Thursday, September 14, 2017

Remixed WiFiChron board

Thanks to all buyers who waited patiently for the new batch of re-designed WiFiChron PCBs to arrive.
The new board eliminates the need for the 2 extra wires on the back (that connected Rx and Tx to ESP8266). The XBee socket, intended for the $45 GPSBee, was also dropped, and replaced with a 3-pin header, used for connecting the $5 GPS modules available on ebay.

Here is the list of notable changes:
  • the only RTC now supported is DS3231;
  • DS3231 is now powered from the regulated 3V3;
  • GPS module is now connected to D17 (already supported in software);
  • as mentioned above, Rx and Tx already connected to ESP8266 module (no need to solder the 2 wires on the back); as before, remember to unplug the ESP8266 module from its socket when uploading a new sketch;
This is how the new board looks like:


and assembled:

Below is the new schematic (compatible with the old one, just re-mixed):


The latest release of the WiFiChron software should still work unchanged with the new board.

On the assembly front, youtuber 12voldvids put together this nice video:


Here is another video on WiFiChron, courtesy of RayS:


If anyone else would like to make and publish videos on any of my kits, I will gladly support it, with explanations/clarifications and, obviously, discounts :)