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• Project Log #4 — Mechanical Design & Enclosure

  Ilya Egorov • 7 days ago • 0 comments

  Design Constraints

  From the very beginning, the enclosure had one hard requirement: when DevPocket is magnetically mounted to a smartphone via MagSafe, it must not extend beyond the phone's footprint. This drove the outer dimensions to 64.6 × 74.6 × 20 mm — compact enough to sit behind most modern smartphones without sticking out.
  

  
  (Photo : all devpocket mechanics)
  
  The 20 mm thickness is not arbitrary — it is dictated directly by the internal stack-up. From bottom to top: the LiPo battery sits on the underside of the main PCB, then the board itself, then the mPCIe module plugged in on top. There is no wasted space; the enclosure height is exactly what the electronics require.
  
  

  (Screenshot: cross-section view showing the internal stack)
  
  Fabrication Method

  The enclosure is FDM 3D printed, chosen from the start of the project. FDM is the obvious choice for an open-hardware project: the files are on GitHub in both STEP and STL format, anyone with a printer can reproduce or modify the enclosure without any tooling costs, and iterating on a new revision takes hours rather than weeks.
  
  Bottom Shell — MagSafe Ring Pocket

  The bottom shell has a dedicated recessed pocket for the magnetic ring. The ring is a standard neodymium magnet ring sold on AliExpress for MagSafe-compatible accessories — it comes with a self-adhesive backing, so installation is simply press-fit into the pocket. No tools required.

  The pocket dimensions match the standard MagSafe ring geometry: 56 mm outer diameter, 46 mm inner diameter. This allows DevPocket to attach magnetically to any MagSafe-compatible phone case, a ring stand, or any ferromagnetic surface.
  

  
  (Screenshot: bottom shell with the MagSafe ring pocket)
  
  Top Shell
  
  The top shell carries all the user-facing cutouts: the two tactile buttons, the USB-C connector, and the antenna port. It also includes channelled light guide channels — individual tunnels for each of the four WS2812B LEDs, with dividing walls between them to prevent light bleed between channels.
  

  (Screenshot: top shell showing button cutouts and light guide channels)
  
  Two variants of the top shell are published on GitHub:

  • Standard top — for bare DevPocket use
  • Sensor module top — with ventilation slots for air circulation around the ENS160/AHT20/BMP280 sensors, plus a slot for the display board that mates with the lid connector automatically when the case is closed

  The top shell is the part you'll most likely customise when designing your own mPCIe modules — the rest of the enclosure stays the same.
  

  Fasteners and Heat-Set Inserts

  All threaded connections in the enclosure use M2 × 5 × 3.2 brass heat-set inserts pressed in with a soldering iron. Installation temperature should be approximately 10–20 °C above the filament's print temperature — for PLA around 225 °C, for PETG around 245 °C.

  The knurled outer surface of each insert melts into the surrounding plastic and locks permanently as it cools, giving a clean metal thread that survives repeated assembly and disassembly without stripping.

  Two screw types are used:

  Application	Screw
  PCB to bottom shell (standoffs)	M2 × 4 DIN 912 — socket cap head (hex key)
  Top shell to bottom shell	M2 × 14 countersunk — DIN 965 / ISO 7046, 90° head, Pozidriv drive

  Using countersunk screws for the shell halves keeps the outer surface completely flat — no protruding heads on any face of the device.
  
  Light Guides

  The light guides are custom-designed parts, printed on an SLA 3D printer in clear resin. SLA was the right choice here: the smooth, optically clear surface finish of SLA parts transmits light from the WS2812B LEDs far more efficiently than the rough, semi-opaque surface of an FDM print.

  
  (Photo: light guides separately)
  
  Each guide is shaped to route light from the LED position to the face of the enclosure, with the dividing walls in the top...

