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Btw, does the board need to be a special thickness to fit an SMA Antenna connector like this one? http://www.mouser.ch/ProductDetail/Linx-Technologies/CONREVSMA003062/?qs=%2fha2pyFaduhUJeJxqlw%252bFQMy9nIY5kfv6q0bp7H1YbBOF02E3nhrsy%252bjEuxuowqL

Awesome! Thanks!

I'd go for @Gordon 's suggestion of having a pinout that you can push into a breadboard so that people outside the Espruino community can make use of the breakout as well.

I would really go for the naked board, no on board antenna or anything. The onboard antenna is particularly trick, because it looks nice and tidy but it give a shit range, which is one of the selling points of LoRaWAN in the first place, so I wouldn't bother much, just leave it open, people can solder the antenna the want, or even a piece of wire if they only want to prototype.

@DrAzzy at least 10 I'll buy myself, not sure if there are others interested but it is likely because here in Zurich we ordered about 45 of these little guys in the last couple of weeks, some of the more hardware-skilled guys are trying to connect it as is or build their our breakout boards. I don't have the skills to design my own board, so, I'd gladly buy these ones if you have them for sale. :)

@DrAzzy, nice boards! But we would need more SOIC pins, the RN2483 has 47 in total (20 on each side and 7 on the top). Would be cool if you would add those to your tindie store, I pre-order! ;)

Do you guys have any tips on how to solder these 0.05" pins on the Microchip? I've been trying but is incredibly tricky, especially because the board is not very thick. In comparison, the ones on the Espruino Pico are a walk in the park because the board is thicker and the castellation is deeper.

Is it the only sane approach the use of a PCB on top of which I can solder this? If that's the case, do you know of any that would fit for this chip?

Thanks!

Thanks guys! I just fixed the link (there were parenthesis in the name that messed up the markdown link).

Hi guys,

I'm part of a community deploying an open/free LoRaWAN network in Zurich (thethingsnetwork.org) and I'd love to be able to use my Espruinos to connect to it. I got a couple of Microchip RN2483 modules (LoRaWAN transceiver) that provide a serial interface, but I really don't have the skills to wire it up to the Espruino Pico.

Could you please give me a hand on how I should wire it? What I've found is this schematics: https://www.dropbox.com/s/679gjqza5fk5tp3/LoRa%20QuickStart%20Guide%20(English).pdf?dl=0 targeted at Arduino.

So, my (likely poor!) understanding of all this is that I should wire as follows:

1. All 13 GND pins on the RN2483 to GND.
   
2. Pin 12 and 34 (VDD) to the 3.3 pin on the Espruino Pico (would it be better to connect one to each 3.3 on the Pico? or both to the same?)
   
3. Pin 6 (UART_TX) to B7 (USART1_RX) on Espruino Pico
   
4. Pin 7 (UART_RX) to B6 (USART1_TX) on Espruino Pico
   
5. Pin 23 (RFH, because I want to use 868Mhz band) to the Antenna? I don't understand the details here in the schematics.
   
   

Once wiring is done, creating a driver for this should be almost trivial. I guess is just a matter of adapting this sample code to Espruino.

Cheers
Gonzalo

Btw, thanks for your help, guys!!

I got them in February 8th from aliexpress (http://www.aliexpress.com/snapshot/6482384681.html).

But, it does not matter: I think i just fried my Pico :( I was trying to re-write the thing for the 100th time, and I missed by one pin: wired vbat instead of 3.3, then the smell of burnt electronic followed and now can't detect the Pico anymore.... bad luck, I guess I'll just wait in line to buy new ones from the next batch! :P

Still no luck.
I am sure TX and RX are connected properly, if I invert them, Espruino complains with ERROR: Pin A2 is not capable of USART RX Suitable pins are: A3.

I added different capacitors, sometimes I see that when I plug it, the blue led turns on and stays, but as soon as I upload the sample js code which does esp8266.connect, it goes off and doesn't blink anymore.

One dumb question: I have the esp8266 in a breadboard, and it is wired to the Pico with jumperwires, no soldering anywhere. Could that be the cause?

At some point I think I've read something about the proximity of capacitors affecting this, so I wonder if the fact that it's wired instead of soldiered in close proximity a problem. Keep in mind that I am absolute zero when it comes to electronics, so, try not to laugh too hard if this question is non-sense :)

Thanks @DrAzzy! I'll play with it this week.

No capacitor, I'll get some tomorrow to try that.
I don't have the shim, I just wired it up on a breadboard. My wiring is very primitive (and so is my electronics knowledge). And, sorry if this is an extremely obvious question, but, where exactly should I add the capacitor? Does it go between VCC on the ESP8266 and 3.3 on the Pico?

