#diyhardware

Espressif programmer test success! 💻✨🔧

While developing boards, there are oftentimes we want to program ESP chips without going through the onboard USB port; this adapter will help us (and others) do that! It has a CP2102N USB-serial chip

https://www.digikey.com/short/bm7n3p5z

...with RX/TX signal LEDs and two transistors wired up to the DTR/RTS line for the 'esptool standard' reset procedure technique. The output IO, plus a 3.3V 500mA regulated output, is available on a socket header, so you can plug wires in for quick programming and debugging. You can use this for everything from an ESP8266 up to the ESP32-P4! Here, we are testing it with a HUZZAH ESP8266 breakout board

Open Hardware month continues, there are over 2,905 open source hardware projects certified, currently Adafruit has 790 certifications, will we hit 800 by Halloween?? SCARY! 🎃👻🕸️🧛‍♂️🧟‍♀️🍬😈

The first test for our WLED board codename "Sparkle Motion" 🌈💖💡 … 🐇⏳🌌

We got our WLED-friend PCBs today, and we only made one mistake: the wrong resistor on the 3.3V feedback line. Now that it's fixed, the board seems to work great with the latest version of WLED

We are checking all 4 signal outputs with this handy 256-LED grid that sits on our desk. Next, we will test the onboard IR receiver, USB PD, I2S microphone, extra I/O pins, and I2C. We'll also do an Arduino IDE board definition in case folks want to use it as a generic ESP32-to-LED-driver board. We're calling the board "Sparkle Motion" for now, but if you have other naming ideas, let us know - if we pick your name, you get a free board

Desk of Ladyada - Tariff Talk! ASK AWAY! 📦🌎💸

We're doing the show tonight or Tues, so much is going on. Lots more questions came in too! Post yours before we go live…

This week was not a big week for engineering because we're neck-deep in tariff management! We had a video on Wednesday about the first round of tariffs announced—they have since been ratcheted up to 20% + 125% = 145% minimum on products from China and Hong Kong. "Retaliatory" tariffs on products from other countries have been paused, but there's still a 10% global tariff.

Then on Friday, it looks like some HTS codes

were "exempted" temporarily

Let's take a look at the CBP (link) and the exempt tariff codes

and see how they might apply to the kinds of stuff we use to do our electronics engineering.

The Great Search - How to Source Tariffed & Non-Tariffed Items on DigiKey

https://www.digikey.com/short/2nb7nzb3

Since this is the topic of the day, we'll be looking at how to purchase an item from DigiKey with tariffs in mind. DigiKey is a free trade zone, which means that if you're not in the USA, you will not have to pay additional tariffs on goods that are re-exported. However, for USA destinations, the new tariffs can add a significant cost if the component has its last manufacturing step in China.

Raspberry Pi 5 / RP1 chip support for Neopixels with Python bindings coming soon 🎉💡🖥️🌈🐍

Hot off the PIO-presses, our resident Jepler created a Python binding for the Raspberry Pi 5 that lets us use the RP1 chip

on the 5/500 series boards to drive Neopixels using PIO. This is great because we can now use Neopixels

and friends on the latest Pi boards, and we can use any pin because PIO is not limited by underlying peripherals. You do need the latest kernel and firmware, so it is not quite ready for prime-time, but once piolib

TPS65131 Split-Output Booster Supply

Generating a negative voltage over -5V is kinda annoying: most chargepumps max out at 5V inversion, and ones that can double-then-invert like the MAX232 aren't high current. We bumped into the TPS65131

https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/TPS65131RGER/1672464

while working on our Floppsy design

Feather RP2350 boards are being tested and are close to shipping 🪶🍇

Our RP2350 Feather design is finally inching closer to release in the adafruit shop - having fixed a clock delay bug that was causing 50% of our boards to not boot, we've now got the tester working well and able to program and test boards in about 8 seconds. Now that we know the hardware is in good shape, we'll fabricate more and get this first set of 150 pieces into the shop. sign up to get first dibs!