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• Project Log #3 — Portable Air Quality Monitor with Display

  Ilya Egorov • 04/29/2026 at 17:08 • 0 comments

  The mPCIe Sensor Module in Action

  In the previous log I introduced the air quality sensor module — now it's time to actually read data from it. The module carries three sensors over a shared I²C bus: BMP280 (temperature + pressure), AHT20 (temperature + humidity), and ENS160 (eCO₂, TVOC, AQI index). All three sit at fixed I²C addresses and are powered through the mPCIe connector from DevPocket's 3.3V rail.
  

  Reading the Sensors — How the Script Works
  
  On startup, the script runs an I²C scan and initialises each sensor in sequence, printing the result to the console.The ENS160 is the most demanding sensor to initialise — it requires a hardware reset sequence (RESET → IDLE → CLEAR → STANDARD), and its Part ID (0x0160) is verified before proceeding. Once running in standard mode, it receives live temperature and humidity compensation data from the AHT20 on every reading cycle, which is mandatory for accurate eCO₂ and TVOC figures.Readings are updated once per second. The console microREPL output looks like this:
  

  (Screenshot: console output with sensor init and live readings)
  
  While the script is running you can interact with it via micro-REPL or any serial terminal:

  Command	Action
  data	Print a fresh sensor reading immediately
  status	Show which sensors were found and ENS160 init state
  scan	Re-run the I²C bus scan
  help	List available commands

  The four WS2812B LEDs on DevPocket each have a dedicated role in this script:

  LED	Meaning
  LED 0	Green — all sensors OK / Red — at least one missing
  LED 1	Orange — USB charging in progress / Green — on battery
  LED 2	Blue blink — I²C read cycle active
  LED 3	Green — air quality normal / Yellow — warning / Red — poor

  Going Fully Standalone — The Display Lid
  
  When I designed DevPocket I included two dedicated connectors on the main board: one for an OLED display and one for an LED matrix. The idea was to make a PCB that mounts inside the top lid of the enclosure — when you close the case, the connectors mate automatically and the display(LED matrix) is live without any extra wiring.
  
  

  (Photo: top lid with the display board glued in)
  
  The display board uses a standard 128×64 SSD1306 OLED. It connects to the  I²C bus as the sensor module, so the whole system — sensors, display, and main MCU — runs on two wires.
  The OLED layout for the air quality script fits all key data on the 64px height.Temperature and humidity sit on the top line, pressure on the second. Below the divider: AQI, TVOC, eCO₂, and a plain-English air quality description. The bottom status bar shows either a sensor warning (!Sensor miss), charging state, or the button hint (Hold>2s=menu).
  

  
  (Photo: DevPocket with the sensor module and display running)
  
  

  Returning to the Launcher

  Since this script runs inside the launcher (described in Log #2), exiting back to the script menu is built in. Holding the NEXT button (GPIO13) for more than 2 seconds triggers a clean shutdown: the sensor power rail is cut via the PWR_SENSORS GPIO, the OLED shows "Returning to menu…", the LEDs are cleared, and a KeyboardInterrupt is raised — which the launcher catches and uses to return to the script selection menu. No reboot needed.
  
  
  

  (Photo: DevPocket with display in the script selection menu )
  
  

  What This Actually Gives You
  
  At this point DevPocket is a fully self-contained device: battery powered, display on the lid, no phone or PC required. In practice I carry it as a portable air quality monitor — drop it in a bag, pull it out, and the OLED immediately shows temperature, humidity, pressure, CO₂ level, and an AQI rating for wherever you are. The same unit also doubles as a battery-powered I²C scanner — just launch the scanner script from the menu instead.
  
  

  What's Next
  
  In Log #4 I'll cover the mechanical side — how the enclosure is designed and assembled, and I'll publish the STEP models for the current enclosure revision to GitHub so you...

