess the only gotcha would be if it made it more likely that users bent the ESP8266 module while trying to pull the Espruino Wifi out of breadboard

The PCB material (most of the time FR-4) has its influence in term of RF performance, as its dielectric constant is not the same as air. Anyway, in your case, you should not worry about radiation pattern, as the module is meant to be put on a breadboard, which contains several metallic strips inside, which will cause most of the radiation loss.
In term of RF performance, a good practice would be to add a small coaxial connector such as U.FL from Hirose (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2_mm_­SMD_UFL_Socket.jpg), thus allowing the use of an external antenna.
That said, for indoor Wifi, it seems that there is not so many guys complaining about any poor RF performance of a PCB trace antenna on ESP modules.