Planing

(2 hrs) Along time ago - 14/07/25 (Ive been thinking about this for a long time.)

I often do stage lighting for both my Drama Class and School Events. i wanted something i could use to diagnose lights. give me live data and more. in order to do this i looked at hooking up a Seed Studio XIAO ESP32-C3, that had built in WIFI, to a intercept a DMX signal and proccess it. so i researched more about this. i discovered that DMX Uses RS845 as it is based on MIDI witch is serial. So after a bit of researching i settled on taking the DMX signal and parsing it through a MAX845E Chip to allow it to be controlled VIA the GPIO of the ESP32. i also then started to think about the formfactor would it be a Square like the MYDMX 3 Box. but after being inspired by The Wolf on slacks Cable tester i settled on a Rectangular Design. THE PCB is very Compact and Functional only Allows as much room as needed for the components whilst still maintaining a nice Shape and design. Later that day i began work on the PCB.

The PCB

Day 1 - PCB DESIGN

(3 hrs) (14/07/25)

I worked on the PCB. I already new the components i needed. and after finding diagrams online i managed to get the schematic done. it took a lot of effort. i often setup the TX side of things but completely forgot i would be RX aswell. After all these mistakes by the Night i had finished the Schematic

Day 2 - PCB DESIGN

(4 hrs) (15/07/2025)

Today I spent alot of time working on the PCB and getting all the components layed out. i made a lot of progress working extra hard to get everything done quickly as of witting its 30mins past midnight for me. will probably go over this in the morning with a fresh mind and fix all the spelling mistakes. But after a lot of work i completed the PCB. initially started work on this yesterday as a personal project but eventualy i decided i would like do this for highway to get some more points so i havent got the KiCAD source files in here yet but will migrate them at a later date.

Day 3 - PCB Design

(3 hrs) (18/07/2025)

I Spent time changeing the width of all the traces to match the voltage. thanks to guidance from @Krunch on slack. i added a ground plane to remove the Unessary winding GND trace around my pcb. this also reduces noise from the 5V to Data Lines. as well as if theres a Surge on one of the lines then it will go to ground before any critical components. i also spent the later half of the evening researching components on JLC PCB's Library. I also thought some status lights would be necessary for my PCB so i added 3 Neo Pixels That correspond to there silk screen icons above.

Day 4 - PCB Design

(3 hrs) (19/07/2025)

Today i found all the parts in the JLC Parts List and put them on to a table on the READEME.md. I also uploaded my PCB Gerber's to JLC PCB and calculated the cost of my PCB. i decided Due to me handeling data i wanted EING for high performance and also wanted the PCB to look high quality so EING was the obvious choice. ive also recently liked white PCB so chose that.

Day 5 - Case Design

(4 hrs) (20/07/2025)

I designed the case and and finished up the BOM. I moved everything back to Digikey Because PCBA Became ridiculously expensive. I also changed back to HASL. for the case I just did a simple open top design to make mounting the pcb and printing easy. I may have gone abit crazy with the fillet.

Day 6 - Firmware

(2hrs) (21/07/2025)

So today I thought that the PCB and Case where pretty much finished. so I decided to move onto the firmware. for the firmware i just wanted to start off with a simple mode cable testing. tommorow i will probably work on an actual control mode.

Day 7 - Firmware

(2hrs) (25/07/2025)

Utilizing the Pre-exsisting firmware i wrote on Day 6 i researched how to control the ESP-32's C3 Wifi chip. so now this new firmware makes an Wifi Network and hosts a web server. With faders to control the ligts. im just making simple firmware for now but im going to add more modes tommorrow.

Day 8 -

(4 hrs) (7hrs Incl Render Time) (27/07/2025)

I did some BOM tidying up. and sourced some AliExpress reasearch cutting my BOM by about $20. I then Imported the CAD File into Blender to create a nice Product Reveal Video in blender. And for the 3hrs it took to render. i spent 1 hrs making some self test firmware. because when i make the product i want a way to test weather my soldering is good. it just runs through Each Np and the display Cycling componenets.