Obsidian ESP32 Board Follows Raspberry Pi Model A Form Factor (Crowdfunding)

Obsidian ESP32 Raspberry Pi Board

When Thomas McKahan‏ had been playing with ESP32 for a while, he found the need to use Raspberry Pi HAT boards and enclosure with his new hardware,  so he went ahead and designed his own ESP32 board compatible with Raspberry Pi accessories, and following the smaller Raspberry Pi Model A / 3 Model A+ form factor.

Obsidian ESP32 specifications:

  • Wireless module – Espressif Systems  ESP32-WROVER-B 802.11 b/g/n WiFi + Bluetooth 4.2 / BLE module with 16 MB flash, 8 MB PSRAM
  • USB – 1x micro USB port for power and programming
  • Audio – 3.5mm TRS audio jack connected to ESP32 DACs
  • Expansion
    • 40-pin GPIO header compatible with popular HAT expansion boards with 3.3 V signalling,  I²S for audio DAC, I²C and SPI, Serial UART available on header or via microUSB, I²C GPIO expander with interrupts & address selection
    • 8-pim unpopulated header from remaining I/Os accessible through GPIO expander
    • 5-pin unpopulated header with analog inputs connecting to the ESP32’s SENSOR_VP and SENSOR_VN pins
  • Misc – Hardware buttons for reset and a selectable boot option in parallel with USB controlled signals
  • Power Supply
    • 3.3 and 5 V on GPIO
    • 5V via MicroUSB connector
    • Additional 5V input through 2x 2.54 mm spaced holes on the board
    • 2x 3.3V regulators for ESP32 and GPIO
  • Dimensions – ~65 x 56 mm following Raspberry Pi Model A form factor and compatible with Raspberry Pi cases 
Obsidian ESP32 Enclosure
3D Printed Enclosure for Obsidian ESP32

While the board will theoretically fit into any Raspberry Pi case such as Adafruit Pi A enclosure, the board has quite a lower profile and different port arrangement, so Thomas also made the 3D printed enclosure pictured above which expose the 40-header to outside world and the connectors of the board.

Software-wise, Obsidian ESP32 supports the ESP-IDF framework, ESP32 Arduino Core and MicroPython, while the board has been designed with KiCad and the hardware design files such as the schematics and PCB layout will soon be released under the CERN OHL v1.2 license.

Obsidian ESP32 Pinout
40-pin header pinout diagram

Obsidian ESP32 board has just launched on Crowd Supply with a $3,000 funding target. You can get the board with a $35 pledge, or $60 to get it with the 3D printed case. Shipping is free to the US, but adds $10 to $15 to the rest of the world depending on the rewards. Backers can expect their perk(s) to get delivered in November 2019.

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3 Replies to “Obsidian ESP32 Board Follows Raspberry Pi Model A Form Factor (Crowdfunding)”

    1. If I understand your comment correctly, Crowd Supply will not run similar projects at the same time so they don’t compete against each other. It makes sense, but limits the number of ESP32 boards to around 9 per year considering 40 days campaigns.

      1. Not exactly. If you submit a project to crowd supply right now they won’t get back to you for a long time. Like weeks. I guess is they have a ton of variations of ESP32 and tiny arduino clones to get through. If they do avoid running similar campaigns at the same time that would make sense and fortunately I’m not making yet another ESP32 board.

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