The only boards that I have built were for power LED + LED driver on one board.  For prototypes, I use Iconic PCB in Australia.  I know it sounds crazy, but they do a great job by cnc machining the boards and traces.

The main advantage for me was that I needed 2 oz copper traces (single layer) and a really healthy heat spreader + ground plane. 

They bonded together a 1.5mm copper sheet + thin FR4 + 2 oz copper stack for the project.  

- The 1.5mm copper was the ground plane and a great heat spreader.  Access to it was by machining openings down to it from the top, and filling in the opening with solder paste.  This was especially useful for the control chip heat spreader connection on the back of the package.  I also was able to use it for the LED heat spreading.

- FR4 layer - normal function

- 2 oz copper was for all non ground traces

- I used 0 ohm resistors to "jump" over traces as needed, rather than add another board layer.

- Typical part size was 1206, mostly because I have poor dexterity, but also it was handy to have larger parts for heat dissipation.

With this setup, I was able to duplicate an applications note circuit done in 4 layers with just the ground plane and 2 oz copper layer. 

I don't have the knowledge to design the circuit, so I hired a local EE to do the drawings.

The Iconics people are great, really a family business.


 

Decided it wasn't possible in the end, at least not with my skill set and this hardware. I don't have the background or knowledge to pull it off at the level of accuracy asked for - 2 analogue channels being sampled, but the hardware muxes all analogue inputs through the same ADC so they physically cannot be read at the same time (which is what I was asked to do), even timing the sampling perfectly they samples end up being [sample time] + [switching input time] apart.

Now testing a recovered 18650 cell with a couple of solar panels to charge.

This one should hopefully last longer because the solar panels no longer have a voltage drop with a diode.

Once the lithium charging boards with extra protection arrive (they're taking ages) I'll make a board up with all the bits properly soldered.

I suppose a board like this could be used as a reasonable battery backup type system for plugged in sensors. Saying that, if the power goes it will probably take out the server, wifi etc so it would be a little pointless.

This setup is currently at 9 days on solar+battery.

ESP recorded voltage hasn't dropped below the maximum it can read - 4.09V. Today I noticed that the charging module was showing "fully charged" so it looks like the two panels are providing enough power during the day to top up the battery to full. Might actually last forever if I want it to.

Nice one. Be good if it will keep going without needing to charge/replace batteries :) How much sunlight are they getting?

I have two panels (6V - 0.6W and 1.1W). Attached to a south facing window, so getting as much as possible up north.

I could do with removing one of the panels to see if I can continue with just one.

(now unplugged the smaller one)

Small panel unplugged and the battery charger showed fully charged a moment a go.

Full charging with just the large panel, but there's been a lot of sun today so it's probably not a surprise. Time to try just running on the small panel.

Small panel looks like it isn't sufficient to keep the battery topped up. It has dropped below the 4.09V max voltage and over the last two nights has had a new low value so it's gradually getting lower over each night.

How much sun have you had over the lat two days?

A lot in Lancashire.

RGB LED test

Disco!

Made a notification RGB light

Made a standard doorbell a bit smarter



Connected up to the LED in the receiver unit which is now hooked up to an optoisolator which acts as a button/switch triggering the ESP8266 to do some stuff.

That stuff is currently tell my server to stick an entry in a database to record when there's a press.

And also telling my notification light to do something (currently flash).

The delay between the button press and the notification flashing is way too long.

In the time it takes to go off, any couriers ringing your bell will have already filled in a "sorry we missed you" card and moved on to their next stop!

Ha, yeah definitely. Need to tweak it so it's quicker.

Are you sure you've not just found a way of slowing light down?

Hmm, bit worried if I have.

Totally rewrote the code - a bit more responsive now



Gone from the ESP8266 requesting the info from the server (every ~500ms, so it was probably hammering the server which isn't great), to the ESP8266 acting as a web server and the request being sent to it when required.