FEED blog.jeronimus.net

PCBs to make ESP32 more breadboard friendly Including jumpers to select ground and power connections. 

To fit my ESP32 module nice on a breadboard i created this PCB.  When you stick this EPS32 module direct on a PCB there is no space to make connections. You can find several examples where users stick the module  on two PCBs. However wanted to keep the 'standard' PCB height and put it on only one breadboard. Therefore i created this PCB for my EPS32 module that can be plugged in the power lines of a breadboard.
To connect to the power rails of a breadboard solder some male pins pointing downwards in the top left, bottom left , top right and bottom right holes.

For the jumper connections it is best to solder in male Dupont pins. 

I soldered female Dupont connectors in the corresponding holes in the PCB for the module and the connections.
For the connections it is also possible to use male Dupont headers (or a combination of male and female). However the female version as it gives it a breadboard look. (I also build a version with 2 female one male row connection row. This is handy if you have sensors and buttons with female connectors.)

In the photo you see a version where i used male pins for some additional connections (GND,  3V3 and 5V) 

The PCB can also be used as 'stand alone' without a breadboard.  Mount the PCB using screws in the holes, the ESP module can easy be swapped or temporary removed for testing and reprogramming. 

Using jumpers power and ground connections can be configured.
(For the two power strips top row is always + bottom -)
The yellow lines indicate the connections.
Topright part of the PCB is the Ground configuration. The jumpers make it possible to connect GND1 GND2 GND3 GND4 to the top ground or to the bottom ground line.
Also bottom ground and top ground can be connected to each other.
On right bottom part of the PCB you find (vertical) some 3V3 points and Bottom ground connection points.
On left bottom part of the PCB you find (vertical) some 5V connection points.
Also on the left (bottom and top) there are 5V ans 3V3 points that can be connected to the breadboard top or bottom + power line.

The left and right power lines are always connected. You can use the PCB also to join to breadboards placed left and the right.

Below some pictures of the PCB design. 
( Red top copper layer, Blue bottom copper layer)

The PCBs where designed with EasyEDA and the project is there also shared.
Project homepage https://oshwlab.com/jeronimus.net/esp32breadboard_copy

Open in Editor
https://easyeda.com/editor#cmd=new_schematic,cmd_for_project=a2568d38d6634a1185e5220d4f53b901

The information, including the gerber files is also available on my Github
https://github.com/JanJeronimus/ESP32_BreadboardFriend 

How to get a Raspberry Pi 4 for free in The Netherlands.
 I received a new Raspberry Pi 4 with help of the Dutch Government. Due to the chip shortage is is difficult to buy a new Raspberry Pi and also the prices age gone up a lot.
However i just received Raspberry Pi 4 sponsored by the Dutch Government. This together with a book, a breadboard and some components. And perhaps you can also get this. How is that possible?
{IMG of the Pi}

For many years in the Dutch Tax system you could get a tax deduction if you followed a job related study or training and spent more than a certain amount. However the tax rules did change some time ago. Now, in the Netherlands, you can apply each year for 1000 Euro's for a job related training using a 'Stap budget'. However this is a limited government budget and only a few moments per year when you can apply and the training needs to be on an approved list. When the application time is there you already need to be in the waiting list as the budget is quite limited. Also you need to finish the training otherwise you need to pay it yourself.. 

What has this to do with a free Raspberry Pi ?  There are many interesting training's available also several IT related, including a Raspberry Pi Programming (using Python) . When you have finished your training you get a certificate of attending and you can (/must) do an exam. Included with the training is a Raspberry Pi, a breadboard and some components. As the training costs less than 1000 Euro's you can get this training for free with the Dutch Stap budget mentioned above. So you will not only have a Raspberry Pi a breadboard and some components. You can learn something and get an certificate and diploma.

Be aware that the apply process is quite difficult. I used the time slot at 1 November 2022 at 10:00. Before that you need to register first for the course and get some information from the company that provides the training. A long time before my time-slot i already went to the registration page for the Stap budget. There you end up in a queue. (You can also go there on second device or with another browser to double your chance. ). At 10:00 i got a message that i was in a waiting list that would take more than an hour. 

Also several times i got a message that the waiting list was paused.

I did not need to worry and would keep my place in the queue. Finally after more than an hour an a half i got a message that the queue was around 60 minutes. and after that every minute the queue became a minute shorter. At around 12:30 (so more than 2 and a half hours) i could register.


A strange thing is that about 10 minutes after i was in the queue i decided to also go a second time in the queue (as mentioned above).  I could register using this second queue. In the first queue i opened my turn would be more than 50 minutes later than in the second queue. So there is also a lot of luck involved.

