Surprise, bitch!
An update? In THIS ECONOMY?
Yeah, life happened. Who would have thought rising a kid would take up THAT much time? Go figure.
At some point the stars aligned, sold my mountainboard to a friend…so I had the perfect excuse to build another one (post coming 
). Started the build, ordered the parts and ended up having to build another Unfancy. Being strapped for time, with a perfectly functional and reliable project that I mostly consider done, documentation and even parts, what did I do? The only sensible thing, of course.
Starting from scratch
Here we go, baby. Strap in because this one is a doozy:
- Friendship ended with Arduino. ESP32 C3 is now my best friend. Why? Well, 32bit, 160MHz, 2 cores, WiFi, USB C and THREE DOLLARS for a RISCV processor that’s barely bigger than a coin? Sign me the fuck up. Also I don’t have to git good and learn C++, because I can reuse 99% of my code! I guess friendship not 100% ended with Arduino. (https://es.aliexpress.com/item/1005005968727477.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.107.4979194dL7lRxk&gatewayAdapt=glo2esp)
- Fuck external power management boards from the deepest corners of aliexpress, 100% integrated power management it is. BMS with TRUE “ride and charge” functionality (https://www.microchip.com/en-us/product/MCP73871), high quality step up converter from Ti, nice step down to 3.3V for clean power.
- 100% magnetic trigger/thumbwheel (no more springs!). They’re also completely standalone and can be dissasembled from the main remote board for easy maintenance/replacement (I’ve broken a few shells on falls)
- I ran out of IO to control the for LEDs so RGB it is! Did I mention they new board is TINY?
- Calibration procedure and general baked in configuration sucked donkey’s ass, so…Integrated telemetry/config mode via captive web portal + AP mode it is (no one needs another app!)
- Yes, I’m running fully fledged React with websockets on this thing! (never when riding, only in config mode!)
- 12-22S support on the receiver (selectable via solder jumpers)! Also there’s 2 PCBs now (TX and RX) since I crammed SO MUCH STUFF on the TX and didn’t want to increase the size. Also the TX is significantly more expensive than the RX (I really hope it evens out since there’s a lot less stuff to buy, the PCB does it all)
- Dedicated AUX out on the RX (just 3.3V logic, no real power)
- Same reliable LoRa RF system, most of the same core code, but reorg’d so it’s WAY more readable and maintainable.
- Dual trigger being designed first (looking at you @b264, I’m a convert now), simplifying for the thumbwheel version later.
Wen?
Project is getting updated at least once a week in the same repo, feature/v3 branch. No significant issues so far, except for:
- A stupid HW bug in the ESP32C3 supermini boards you can find in Aliexpress, that pull up a bootstrapping pin unnecessarily (GPIO2) and forces me to clip a resistor from the processor PCB. (https://www.sudo.is/docs/esphome/boards/esp32c3supermini/esp32-c3-supermini-schematic.png). Did you want to use the ADC on that pin? HA!
- A stupid mistake I made when running the RGB LEDs. If you power them from 5V but run the data line on 3.3V logic, you’re technically out of spec. Most people get away with it, but my step up converter runs at 5.8V, so I have to add a zener diode that brings the LED power line back to 4.8V to be safe.
I’m now testing the RX code with a blank TX PCB before pulling the trigger on the next batch, but looking promising!
Next
Finalize HW and SW, design a prettier case (with two halves 
), test test test test.
And finally
Why?
I know this is niche within a niche. I wasn’t 100% happy with the Unfancy, and it’s a damn shame some details kept it from the dream of a DIY reliable remote. Also because I like endless projects that live in the back of my mind rent free for months until I finally give up sleep to finish them.