The rev 1 layout is done! It will be highly disappointing to many people. Not only was it not designed to wear around your neck (although I'm sure enterprising hackers could make that work), but it does not contain ten million LEDs either! In fact, there aren't any LEDs on it at all!

I don't know what I was thinking when I created this abomination. How am I expecting to get any attention at all for this project without covering it with LEDs? Insane. Here I am thinking about mundane and boring concerns like power conversion efficiency, EMI, snubbers, transmission line differential impedance, ground plane preservation and manufacturability, while I completely forgot about the first and foremost raison d'être for any electronic project: flashing LEDs.



I pretty much submitted it to the Hackaday Prize for nothing since no judge will ever bother to look at it. Especially not since I will likely not bother to make a flashy video either to explain why this thing is cool even without any flashing LEDs. I must be insane if I expect people to read instead.



Well, at least I came up with a pretty slick logo that may help grab some eyeballs, so all may not be lost:

Yes, I do know how to spell "wasp", but I am a native Dutch speaker so I couldn't help myself. And you have to admit that it looks kinda badass. :)

Final version should probably have a black background with yellow silkscreen, but OSHPark PCB renderings look really nice for showing the finished look of a board, so we'll go with a white/purple wasp for now. Here's the component side:

I managed to cram it all into 75 x 40 mm. The header in the middle is where the ESP32-Prog sub module can be installed for programming and/or USB serial terminal. I also added a solder jumper to allow you to select 5V power output instead of 12V. I'll have to wait until I can do testing to see how well this will work. The flyback transformer turns ratio is optimized for 12V output, but even if I can't get to the full 13W output power when the 5V option is selected, it likely still is a very useful feature to have. The header on the right side is where you connect your application board. It gives access to V+ (12V or 5V), 3.3V, 3 GNDs and 15 ESP32 GPIOs. Here is the pinout (pin 1 is marked with a fat circle on the PCB):

On the left side of the PCB is the Ethernet jack where you plug in the single power/network Cat5 cable. Oh wait, I guess I lied: this board does have LEDs, there are two built in to the Ethernet jack!



If everything works as expected, you should be able to get >12W out of the 12V power output. 12 watts! Imagine how many flashing LEDs you'll be able to power with that! :)

Hackaday Prize round 1 is almost over so please, if you haven't done so already, give my project a like here so I can collect some more seed funding from Supply Frame! Thanks!