Due to the long waiting time I did think my chances where very low. If you do not get the Stap budget you do not need to follow the training or pay anything. After some days i got a first email that my application for the Stap budget was approved and a few weeks later a mail from my training provider.
Some time later i received a package from the training provider with the Pi and training information.
Within a year i need to finish the training.

To experiment with RF and a VNA a clever designed test-board kit exists so i ordered one.

https://www.sdr-kits.net/DG8SAQ-VNWA-Testboard-kit

Below a description of the connections

Row A, F, G, B1 and B7 are all GND (In picture 2 presented as small circles)
Pad B4 C2 C6 E2 and E6 are Isolated (floating) pads (Not drawn in picture 2) 
The other connections between the pads are as drawn above.

Besides the PCB with the headers some jumpers and a 50 Ohm load is needed.
As a minimum it is recommended to make

2 pcs 2-pin short 
1 pcs  3 pin short
1 pcs  3 pin jumper
1 pcs 50 ohm load
Also having a 2-pin open as reference can be useful

The 50 Ohm load can be made by using 2 100 Ohm 0603 or 0805 SMD resistors in parallel (Stacked on each other). 

To make a through connection between the two SMA connectors place
2-pin shorting jumpers between D1-D2 and D6-D7 and a 3 pin jumper between D3-D5

A short or load (or open) can e.g. be made by placing appropriate components between E1 and F1

Below a picture of the kit that i did buy. It comes with the header pins and SMA connectors and 2 SMA resistors. 

I did solder the headers on the PCB and also the SMA connectors.For the connections i first wanted to experiment with standard Dupont connectors and two "normal" 100 Ohm resistors. I know the quality would be better (and better usable at higher frequencies) if i would made it smaller, however i first wanted to get some experience and learn from the results.
I measured some of my resistors, trying to match 2 resistors to get close to 50 Ohm. However finally i just used two random selected resistors as, when measuring with my ohm meter, my 100 Ohm resistors all seemed to be just below 100 Ohm.So i needed to use two of these resistors in parallel and the resistance would not be as close to 50 Ohm as i wanted. Using standard resistors on a normal Dupont headers would not be perfect for a 50 Ohm load anyway. To do first experiments at not to high frequencies it worked.

After building several 'Big Clive Supercomputers' (Blinking LEDS) i decided to also create a PCB version. On the top are the LEDs and on the bottom SMD resistors. Also there is a two pin Dupont connector. 

PCB Size 10cm*10cm  4 mounting holes, Led matrix 7*7 

I ordered black PCBs using the JLCPCB PCB service.

For the first PCB i used all Red LEDs and no resistors to save components. (i just bridged the resistor connections with some solder) and tested it using my LED tester.

The video below is from my Youtube channel https://youtube.com/shorts/r2JGXvKgrpQ?feature=share

On my Github page  https://github.com/JanJeronimus/CliveLights the Gerber file can be found and also a page with links to my other pages about this project..

I could make some time to build my Geiger counter to measure radioactivity.
For some time i had a kit laying around to build a Geiger counter. The counter can also be interfaced to an Arduino , ESP32 or other system. Standard it has an led and a buzzer to give the typical tick sounds of a Geiger counter. On the PCB are the component numbers.

All different components are in separated parts of a plastic foil with a B(uild) O(f) M(aterials) list as index. 

There was no real guidance for building, however on the BOM is a link to a github page  https://github.com/2969773606 . 
I started with the resistors and after that the capacitors followed by other components. A bit a mix of less fragile to more fragile components and low to higher components compartment by compartment. Each time marking when everything was soldered. For certainty i also tested most of the components before soldering.

A strange thing is that on the PCB is a component that is not in the box. As i did not see this component soldered on any picture or video about this Geiger counter i expect it was not needed. In the picture of the PCB with components (below) you can see the open position above the radiation symbol.

Also to find the purpose of the potmeter and jumpers you need to look in details on the github page.
The potmeter is used to control the voltage for the Geiger tube. According to this document on github https://github.com/2969773606/GeigerCounter-V1.1/blob/master/En_Calibration_GMv1.1.pdf it is precalibrated and i did not change it (yet).

In the schematic https://github.com/2969773606/GeigerCounter-V1.1/blob/master/Sch__Geiger%20Counter%20Kit-v1.1.pdf you find the jumpers.

 J1 is to disconnect the speaker (buzzer) .  I did not yet play with it,

On Github you find also more information about the Geiger tube, including how to convert measured ticks and examples how to interface with ESP or Arduino. Below a picture of the kit with all the components soldered.

In the Geiger counter kit is a battery holder, and audio connector cable, a 5V USB cable, a plastic shield, some metal and plastic stands. 