  Read more »

• Project Log #2 — First Power-On, First Sketch, First Module

  Ilya Egorov • 04/27/2026 at 19:04 • 0 comments

  First Power-On

  The first boot went smoothly — no magic smoke, no unexpected behaviour. I went through the hardware checklist one by one:

  • Power system — the TP4056 charged the LiPo correctly via USB-C, the TPS61023 boost converter brought up the 5V rail cleanly, and the AMS1117-3.3 LDO delivered stable 3.3V to the ESP32
  • Microcontroller — the ESP32-WROOM-32UE enumerated correctly over the CP2102GM USB-UART bridge and responded to flashing without issues
  • WS2812B LEDs — all four addressable RGB LEDs responded to a test pattern
  • Tactile buttons — both GPIOs registered clean transitions with debounce

  DevPocket then connected to an Android phone and was immediately recognised by micro-REPL. One small surprise: the phone started charging the device over USB without any prompt or permission request. This is standard USB host/peripheral negotiation behaviour — the phone detected DevPocket as a device and pushed VBUS. It's not a problem in practice, but worth noting for battery-conscious use cases.
  
  

  
  (Photo: DevPocket during first power-on)
  
  First Sketch — Script Launcher with Deep Sleep
  
  For the first real firmware I wanted something immediately useful: a launcher that lets you navigate and run scripts stored on the ESP32's filesystem directly from the two hardware buttons.
  

  Everything is controlled with two buttons:

  • NEXT — scrolls through the script list
  • RUN (short press) — launches the selected script
  • RUN (hold >2 sec) — sends the device into deep sleep

  When a script runs, it executes inside the launcher's context. When it finishes, DevPocket returns to the menu automatically.

  
  (Screenshot: micro-REPL session on Android)
  

  First Module — Air Quality Sensor Board

  The first mPCIe module I designed alongside the main board is an environmental monitoring module — something I've wanted to carry around for a long time to assess air quality wherever I happen to be.
  
  

  
  (Photo: mPCIe sensor module)
  
  

  The module fits the standard mPCIe half-size form factor and plugs directly into DevPocket's expansion slot. It carries three sensors on a shared I²C bus:
  
  

  Sensor	Measures	I²C Address
  BMP280	Barometric pressure, temperature	0x76 (SDO → GND)
  AHT20	Relative humidity, temperature	0x38 (fixed)
  ENS160	eCO₂, TVOC, AQI	0x52 (ADDR → GND)

  
  Power architecture is a two-rail design. The ENS160 requires a separate 1.8V supply for its VDDIO digital interface, generated by an XC6219B182MR-G LDO. The sensor core VDD runs from 3.3V via a second XC6219B332MR-G LDO, providing local regulation and decoupling independent of the main board's rail. The BMP280 and AHT20 run directly from the module's 3.3V rail.
  
  All three sensors communicate over I2C1 (SDA/SCL routed through the mPCIe connector from ESP32 GPIO32/33). The ENS160 INT line is routed to IN1 on the connector for interrupt-driven readout when needed.
  
  I²C Scanner — First Utility Script

  Before writing any sensor code, I ran an I²C scanner to verify that all three sensors were electrically present and at their expected addresses. This is a universally useful tool — any time you're debugging an I²C bus on an unknown device, you just run it on DevPocket.
  
  

  (Screenshot: I²C scanner output on Android via micro-REPL)
  
  The scanner swept addresses 0x08–0x77, and all three sensors responded at their expected addresses: 0x38, 0x52, and 0x76. No bus errors, no address conflicts — the module schematic checked out.
  

  What's Next

  The next natural step is to read actual data from all three sensors and display it on the OLED — so you can get a full air quality readout with no phone attached at all. That sketch is in progress now, and it'll be the subject of Log #3.

  One more thing: during this testing phase I found several bugs in the Rev.1 schematic. A Rev.2 board is already being prepared. I'll detail exactly what went wrong and how I fixed it — probably in Log #4 or #5.

• Project Log #1 — Antenna Selection and SWR Testing for DevPocket

  Ilya Egorov • 04/26/2026 at 10:55 • 0 comments

  Why a external antenna?