Thanks

I think since 76, at least the build that it shipped with (iirc was 75) was complaining about missing networkjs. Now I've 1v78. Test code is basically the same from the tutorial + some logging:

Serial2.setup(9600, { rx: A3, tx: A2 });
var esp8266 = require("ESP8266WiFi");
console.log("Testing ESP8266...");
var wifi = esp8266.connect(Serial2, function(err) {
  console.log("Connected, reseting...");
  if (err) throw err;
  wifi.reset(function(err) {
    if (err) throw err;
    console.log("Connecting to WiFi");
    wifi.connect("ssid","pass", function(err) {
      if (err) throw err;
      console.log("Connected");
      // Now you can do something, like an HTTP request
      require("http").get("http://www.pur3.co.uk/hello.txt", function(res) {
        console.log("Response: ",res);
        res.on('data', function(d) {
          console.log("--->"+d);
        });
      });
    });
  });
}); 

I get this consistently, never works. I tried 3 different ESP8266 modules I have, and it's all the same. I tried 9600 and 115200 setup. In fact, I even tried disconnecting everything and I get the same error, so, something must be really wrong on my side I guess.

Hi guys,

I got my Pico earlier this week and I've been trying to get it to work with some ESP8266s I bought a couple of months ago. I flashed the pico because 1v75 doesn't include NetworkJS, but to no avail. I tried with the two flash versions available, WIZNet and CC3000 (btw, why isn't there an ESP8266 build for 1v78?), but I get the following error after a few seconds:

Uncaught No 'ready' after AT+RST
 at line 3 col 18
  if (err) throw err;
                  ^
in function "a" called from line 1 col 100
...a("No 'ready' after AT+RST");else return c}
                               ^
in function "d" called from line 1 col 16
{e=void 0;d&&d()}
                ^
in function called from system

Any hints? Am I doing anything obviously wrong? The ESP8266 lights up the red led when the Pico is connected, but that's about it (not sure if it is supposed to blink at some point thou).

Thanks!
gonzalo

Great news!!

I use the web IDE on a Mac 10.9.4 and it works perfectly.
And about the web app, please don't kill it, it's one of the key selling points IMO: the Espruino is a zero-friction board: get it, plug it, and start coding on it. No downloads or anything.

Right now I don't have a lot of free time to put into it, but I'll do my best to contribute to the web IDE project to keep it going if needed! :)

Cheers

Thx a lot!

I was reading up a lot more on the veering question, and it seems it is quite a common problem, and not so easy to solve it as it seems.

and one more question: when it drives forward or back, it is always slightly turning to one side. I tried adjusting wheels, inverting them, removing sensors, etc, but to no avail. I suspect something in the wiring makes one engine get a tad less power than the other, is that again related to the voltage and will be fixed by one of the options I asked before? Or is there a wiring problem, like powering from the wrong pin or the like?

Thanks Doctor! Switching to the 4xAA battery pack indeed gave it a much better torque!

May I ask a couple additional noob questions?

1. If I replace the battery pack with a 9V battery will I get even better results? Or I will just burn something? (Am I being extremely naive in thinking more V == better torque?)
   
2. That boost converter you said, most the ones I find seem to output 5V (like this LiPower Boost Converter). This one seems to be regulable up to 35V this one. Is that the one you mean?
   
3. Instead of the boost converter, would it also work to get this 2C LiPo battery?
   
   

Thx!

Alright! I've done my homework, here's the diagram :)

Sure thing. I don't have a fritzing diagram yet (shame on me!), but here are some pictures of the wiring:
https://www.dropbox.com/sc/49vw5s0ekcs3sp8/AADpYuMGe5I6zjTJ2xILwOtLa

Hey guys,
I'm pretty new to this world of electronics and hardware hacking in general, and I'm working on a project to build a simple 3-wheeled robot that can be controlled over internet.

So far, I was able to get it to work, but not so reliably as I want it to, and I am guessing I have powering issues (or wiring perhaps?).

My setup is as follows:

1. Espruino board
   
2. Adafruit CC3000
   
3. H-Bridge Motor Driver 1A SN754410 (pin-compatible with L293D)
   
4. HC-SR04
   
5. 2x MG-6-48 Gear Motors
   
   

The CC3000, distance sensor and even the motor driver are wired via the breadboard (even thou the Espruino tutorials sort of implied the motor driver goes soldered into the prototyping area).

I have only one power source for everything, either my computer via USB, or a LiPo battery 1400mAh.

If I power it directly via USB with my computer, the whole thing works, but one annoying issue: Usually when I fire a command ("FORWARD", "LEFT", etc), the motors don't really kick in, and I have to literally push it a bit. Once they starts moving, everything keeps on rolling fine.

Now, if I power it via battery, the thing doesn't seem to have power to do anything. Sometimes I have to lift it from the ground for it to start rolling.

So, in summary, my questions are:

1. Is it ok to wire the motor driver via the breadboard instead of the prototyping area, or is this actually a source of trouble?
   
2. Why could it be that even when powered via my computer's USB the are issues to kick in the engines?
   
3. I assume the battery pack I'm using is not enough, right? What's the "proper" solution for this? Buy a battery with higher higher current? Or can I power the motors from one power source (e.g. the 4xAA pack that comes with the kit) and the Espruino with a different one, like the LiPo battery?
   
   

Thanks a bunch in advance, and sorry if some of the questions are extremely dumb! :)

Cheers
gonzalo

Thanks @jacklee for this thread and for your diagrams! It helped me get the L293D working! You should consider turning it into a tutorial on the espruino page, because there is no other explanation about using the L293D on a breadboard (instead of soldering it to the espruino).