Old-School Printed Manuals for the ESP32 Rainbow!
As part of our compliance obligations, we need to include printed safety instructions with every shipped unit. But rather than just ticking the box, we decided to lean in and do it properly. Read the full update.
PCBs Have Arrived!
Fresh from PCBWay, four big boxes full of ESP-Rainbow 1.0 boards have landed! Super happy with the quality. Read the full update.
The Speakers Have Arrived. Now We Just Need the PCBs!
We've had the displays in stock for quite for quite some time, and I've been waiting on these speakers. They've been on a slow boat from China for about a month, and they've just turned up! That means we now have all the third party components in stock. The PCBs are also coming along nicely, but we're going to have to push our shipping estimate back to mid-June. We hate to do it, but we want to set realistic expectations. Thank you for your patience! Read the full update.
Exciting Production Progress!
Production continues to roll ahead for the ESP32 Rainbow Board... Read the full update.
Production Progress: PCB Manufacturing Underway
The PCBs are officially in production! Read the full update.
Even More Silkscreen
We had a blank canvas, so we silk-screened it! Plus, our latest manufacturing progress. Read the full update.
That's a Lot of Displays!
After a nice Christmas break, we're back to working hard on the ESP32 Rainbow... Read the full update.
Thank You!!
The ESP32 Rainbow campaign has been an incredible success, reaching 150% of our funding goal. I want to extend a huge thank you to all our backers - your support and enthusiasm for this project has been truly amazing. Read the full update.
Certifiably Great!
Good news everyone - we've passed the initial set of CE certifications. Read the full update.
Anyone for HDMI?
One of the regular comments I get on the ESP32 Rainbow is "Really nice, can I plug it into my TV?". It's always been my plan to add this capability via the "expansion port", so I thought I'd do a quick update on where we are with this. Read the full update.
Time Travel: A Fun New Firmware Feature
The PSRAM in the ESP32 module gives us about **170 times** the memory of the original Spectrum! With so much extra capacity, I started wondering: what if we could use it to create something really fun? Read the full update.
Game Recommendations, Manufacturing & Firmware Progress, and CE Testing
Lots of exciting things to report. We're fully funded - an amazing achievement! Thanks again to everyone who has backed the project. Even though we are fully funded, there's still room for more people, so I'd really appreciate if you could share the campaign page with all your friends. This update includes a few Spectrum game recommendations and details about the manufacturing and firmware progress we've made since our last update. Read the full update.
Loading Games
There have been some great questions so far in the campaign, and one that came up recently was: "How do I load games onto the ESP32 Rainbow?" Here's the answer. Read the full update.
We Are Live!
I'm pleased to announce that our campaign is now available on Crowd Supply. ESP32 Rainbow is a beautifully crafted homage to my first computer — the ZX Spectrum. It's based around the ESP32-S3 chip from Espressif and boasts a built-in 320x240 color display, SD storage, a 2 W speaker, two Qwiic connectors, an expansion port, and a USB Type-C port for power and data. Read the full update.