  When I designed DevPocket around the ESP32-WROOM-32UE, I made a deliberate choice: pick the UE (external antenna) variant instead of the standard E variant with a built-in PCB trace antenna. The reason is simple — DevPocket is a universal tool. It goes into a magnet-ringed plastic enclosure, gets mounted to phones, placed near other electronics, and used in wildly different environments. 

  By routing the antenna connection to a standard U.FL/IPEX connector, I leave the door open: you can install a short stubby antenna for desktop use, a high-gain directional antenna for range testing, or a flat flex antenna if you're tight on space. The hardware doesn't dictate the RF strategy — you do.

  What I Actually Chose
  For the reference build I needed an antenna that was:

  Cheap (this is a hobbyist open-hardware tool)

  Compact enough to fit inside or flush against the enclosure

  Tuned for 2.4 GHz (Wi-Fi b/g/n + Bluetooth)

  Available widely (AliExpress, LCSC, Mouser)

  I settled on a small 2.4 GHz PCB antenna with an IPEX MHF1 connector — the kind that costs $1–2 and is commonly used in routers and IoT devices. The real question was: how well does it actually perform once it's inside a plastic enclosure surrounded by a PCB and a LiPo battery?

  That's where the NanoVNA comes in.

  A Quick Primer: What is SWR and Why Does It Matter?
  SWR (Standing Wave Ratio), is a measure of how well an antenna is matched to the transmission line (in our case, the 50Ω trace from the ESP32's RF output to the antenna).

  When RF energy travels down a transmission line and hits an antenna with a different impedance, some of that energy reflects back toward the source instead of radiating into the air. These forward and reflected waves create a standing wave pattern. SWR quantifies this mismatch:

  SWR = 1.0 — perfect match, 100% of power is radiated (theoretical ideal)

  SWR = 1.5 — about 4% of power reflected — excellent for real-world use

  SWR = 2.0 — about 11% reflected — acceptable

  SWR = 3.0 — about 25% reflected — poor, noticeably degrades range

  SWR > 3.0 — the antenna is significantly detuned

  For Wi-Fi at 2.4 GHz, a target of SWR ≤ 2.0 across the band (2400–2500 MHz) is the practical goal. The NanoVNA measures this directly by injecting a swept RF signal and measuring the reflection coefficient (S11).
  
  
  

  Why measure in three conditions?
  An antenna doesn't exist in a vacuum — it exists inside an electromagnetic environment. Its resonant frequency and impedance are affected by everything nearby:

  The enclosure — even plastic changes the effective dielectric constant around the antenna element, shifting its resonant frequency 

  The PCB ground plane — a large copper pour beneath the antenna acts as a reflector and can detune it

  The battery — a LiPo pouch is essentially a lossy dielectric slab that absorbs and scatters RF

  This is why antenna datasheets are largely useless for embedded designs — they measure the antenna in free space on a reference board. Your actual SWR will be different. Testing in three progressive conditions lets you see exactly how much each layer of the design degrades (or shifts) the antenna's performance.
  

  Measurements

  All measurements taken with a NanoVNA (calibrated with the SOLT standard at the U.FL reference plane). Frequency sweep: 2000–2600 MHz.

  1. Antenna alone, no enclosure
     SWR(2400MHz) - 1.61
  2. Antenna in enclosure, no PCB

     SWR(2400MHz) - 1.13
     

  3. Antenna in enclosure with full PCB + battery
     SWR(2400MHz) - 1.56

  Takeaways
  The NanoVNA is an indispensable $50 tool for any embedded project with RF. Even if you're not designing the antenna yourself, verifying that the chosen antenna still works inside your specific enclosure with your specific board . 
  

  What's Next
  Antenna verified. Time to apply power for the first time.

  In Log #2 I'll walk through the first boot of DevPocket: flashing firmware through the CP2102 bridge, what micro-REPL looked like on first...

  Read more »

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