News – BrainBoardz

Welcome to BrainBoardz. It’s been a lot of fun getting here. We have worked tirelessly to design the most affordable and advanced video/audio centric microcontroller based boards possible.

Why We Developed BZBoards?
BrainBoardz has developed an ultra-low cost ESP32S3 based VGA board (Zushi) and, inspired by the Adafruit Fruit Jam, we have recently introduced the amazing RP2350B equipped RP2DV Beanz DVI based board. The Beanz board works with virtually all consumer TVs and computer monitors using a regular HDMI cable. It provides amazingly crisp digital audio via a TI I2S DAC (earbuds or powered speakers are required), as well as loads of GPIOs and 3 USB ports (4 USB total) for endless experimentation. We’ve also been working hard on a expanding our lineup of BZModules (BZMods) and BZCards. Brainboardz is, in essence, building a low cost plug-and-play system for video/audio focused electronics that everyone can afford to use. We are calling this approach Plug and Code.

Recent Challenges with SBCs
We have been using all sorts of development boards for a very long time, and recently one of the persistent issues we have encountered is the rapidly rising cost of Single Board Computers (SBCs). This is particularly apparent with the rapid price increases for memory as a result of the growth of AI. While SBCs are great for many projects, they have become ever rather complex and prohibitively expensive to use in projects. Setting up an SBC often requires installing complex tool chains and dealing with OS challenge. We wanted access to boards that were immediately useable (programmed via a simple text editor etc.) and at the same time performant, approachable and robust.

Video and Audio Playback
We also wanted our boards to support high quality video and audio playback. This capability was impossible a few years ago. But, video and sound is becoming more and more essential for so many projects. Nothing quite compares to seeing a physical computing project rendering visuals on a large TV screen! Fortunately, due the hard work by a number of key developers, including Francesco Ceccarella (AnnexRDS), the team at Adafruit, Bitluni, BitFixer and many others, the very inexpensive ESP-S3 and RP2350B microcontrollers now have the necessary video and audio libraries to provide extremely impressive display and sound output capabilities.

Retro and Modern Display Standards
If you want to experience a retro VGA experience then please try the ESP32S3 based S3V (particularly with the amazing AnnexRDS Basic, or even Bitluni’s Arduino based VGA library). For a very minimal cost ($10 approx.) you can always add a VGA to HDMI converter if your display does not support VGA.

If you want to display your work on more modern TVs and monitors (using HDMI connectors) then our RP2DV Beanz board is ideal. It can be programmed without compilation process, by using CircuitPython or MicroPython. If you want to dive in deep with C++ coding, both of our boards support a wide range of Arduino libraries. The sky really is the limit.

Simplifying Modules and Connectivity
We explored a variety of approaches in our quest to find the optimal method of attaching modules and sensors to our boards. Our solution, based on the industry standard 12 pin 2.54mm (Dupont) connectors, was determined to be ideally suited to the task. These connectors are enclosed and are extremely robust (so no more bent pins). They also support regular jumper wires used in breadboarding, and they can even be uses with standard ribbon cables. They are ideal both for connecting BZModules and standard sensor modules available from Amazon and AliExpress. We are developing an entire ecosystem of BZModules and BZCards that support our connector layout. Many more cutting-edge modules and a wide range of other accessories are in active development. Please stay tuned…

Approachable Programming Languages
The BrainBoardz RP2350B “Beanz” board supports CircuitPython, MicroPython and Arduino. The ESP32S3 based S3V Zushi board supports AnnexRDS, Arduino and the ESP-IDF. BZModes are fully interchangeable between both boards.

Built to Last
The entire BrainBoardz product range is designed for rugged conditions in the lab, classroom and pretty much anywhere else (we’re not sure about Space yet). It’s a an open source prototyping revolution!

Open Source
Product designs, source code and documentation are made available as open-source resources (CERN-OHL-W V2 for hardware, GNU GPLv3 for software/firmware) through this website and on GitHub.

BrainBoardz are designed and assembled in Toronto, Canada.

by Jeremy Littler (CEO)