The Obsidian ESP32 campaign is now live! Obsidian ESP32 is an ESP32-based board in Raspberry Pi form factor. With high-speed GPIO and an I2C IO expander, Obsidian allows you to utilize a wide variety of ready-made peripherals and cases that are already available on the market.

As a maker and programmer, I don’t always want to go through the steps to set up and polish a Linux-based solution for every problem. Likewise, I don’t want to create a mess of wires or custom PCB every time I implement something using a microcontroller. I caught myself, more than once, jumper-wiring a microcontroller to a single board computer expansion board and decided to make a simple carrier board that would directly accept Raspberry Pi expansion boards instead.

The design evolved somewhat, I realized that there wasn’t anything quite like it available, and that I couldn’t be the only one with an interest in simply plugging expansion boards into a microcontroller, without worrying about the long-term viability of the form factor or the limited number of options. So, I looked around to see what other makers were doing to showcase their projects, and decided on Crowd Supply as a way to launch the design to make it more accessible and provide a means to continue creating.

Presenting the Obsidian ESP32, a powerful WiFi and Bluetooth capable microcontroller board designed to fit the needs of both new and seasoned makers. The ESP32 was chosen for its connectivity, and for its excellent open source software support and community. The availability of MicroPython, an Arduino board support package, and open source software development frameworks directly from the chip vendor make it an ideal starting point for beginner and a useful tool for the advanced designer all at once.