When i finished building and checked the PCB i powered it up using the USB cable in a USB power supply and i did hear some random radioactivity ticks. This is the standard background radiation and also some background noise from the tube. And yes it works with the open position for a component above the radiation symbol.

As for the Geiger Tube high voltages are used i switched off the system and added the protection shield using the plastic stands. (I don't like the metal stands for this). I also want to add some protection to the bottom (perhaps using some plywood using more plastic stands as i expect the high voltages will also be at the bottom of the PCB. 

I don't know yet when i will write and post Geiger counter -2- . Perhaps after some experiments with interfacing this counter to an Arduino or ESP and measuring some radiation. 

Made this weekend a RJ45 to Dupont connector. This to easy test and use RJ45 wires also for other purposes.

To test  RJ45 Ethernet connectors and wires i already have a nice Ethernet and wire tester. Sometimes you want to connect something else to your Ethernet wiring that does not have a proper RJ45 plug. I wanted to be able to change the order of the pins therefore i used i pin Dupont connectors. 
Afterwards i realized that it would be nice if i could easy put them in the correct order. Therefore i should have added first a 'dummy' empty 8 pin Dupont housing after putting the one pin Dupont pins. Perhaps a next time.
For now i added a log 8 pin female/male Dupont header together with this cable in my toolbox. 

. 

 My maibag blog post with some of the items i received in October 2022 (including a disclosure of what i want to do with it in the future and some results of a LoRa antenna i received).

For the cables i did buy 3 sets of these cables with banana-plugs. 
After receiving i noticed that i did not ordered exactly what i wanted as the banana-plugs don't have an option to attach another cable (e.g. in parallel) as they don't have a female connection hole. However this would only be a nice to have as is don't often need this. The wires are flexible and look good.


To extend the cables above i also ordered some female to female banana connectors.


Both of the above mentioned products (cables and conenctors) are ordered as my long term plan is to have a better experimenting area. I want to make there some fixed color coded connections with banana chassis plugs (that i already ordered some time ago) between some fixed locations using the same color coding. So this i can use for wiring the first and last meters.
An additional memory card was also needed


As i had some troubles with my SMA to IPX connection cables when using my self soldered IPX connectors i needed to order some new additional cables.


Also some more SMA connectors for RF experiments. If is a big bag as, after some disappointing experiments, i decided that it was probably better to use SMA connectors than the small IPX connectors so i need a lager stock of this connectors.
Also for RF experiments 2 different sized longer coax wires (10m and 5 m) with SMA M to SMA F  connectors.

After some other experiments i expect i will use it for outdoor antenna experiments.
To protect the SMA connectors i also ordered this protection caps

As my last test with my VNA showed that my Lora antenna showed was not for 868 MHz i ordered a new one. Below text from the advertisement:
  Item specifics

• Brand Name: QKZ
• Origin: Mainland China
• Gain(dB): 12dBi
• Model Number: Aerial Antenna
• Certification: None
• Product Description

  Feature

• 868MHz LoRa LoRaWAN Helium 12dBi RP SMA Male Aerial Antenna.
• High Efficiency
• Far Transmission
• High Strength reinforced Plastic
• High Density/Light Weight
• Suitable for Miner (Recommended by Helium):
• Bobcat/Nebra (Indoor/Outdoor)/RAK Wireless/RAK2 Wireless/Syncrobit/Cal-Chip/LongAP/Sensecap/Kerlink

  Specification

• Connector: SMA-Male
• Polarization: Vertical Polarization
• Gain: 12dBi
• V.S.W.R: <=1.5
• Impedance: 50 ohm
• Material: ABS
• Operation Temperature: -40~+85 Celsius
• Length:37.5cm
• Relative Humidity: Up to 95

My photo of the antenna

I did a quick first test with my Lite VNA and this are the first results (not full optimal, however better than i had before)

The best SWR seems to be around 800MHz with a value around 1.5
At the 868 MHz LoRa frequency the SWR is around 2.3
(On Aliexpress the seller mentioned V.S.W.R: <=1.5 )
When the antenna is somewhere else positioned with a decent ground perhaps my measured  values can change a little.
I ordered also some other SMA connectors. This ones are round chassis types and fit in a hole. 

During a recent event i did see this DIY kit for small boat.
It is intended for water scouts, however i  could not resist to buy it as it looks very nice and costs only a few euro's.
I did not opened the package or assembled it yet, so this is more like an 'Mailbag' object, that i did not got via mail. However if you like it, it can be ordered over internet.
The (led) lights can be controlled with the two pushbuttons or by touching the metal contacts near the helm with wet fingers.

https://kitbuilding.org/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&view=productdetails&virtuemart_product_id=114&virtuemart_category_id=24&lang=nl