Greetings, dear tech enthusiasts!

The campaign for Espoir, our open source PoE devboard, launched just last week, so we want to start by saying we are very grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow in the open hardware ecosystem. It sure is quite an adventure!

For this initial update, the first in a series covering "IoT with Espoir", we’ll introduce an important aspect of the project: documentation. We think documentation can make or break an open source project, which is why we have prepared a whole website dedicated to documenting our projects’ hardware, software, and applications. You can access Connaxio’s and Espoir’s documentation online.

The hardware

The first type of resource you can find on Connaxio’s Wiki is hardware documentation. We provide specifications, tables, pinouts, mechanical dimensions, and schematics for our board, as well as tips on how to modify them.

The software

We made sure Espoir is compatible with quite a few programming and configuration tools, so that your application is as easy to develop as possible. In the software documentation section, you’ll find instructions for ESP-IDF, Arduino-ESP32, MicroPython, and Tasmota. They should help you get up and running with minimal fuss.

Contributing

We try hard to make contributing easy. You want to add a feature, report a bug, or improve a project? Everything is open. You can access the sources on GitHub to discuss or submit improvements, or to create your own version of our boards. Alternatively, our documentation can be edited at the press of a button, directly in our Wiki.

Coming next: applications

Next week, we’ll start introducing applications. Theory is nice, but how hard is it to really do something with Espoir? Worry not, we have walked that path, so in next week’s update, we’ll share with you our first guide to connecting Espoir to Home Assistant.

Production status

The panelized PCBs for the first batch should be here next week so we can start the assembly process. The last of the small parts from China (ESD bags, headers, jumpers) have arrived too. We’re still waiting on some vacuum sensors for the pick-and-place machine, which should accelerate the production process by reducing missed picks. We can’t wait to see these big piles of parts being replaced by neatly packed circuits!

That’s all for this week! If you wish to share a comment, an idea, or ask a question, you can reach me through Connaxio’s website, GitHub, or Crowd Supply’s "Ask a question" form. It all ends up in the same mailbox…

— Marc-Antoine