How I Engineered a Penny-Sized Robot Controller!
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- Penny-Size CodeCell Module - microbots.io/c...
Big thanks to PCBWay for the PCB samples - www.pcbway.com
Learn more about Altium 365 - www.altium365....
Check out my other electronics - microbots.io/m...
Check out microbots Tools & Gear - microbots.io/gear
Build•Code•Repeat Tee - microbots.io/p...
Help me make more projects by supporting me on Patreon - / carlbugeja
Things You Can Build with CodeCell:
• Depth Gestures - microbots.io/b...
• Tap Detection - microbots.io/b...
• Proximity - microbots.io/b...
• Auto Dimming - microbots.io/b...
• Step Counter - microbots.io/b...
• Angle Control - microbots.io/b...
• Personal Activity Guessing - microbots.io/b...
• Wireless Remote - microbots.io/b...
• Ai Prompt - microbots.io/b...
• Alexa Light Control - microbots.io/b...
Social Media - linktr.ee/Carl...
Website - carlbugeja.com
Thank you Samer Aldhaher for the animations shown in this video
@AtiumOfficial The Altium 365 software is an electronics product design platform that unites PCB design, MCAD, data management, and teamwork - Free search engine for the best quality components from Octopart: www.octopart.com
Music:
Yhello - Lofive
Final Target in Sight - Trailer
A Poco a Poco - Trabant
Humbot - Wave Saver
- WiFi + Bluetooth
- Onboard antenna
- Battery charging
- USB-C
- Handful of GPIO
- Castellated pads
- Affordable
- Smol
I've been looking for this exact thing for so long and thought I was crazy when I couldn't find a good solution. Thank you Carl!!
It is always a pleasure for us to be a part of your great idea!😊
Carl, your inventiveness and innovation never ceases to amaze me. Keep up the great work
I wish you could've squeezed some motor drivers or just mosfets on there for direct motor drive. (4 mosfets and you would've had yourself a mini drone!)
This is almost exactly what I was looking for (a small ESP32 board with battery circuitry and an IMU in a tiny package). The only missing thing would be ZigBee instead of power-hungry WiFi.
Please cosider selling a ESP32-C6 and/or ESP32-H2 equiped version. They should both work as drop-in replacements for the ESP32-C3 without requiring any change to the PCB whatsoever.
It could even be an option on the website like the IMU is.
If WiFi is not an option for you, there is still BLE and ESPNow on board 🎉
Worst case scenario you can buy it and attach a C6 yourself. The cost for that is negligible
@@WhatsTheWordBozo Maybe I'm wrong, but I believe they have BGA-like pads to solder under the module itself, instead of just castellated contacts on the edges.
If that's the case, it would be way beyond what my soldering skills and equipment are capable of 😅
@@qdaniele97 But then they wouldn't be drop-in replacements!
BGAs and other SMCs can in theory / in a pinch be done in a household convection oven like the one used for turkeys on thanksgiving (not to be confised with a microwave, haha). Just be double super extra sure everything is lead-free etc esp the solder paste.
@@AlexKarasev it would still be a drop-in replacement, just means it's a lot easier for the manufacturer to do the 'dropping'
You have no idea how many of these are going to sell. I've seen so many mini RC tutorials around that have 500 steps and parts/tools. This is a game changer
Thank you so much for the feedback 🙂 I m glad you liked it!
Carl, everything you do is gold
thanks! glad you liked it! :)
A pin matched board with a bldc driver and magnetic encoder would be very very cool.
You should really put in your video that you can save up to 45$ in shipping by not adding on the battery. I took it off and it dropped the price from 90$ to 40$ which turns the product from kind of stressing pricing to actually very reasonable for a research device. If I buy a lipo locally on amazon I can get like 20 of them for that markup.
04:25 Not just common and safe, it's actually the recommended way to go.
This looks amazing. I love that you make a version without the IMU available for half the price. Great work.
Hey Carl. Im the same Seth that hit you up a while ago about using drivecells in my small robotics project. Thanks for responding and talking with me. The new drive cell library is much better.
OMG, cries in poor :), I was able to buy one, but it ended up being 60€ in total, whyyyyy am I so poor :)
Edit: you still deserve 6 stars for this crazy project +1
Edit2: I just bought one with giro, I have no self control eheheh
unfortunately to ship the battery we can only use fedex box, which i agree is a bit expensive.. but is necessary to ship LiPos.. All other options can ship with international post and also include a wire to use your own battery :)
@@CarlBugeja no worry, totally worth it +1
This is gonna be a gamechanger for my sonic screwdriver build
You could stack capacitors if you need more
Finally something to compete with the M5 Atom.
This is a super cool project, thanks for sharing and making it a product available to us!
I like it. I'll keep this in mind for future projects.
this is soooo cool!
The store looks great! Quality content as always, looking forward to the next video.
Looks amazing, as all of your projects.
I am just worried that the PCB antenna might behave poorly.
( esp32 has a very small range when connecting to other ESP with PCB antenna.)
