 This video is sponsored by PCB way Okay, guys, it's time to explain the objects link project because until now I have uploaded videos without explaining Well, what I was doing and the reason is that I'm working along this project And I didn't expect the this interest from you here on YouTube So I will divide this video into several parts to explain each side aspect of objects link So let's start with idea behind objects link You may have seen that in the last five years more and more devices are connected to the internet such as the house appliances tools and Things we didn't know exist and three years ago when I started developing a UT project I noticed that more and more makers engineers were working on a UT project And in the meantime I was getting several requests for work for private individuals to develop custom IT devices So I got to work on several projects realizing that many of this project had similar hardware and the most of these IOT projects were ESP32 or an NF base with the same LDO same serial bridge So a part of the circuit was always the same like another MCU The only things that change in each design were any actuators sensor display, etc So you may ask why not directly use another MCU or ESP32 base board and just develop the custom PCB to install sensor, whatever To this question the answer were always the same. It's unprofessional or too big and so on Obviously, it's not always so in some cases It's worth using another MCU but only for the first prototypes Then the ideal would be to find an intermediate solution between prototyping board like another MCU and a custom board base on ESP32 So the board must be able to perform the same tasks as an board like another MCU or Arduino But at the same time it must be able to be used in the final device So what I added to the sign added to follow these simple three points modular hardware Compact hardware and reusable hardware. Now the problem was to combine these three points into a one design So from this point the objects link project started Before I developing objects link I designed several prototypes to test some core features of the project This is the first prototype which is called the objects link IOT module alpha I developed this prototype in July 2020 and with this prototype I try to test the idea of hardware with modular architecture The main problem of this prototype are the other connectors are not suitable for developing a modular design They are too big and also vertical modularity or stacking modules is not a great idea If the connectors are not slim enough and if the system is too modular the final cost increases So modularity is useful, but don't go overboard with modules The next prototype is called objects one and I designed this prototype one years ago in December 2020 With this prototype I solved the problem of the thickness of the connectors For the first time I used the Zlimstack connectors and as you can see make the design much more compact In addition I designed the first flexible cable to extend the modules from the socket And I will explain the purpose of the flexible cable next So the architecture of objects one is similar to objects IOT module alpha But the modules are no longer stacked on top of each other more than once So objects one is more a motherboard where you can install ASUC like ESP32 Pico D4 and a sensor And the last prototype was useful to test the ESP32 Pico D4 And these prototypes were the key to design objects link And after tests and prototypes in February 2021 I developed the first version of objects link The new board had to be modular and compact and reusable And here you are objects link 1.0 you have already seen it in a previous video on this channel And last month I developed the new version like 1.5 and 1.6 always based on ESP32 Pico D4 I also developed two versions based on the new ESP32 C3 risk 5 Which are as follows Objects link 1.6 C3 as an integrated sailboat bridge like the previous versions While objects link 1.7 C3 directly use the native USB of the ASUC without sailboat bridge And also I added an external 32kHz crystal oscillator for RTC This way in deep sleep mode objects link 1.7 C3 draws around 10 micron pair In addition it's possible to connect an external debugger tool on all objects link versions Before showing you how the board works I have developed several official modules Like a temperature and humidity sensor, time of light sensor, external PSRM module, gyroscope, IoT button module, flexible cable, socket to integrate objects link with an external PCB And many others Okay now let's see how objects link works First of all objects link is only 24mm in length and width And as you can see all versions of objects link have the USB-C connector And the tiny battery connector and the reset button Objects link 1.6 is the only one that integrates their GB led In the RISC 5 version I didn't put the RGB led to reduce the consumption of the board Because every none on pair is crucial for IoT So in the bottom side of the board there are the 4 slim stack connectors That constitutes the two relative sockets M0 and together they compose a single socket M1 By M0 and M1 I'm referring to the sides of the modules I give these names to distinguish the two types of modules So this means that you can install up two M0 modules like this Or you can install only one M1 module like this button Because the project is open source you could design your own modules even bigger or smaller You are totally free to do so On the bottom side of the board you can see two pads dedicated to the battery So you can decide to connect the battery using the connector on the top side of the board Or you can use these pads Or you can connect the battery using slim stack connectors I will explain how to do it later Objects link 1.6 and 1.7 C3 have two voltage dividers to measure The battery charge level and VBAS status are the USB-C connector You can program all boards with Arduino framework or with Espressive framework Or with MicroPython I suggest to you to read the official documentation of Objects link to learn more about it Ok but how to use Objects link? Objects link can be used in the same way as an ODMSU or a board like Arduino This is possible using this special module called the Protoboard As you can see you can develop your prototypes very easily If I need to work on more prototypes I can use more protobords and only one Objects link This way I don't have to disconnect the cable every time I need to work on a different project With other boards it's not possible to do this or it's very tricky It also saving a lot of components and resources Because producing an Objects link is more expensive in terms of resources and environment impact So after year Objects link is like another board with some advantages Like using more protobords and one Objects link But the things that is different about Objects link from another similar product Is that Objects link is designed to be used on advanced prototypes and in the final devices It means that once you have developed the prototype on the protoboard You can design the custom module that integrates all the components used for the prototype Here is an example As you can see I first developed on protoboard this simple smart button And then I designed the module So the prototype become a module that together with Objects link become a device This is the basic idea of Objects link Image to design more complex projects You can also decide not to design the modules and buy official ones like this Or buy them from another users Another advantage of Objects link is that it's reusable For example if a device using Objects link breaks down You can easily recover or replace the modules or Objects link and bring the device back to life Currently it's very difficult to repair smart devices Because they are not designed to be repaired easily So Objects link can be used in several ways to design prototypes and IoT devices In the future I plan to develop more modules to better show the powerful of Objects link And especially to show the usability of the board Also in January I will sell some kits on Tindi Thank you for watching this video until the end Thank you again PCBWay for supporting Objects link project You can find the link below to order your PCBs for only $5 And see you next time