Would you be interested in an assembled Tiny Engineer Main Board?

[jamro]

I'm working on an integrated Main Board for Tiny Engineer that replaces most of the separate electronics modules and wiring with a single PCB.

The board integrates:

• PCA9685 servo controller
• MAX98357A audio amplifier
• USB-C
• power distribution, filtering and protection
• servo, OLED and speaker connections
• a socket for the ESP32-C3-Zero

The idea is to make the electronics side of the build much simpler: plug in the ESP32, connect the servos, OLED and speaker, and you're ready to go.

You can see the board and the technical details in #46.

Why I'm asking

The board will be open hardware, so the manufacturing files will be available and anyone will be able to order it themselves.

The problem is that PCBA manufacturing has high fixed costs for small quantities. Ordering one small batch just to build a single Tiny Engineer is relatively expensive, while producing a larger batch brings the per-board cost down substantially.

For context, the smallest practical order is around $75 for 5 boards with single-sided assembly (the ESP32 headers need to be soldered manually), plus shipping. A fully assembled double-sided batch is around $150 for 5 boards + shipping.

So before figuring out manufacturing and distribution, I would like to understand whether there is actually community interest in getting these boards pre-assembled.

Interested?

👍 React to this post if you would consider buying a fully assembled Main Board for around $15–20 + shipping.

This is just an interest check, not a preorder and no commitment to buy.

If there's enough interest, I'll look into a production batch and a low-effort way to make the boards available internationally.

[danpillay87]

I'd be interested in an assembled Main Board, and I'd also love a complete pre-built Tiny Engineer. Are finished units something you might offer, or do you know someone who could assemble one from your design? I'm in the UK and happy to cover parts, build time and shipping.

[jamro]

I’ve been looking into European providers as well... I’m based in Poland. I even considered ⁠AISLER, which is based in Germany and can manufacture and assemble the boards. After pricing it out, though, it was still significantly more expensive than ⁠JLCPCB, even after including shipping from China.

I’ve now designed a dedicated integrated Main Board (see PR #46), and the first batch is currently being manufactured by JLCPCB. I should have the boards here in about 1–2 weeks. Once I’ve assembled and tested one successfully, I’ll merge the PR and anyone will be able to order the same board directly from JLCPCB (or, with some minor adjustments to the fabrication files, from another PCB provider)

The downside is that for individual orders the cost per board is still relatively high because of setup fees and the very small quantities, as I mentioned above.

If there’s enough interest from the community in ready-to-use assembled boards, I’ll definitely look into organizing manufacturing and distribution at a larger scale. With a bigger batch, the cost per board should come down considerably.

As for complete pre-built Tiny Engineers, I haven’t figured that part out yet... but it’s great to know there’s interest in that too!