Thank you so much! 🙂 So far we didn't have any issues with the antenna's performance with all the tests I showed
That gap for the USB cord is thick enough that I wonder whether some components could go between the boards, at least in some future version.
This is really cool :) it would be awesome to see a version with express lrs as a control link since the range is so much greater as well 🙂
This is amazing! I already got a few projects I could implement in 😮
THIS is AMAZING!
I hope I can get one in time!
i like that you went with an ESP32, BUT i don't love the C3. The S3 is a real successor to the original ESP32, whereas the C# series come closer to an ESP8266 IMO. Still a decent MCU though
Really nice piece of engeneering!
OMG, this is my dream prototyping module.
That small factor micro controllers are the best thing.
You are crazy in good way. That's why I love your videos! :)
This could also be interesting for SlimeVR Body Tracking since it supports the ESP32-C3 and the BNO085.
However i could not find the shematic so i don't know if the wireing would work with the default firmware.
UPDATE: I just saw that the pins can now be configured in the SlimeVR Firmware tool. So it should work.
buying now
You are a real life wizard! 😊
So much features in this tiny volume, you did a really nice job Carl !
Even took the time to do a pretty nice animation for the intro ! What did you used ? Blender ?
Pretty cool! I'd love trying to use it to build a micro mouse. :D
This looks awesome - im in the TinyDuino space and stacking boards makes it big. this looks solid!
Very cool! But I still say that you really need to design a Cozmo that has a brain. I so much want to have a small robot that can roam around the house indexing new items and even be able to take small items back to its' home base.
I like external antenna because then i can place electronics on alu or steel sheet if need be and don't need to worry about occlusion/detuning so much, more flexibility.
USB cable only a little attenuation because the metallisation is barely a couple millimetres across, which is a lot less than 29mm.
Malta power, hahaha, great project and amazing results.
For battery applications, it would be interesting to know if the integrated sensors can bring the ESP out of sleep mode? Can the VCNL4040 light sensor or the BNO085 motion sensor do this? thx
This is really cool!
Insanely cool
I think this is exactly what many were looking for. I will take some.
However another downside of the USB C port location is that it might be a bit inconvenient to make it accessible when printing a case with a 3d printer
so far i've built multiple cases for different projects and i have to agree.. but it a small inconvenience considering what it packs in such a small area..some clever 3d design can also make it easier for the usb connector to be more accessible through the housing
Pro tip: Most of the ESP boards allow you to reset the chip and put it into boot mode via the serial(by putting the RST line high, if I recall). esp-tool does this if supported!
how about vertical usb-c port?
Thanks for sharing 🎉
Wow I'm amazed. This is so impressive!!!
How many board layers & what trace thickness did you use to get it this small?
Great work as always.
What about cutting the PCB antenna and soldering it in vertical?
I don't know if it invalidates the FCC compliancy (probably yes), but it will make the size smaller, solve the connected usb port issue and also be high a little more of the usb port itself. 🙂
Insane how small electronics are getting these days. Very impressive
They're not just 'getting' small. People are designing them
@@AlexFoster2291 well, duh.
This is really great! I'm jealous 😇🥂
Fantastic stuff, again! 🙂
2 weeks ago I bought a bag of 20 ESP32 C3 Super Mini for less than $15 total, shipping included. I hate to not support creators because you did put a ton of work into it and I can see it in the final product. But I apologize, for throwing a ton of sensors around the house with ESPHome, I'm sticking with these little guys. Much love though, your projects are always top notch 100% amazing, keep at it!!
Amazing!
"Is there any possibility of making a 3D space mouse using magnets and this board?"
that great it look like it could be use for Vr Full body tracking.
Is it possible to make a thinner version with the esp32-c3-mini-1u ? I.e. a 0.8 or 1mm board instead.
I want a kit to build that tiny robot car 🥰
Coming soon
Keep up the Good Work !!!!👍👍
Bravoooo 👏👏👏
Amazing
So if a radio module is FCC/CE certified, then whole board can be?
good question that I would like to know the answer too!
New board would need certified as well, but the process is cheaper/faster than it would be otherwise.
@@chrisrose708 thanks
Yep, chrisrose708 is correct. A final device needs to be certified to FCC CFR 47, part 15 if it has an oscillator above 9kHz. The scope of testing is reduced if you use a certified wireless chip. I had EMC testing performed on a device about 2 years ago that uses an ESP32 chip and the testing and report cost about $2,100.
@@AverageJoe928 Is it easier because the part that isn't certified yet isn't an _intentional_ oscillator, or is there some extra advantage to having components that already went through certificattion?
small and cool, nice. small camera also would fit there nicely. yep cell phone style camera. small speaker etc. maybe.
Yes!! Another small robotics video!!
Edit: why did it reply to this comment instead of commenting??
babe, Carl Bugeja uploaded a video!
The XIAO ESP32C6 is the same size as the C3 and has an internal antenna in addition to a connection for an external one. And it has zigbee, which could be convenient for power usage.
