• Louder-ESP32-Pro launch

    andriy.malyshenko • an hour ago • 0 comments

    Louder-ESP32-Pro has finally passed all tests and is ready for launch.

    Over the last few weeks, I tested the peripheral, starting with that pretty standard now (DAC, Ethernet, IR, RGB, Mic, USB-PD), and then new ones: TFT and Fan controller. As usual, I made a small mistake, it is around the TFT backlight pin, but in the end, I was able to disable the backlight control pin, but save the rest of the board. Have a small todo item for revision B :)

    The Fan control worked from the first attempt. It uses a 4-pin fan from the Raspberry Pi 5, so you can both set the fan speed from the ESPHome and read back the actual rpm readout, which is kind of fun. The idea of hooking it up to the DAC overtemperature warning comes into my mind immediately.

    But the biggest elephant in the room is a Raspberry all-aluminum case, of course. I had to wait for a 65W USB-PD power source to run it af full blast, but I'm very happy with the result. While my test load (50W 8Ohm resistor pair) started to smell funny, the case was warm, and the OT warning sit quiet. It took ~10 minutes at full blast to trigger the OT warning, but I think it is a good result, considering how much continuous power it sends to the speakers.

    The thermal camera is on the way to do a few measurements, but I'm happy with it after fairly scientific "oh that's hot" tests.

    As usual, you can get it on Tindie and Lectronz, while Elecrow's availability is coming a little later this year

    The PD power source that I use is also available now as an optional extra at Tindie and Lectronz.