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We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers

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Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers

#2
Pretty rad! I could see lots of applications. Available on amazon you say? 19.99 you say?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GY2GTW5?ref=myi_title_dp

I'm curious about availability. Are they ready to ship? Awaiting preorders?

EDIT: Oh I see 18 in stock. Probably remains of a small run to gauge interest. I hope it takes off. I'm going to make it 17. :-)

Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers

#5
Cool - it looks like a well-designed board, although the timing is a bit unfortunate with the ESP32-S2 emerging as an ESP8266 replacement with USB.

A few questions:

* Should the relay have some sort of isolation, like an optocoupler?

* Is it FCC-certified?

* Like other people asked, any information on how the antenna was designed?

I like the old-school dome LEDs. And it's cool to see another project with a CH340 USB/USART bridge, even if they wouldn't need it with an ESP32-S2.

Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers

#6

Cool - it looks like a well-designed board, although the timing is a bit unfortunate with the ESP32-S2 emerging as an ESP8266 replacement with USB. A few questions: * Should the relay have some sort of isolation, like an optocoupler? * Is it FCC-certified? * Like other people asked, any information on how the antenna was designed? I like the old-school dome LEDs. And it's cool to see another project with a CH340 USB/…

> * Is it FCC-certified?

It would certainly appear to lack the FCC ID label/marking it is required to have if it is FCC certified. So probably not. Thus, it also appears doubtful whether it can legally be marketed or sold in the U.S.

Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers

#7

Cool - it looks like a well-designed board, although the timing is a bit unfortunate with the ESP32-S2 emerging as an ESP8266 replacement with USB. A few questions: * Should the relay have some sort of isolation, like an optocoupler? * Is it FCC-certified? * Like other people asked, any information on how the antenna was designed? I like the old-school dome LEDs. And it's cool to see another project with a CH340 USB/…

I don't see any benefit in using an optocoupler. Using a transistor with flyback diode for protection is acceptable. Both the relay and ESP8266 are powered from the same 5V source, adding an optocoupler is not really isolating anything.

Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers

#8

Cool - it looks like a well-designed board, although the timing is a bit unfortunate with the ESP32-S2 emerging as an ESP8266 replacement with USB. A few questions: * Should the relay have some sort of isolation, like an optocoupler? * Is it FCC-certified? * Like other people asked, any information on how the antenna was designed? I like the old-school dome LEDs. And it's cool to see another project with a CH340 USB/…

> * Is it FCC-certified? It would certainly appear to lack the FCC ID label/marking it is required to have if it is FCC certified. So probably not. Thus, it also appears doubtful whether it can legally be marketed or sold in the U.S.

A search for "Malouf" on the FCC registration website provided no matches. Most likely this product is not registered.

In addition, this product lacks a CE mark and has no UL/FM/CSA listing. I'm curious what creepage/clearance requirements were factor into the design. This product is potentially dangerous if the relay is switching line voltage.

Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers

#9

Cool - it looks like a well-designed board, although the timing is a bit unfortunate with the ESP32-S2 emerging as an ESP8266 replacement with USB. A few questions: * Should the relay have some sort of isolation, like an optocoupler? * Is it FCC-certified? * Like other people asked, any information on how the antenna was designed? I like the old-school dome LEDs. And it's cool to see another project with a CH340 USB/…

Regarding your first point, the relay has 2,000V of coil-to-contact isolation:

https://omronfs.omron.com/en_US/ecb/products/pdf/en-g5le.pdf

Though it does look like the clearance/creepage distances on the PCB to the low-voltage ground plane are not any wider than 2mm or so, which is acceptable for 120VAC, but not acceptable for 240VAC per IPC9592.

I wouldn't worry about sticking this in an enclosure and using it to turn a light on and off, but I wouldn't want to be handling it while it was live, either!

Regarding FCC/UL certification, a product is exempt from FCC certification requirements if it's "A digital device used exclusively as industrial, commercial, or medical test equipment", which most development boards are. I've got some dev boards from Microchip on my bench right now which aren't FCC or UL listed, either.

Re: We made an open source ESP8266 dev board for makers

#10

Cool - it looks like a well-designed board, although the timing is a bit unfortunate with the ESP32-S2 emerging as an ESP8266 replacement with USB. A few questions: * Should the relay have some sort of isolation, like an optocoupler? * Is it FCC-certified? * Like other people asked, any information on how the antenna was designed? I like the old-school dome LEDs. And it's cool to see another project with a CH340 USB/…

> * Is it FCC-certified? It would certainly appear to lack the FCC ID label/marking it is required to have if it is FCC certified. So probably not. Thus, it also appears doubtful whether it can legally be marketed or sold in the U.S.

IANAL, But I think device as-is can likely be sold and marketed perfectly fine. Test-kit and dev-kit stuff is regulated a bit differently under the assumption that it's not going to be in mass use, and also that it's likely going to be used to develop another product that will get the fcc certification.

https://emcfastpass.com/fcc-rules-kits-subassemblies/

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