With that in mind, you could make your design smaller by using one of those ceramic 3D antenna's that Seeed uses for the XIAO C6.
Thank you Carl for this great content once again ! I would like to drop a question because I'm kind of curious here. How do you make a living ? Is this channel a hobby project or main job ?
Regards, kyf
Great board! BNO086 may be better for IMU.
Considered it but it's price was more expensive.. So the 085 was a good compromise
As someone who loves to play with ESP32 modules, this is brilliant! does it support analog input from potentiometers? what about pwm output for dimmable leds? Keep up the great work, much love from Gozo
Thanks! 🇲🇹 Yes it definitely does - check out the pinout on the website explaining which pins can be used for the adc and pwm
Skills! 🦾
Which Battery charger with dynamic power path chip are you using?
Whoa he posted 👍
Hey Bugeja! What is the 9-Axis motion sensor you're using ??
Could these work well with solar cells for power harvest?
WIll it be possible to add sim card capability to it in future itirations? Or will that be too big?
Ig i have seen a similar kind of dev board from xaio itself they make even more advanced cam board for very small form factor
bravo
Which battery charger did you use? Nvm, found it BQ24232
As someone who designs and measures antennas, the problem is not that the cable is shielded or not.
The problem is that those antennas are designed while assuming that underneath them is free space, if you introduce an object (obviously metallic objects are worse) in the antenna's near-field, you change it's S11 (reflection coefficient) and radiation pattern, and it's efficiency *MIGHT* drop, since more power is reflected back to the source.
I say might because the response is actually unpredictable, even I designing antennas for a living don't exactly know what might happen when certain objects are placed. RF is black magic after all.
However, as you tested, the antenna seems to be responding quite well to the USB-C cable so... fair game! Good job though!
Would it still be a problem when the cable isn't plugged in, just because of the socket? Because otherwise, it seems pretty reasonable to not use wireless _while_ it is plugged into USB.
@@jimjjewett It depends on where the socket is placed, rule of thumb you try to follow the "Antenna cutout" most datasheets include and not place anything beneath it which, as you can see at 5:28, he followed pretty well, so the socket such cause little to no problems. It also helped that he used a thicker substrate on the bottom, keeping the socket further away from the antenna.
Usually the problems you see is just a loss of efficiency and the antenna still works at those frequencies, just a little worse (unless you really ignore the cutout and just place whatever you want underneath it).
Time for 150 gram melty brain combat robot
I just saw a vid where someone connected a NANO to a digital caliper through i2c.
It used 1.5v logic.. Would your CodeCell be able to do that and post data to MySQL?
Are your products open source? I'd love to be a part of your journey in any way possible.
xiao esp32 c6 is a good option as well.
This seems like a great product! I noticed that the version with the motion sensor does not allow me to include the battery when ordering. Is this not supported or do I just need to buy it separately my self?
It currently went out of stock.. We will restock it soon
nice. which chip used for charging?
This immediately remind me of SlimeVR trackers. Will you sell units with wiring & solder points for IMU but without the actual IMU？coz I have a bunch of BNO around 😄. I can solder them myself. This tiny C3 board should be ideal for assembly of super tiny SlimeVR trackers！😉 Pls consider selling ESP-C6 ver too. Having 2.4GHz ax channel can be helpful sometimes. Thanks.
Great! Can this use ESP-NOW?
Yes microbots.io/blogs/learn/codecell-wifi-remote
nice
Great board, but 1-9 weeks shipping within the EU, or 30 euro to ship in Europe thats too much((
sorry for the mistake we will update the website - in most case for the eu it will arrive in 2 weeks for standard shipment
@@CarlBugeja great thank you!!
EMI cries in the side
Can it be software patched into tablets that do not have a compass,
so I could use it to tell Google Sky Map what star my telescope is pointed at?
It's already on AliExpress for $1.79 shipped.
ESP32C3 Seeed studio's wifi & bluetooth will work without external antenna. i used it my smart watch showing internet ntp clock without antenna. please check that once without antenna it has good connections. i dont know how its work without antenna but its working.
Great project! I want to give you a bit of advice for your audio though. You're hitting the compressor really hard and the first syllable of every line comes too loud. Especially obvious around 4-5 minute mark in the video. You need to use a compressor with look ahead to avoid this, or side chain the compressor to a duplicate audio track you've nudged forward by the same amount as the attack.
thanks for the tip :) will look into it
Will it run esphome?
Nice
why not just an UART instead of USB-C?
A cheap USB-UART dongle can supply 3V and 5V and you could save space
Also, half of my ESP boards have broken surface mount USB-C ports, they don't work well for prototyping :D
What programs you use to project ?
there's watchdog in the esp32
I'm new to programming and microcontrollers, does anyone know if this would be compatible with circuitpython?
nice
ESP32 drains over 100mA with BT and Wi-Fi on. Not sure how is that a good choice for a battery operated miniature robot.
try making a gyroscope