So!

How have things gone with this project lately, you may ask? I may or may not have forgotten to add a few project logs in between... That would be my bad.

But the good news is, the PCB design is almost complete! And it is a gorgeous looking nest of wires.

As mentioned in the previous log, the main battery charge IC had to be replaced. This was managed quite nicely, and the resulting mess of wires can be seen down below - the STM32 was squeezed in next to a USB-C port and now controls most of the power sequencing.

One of the changes resulting from further component shortage is that this STM now also includes USB connection, and the Power-Only USB-C port was replaced with a USB2.0 port. This will allow Tap to act as USB HID, and perhaps I will even utilize a fake mass storage device to write the ESP32 binaries onto the IC to update it that way?
Who knows!

In any case, now that all components are fitted and most of the wiring has been completed, it is only a matter of polishing the design, double-checking tolerances, and ordering the PCB!

A lot of components are, sadly, out of stock, which will inevitably lead to a long wait on some materials. It is unclear how long it will take to actually assemble and build the badge due to this - some components are back in stock by the end of this year, some might not recover in a year, some I can leave out...

In any case, we will see when we get there.
And until then, there will be plenty of other projects to work on and polish - a rework of the Smart Home and LZRTag, a little Christmas gift, and perhaps even a simple "DIY Goto" for a Telescope we wanted to acquire :)