New Kickstarter – The BC24 – ESP32 Based Big Circle 24

The BC24 Kickstarter is Live!

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The Big Circle 24

The BC24 is a novel use of programmable Pixel LEDs (RGBW programmable) in a perfect 24 segment circle combined with an powerful, highly connected on board computer (WiFi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Power) called the ESP32.

What does this allow you to do?   You can use the BC24 as the basis of many projects ranging from Internet connected projects to remote displays to full blown weather stations.   The possibilities are endless and the BC24 comes with a full set of Grove connectors so you don’t even need to solder!

What is the BC24?

The BC24 is a flexible way to display all sorts of data while being able to communicate with other devices and the Internet.   It is a board that you can plug in your sensors and create new things!

The BC24 consists of three major parts:

1) Dual CPU ESP32 Central Processor with WiFi and Bluetooth

2) The 24 RGBW Programmable LED Pixel Circle

3) No Solder Grove Connectors for expansion!

The Brains of the BC24 – The ESP32

The ESP32 is an awesome processor.  It has 2 CPU cores, lots of memory and has really interesting stuff built in like capacitive touch sensors, a Digital to Analog Converter (think Music out from your BC24!), lots of GPIO (General Purpose Input Output) for your projects and a robust I2C bus for connecting to your sensors.

Programmable with the Arduino IDE.

The RGBW (Red Green Blue White) Pixels are completely programmable (millions of colors) and includes a bright white LED to give you pure warm white.   These programmable pixels are 100% compatible with NeoPixels.

The Grove connectors allow you to easily and safely connect hundreds of sensors (and more Pixel strips if you want!) with no soldering.   And you CAN’T plug them in backwards.   Fewer boards in the Box of Death.

The Grove Connectors on the back of the BC24

Q and A on the BC24

Question:  Can you Expand the BC24?

Heck Yes!   That is what it is designed for.  You can add any of hundreds of sensors and motors to the BC24 – it is an open general purpose display and processing platform.

Question: What is in the installed Demo Software?

We have four goodies for you right out of the box.

• Rainblow Display Demo
• Blue Theater Chasing Circle
• Monitor the Dow Jones Average Live!
• Digital LED Clock (synced with NIST clocks for high accuracy)

And all the Open Software Goodness Included!

Question: What are RGBW Pixels?

RGWB Pixels are programmable four LED devices.   They have Red, Green, Blue and a warm White LED.   You can program each of the four LEDs from 0-255 resulting in millions of colors.   The BC24 uses SK6812RGBW chips and they are programmed with a single serial GPIO line.  These Pixels are 100% compatible with NeoPixels. This means you can put them together in very long strings.   You can either add more strings to the BC24 or even extend the 24 LEDs included with more strips!

Question: What are Grove Connectors?

Grove is a modular, standardized connecter prototyping system. Grove takes a building block approach to assembling electronics. Compared to the jumper or solder based system, it is easier to connect, experiment and build and simplifies the learning system, but not to the point where it becomes dumbed down.  Some of the other prototype systems out there takes the level down to building blocks.   Good stuff to be learned that way, but the Grove system allows you to build real systems.   It requires some learning and expertise to hook things up.  Full Grove tutorial here.

Question:  What is that hole on the top part of the BC24?

We are tricky little engineers at SwitchDoc Labs.   That little hole is just the right size to add our Grove OLED display panel to the BC24.   More information for your visual consumption right on the BC24!