I have successfully implemented most of the planned features, such as removing the USB-C port and adding a display. Unfortunately, I have not been able to test the display as it has not arrived yet.
The new PCBs were kindly sponsored by PCBWay. The boards are a beautiful black, and ordering them was very straightforward. PCBWay offers a wide variety of customizations, I wasn't even sure what to choose. Contact with PCBWay customer service was always friendly and helpful.
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The best part of these new PCBs is how stunning the traces look under the glossy black finish. I could admire them for hours. The only downside of the color is its tendency to attract fingerprints. I tried to take high-quality pictures, but due to my lack of experience in photography and not having a professional camera, the photos didn’t fully capture the beauty of the PCBs or how easily they pick up fingerprints.
I populated the boards with most of the components, except the display and battery unit. For the battery unit, I had to design a protection circuit on my PCB, as the battery i chose (PGEB014461 from powerstream) comes without one. Two additional buttons were added. While the extremely thin buttons I used are great, they are also very delicate. I've already broken one and a half of them without putting much stress on them. If I continue using them, I probably have to model a hull around the board to protect them. (The half broken button is the one in the bottom left corner of the picture)
Programming the boards without the onboard USB-C port was a bit awkward, so I soldered an external USB port to the programming pads on the bottom of the board. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to finish a full ESP library for the PN7160 yet, so I haven't been able to fully test all the components. However, this will be my next focus to keep the project moving forward.
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