Picoclick C3T - the smallest ESP32-C3 based IOT button | assembly & tests | makermoekoe

This video is sponsored by PCBWay. Get your own prototyping PCBs starting at 5$ here: www.pcbway.com...
Content:
0:11 Applying solder paste
0:52 Placing components
1:54 Soldering with the automated hotplate soldering station
3:02 Assembling of the bottom PCB side
3:39 Fully assembled Picoclick
4:15 Connecting the battery
4:32 Optimizing with the Oscilloscope
5:57 First test with ESP-NOW
6:33 Otis Arc power measurement
7:14 Picoclick in action
UPDATE: Available now in my brand new Tindie store!
www.tindie.com...
The Picoclick C3T is a tiny WiFi and BLE IoT button for several applications. Originally designed for smart home things, the Picoclick can also be used as an actuator for IFTTT automations or as an MQTT device. It is based on the single core ESP32-C3 RISC-V processor and therefore comes with tons of useful features. With dimensions of only 10.5mm by 18mm the C3T not only the smallest one in the family of the Picoclicks, it is also the smallest device I have created so far.
The Picoclick project is on my Github:
github.com/mak...
Assembly video of the automated hot plate soldering station:
• Overengineered 3D prin...
I'm now on Patreon! Your little help is appreciated a lot! Check it out here:
/ makermoekoe
Links:
Website: www.makermoeko...​​
Instagram: / maker.moekoe
Patreon: / makermoekoe
GitHub: github.com/mak...
Instructables: www.instructab...
My commonly used tools:

[@MrZomhad]

Wow that power consumption is impressive! At 28mA for 1.7s that would equal well over 3000 clicks with a 50mAh battery (and only about 80% use of charge), holy smokes! :oo

[@makermoekoe]

😛 If you're doing without any huge LED animations, things get done in under 300ms. Now calculate amount of clicks again haha 😍

[@unicodefox]

@@makermoekoe 21,428 clicks on a 50mAh (if I did my maths correctly 😅)

[@anastasiszaro]

@@unicodefox daaaaaamn!! Talk about efficiency! I guess that's what happens when you give a problem to an engineer, not only will they give you a solution but they will optimize the sh!t out of it! Awesome work!!!!

[@ec016kapadiyadivyesh4]

@@makermoekoe can you share link for purchase..?

[@muhammadjunaid3650]

dont know how you calculated it but for me, i did it like per click is (28ma x 1.7sec)/3600= 0.1306mah per click. Now battery 50mah/0.1306 = 383 clicks ignoring the idle consumption.

[@ofozdemir]

Following you for a while. impressive product. Thanks for sharing development details. Love your tools, specially hot plate. This video is a lesson for small batch manufacturing process. Never stop making.🙌

[@makermoekoe]

Thank you so much! Glad to hear! 😍

[@JasonWho]

Two biggest achievements here are the ultimate efficient hardware design and the use of ESP-NOW. Can’t tell you how much I’m anticipating amazing things from that low power comms protocol

[@PCBWay]

What a stellar job! You never cease to amaze us! 👍🍻

[@WaldemarHeimann]

Bin richtig beeindruckt von dir. Ich bastle auch so ein Zeug, aber deine Projekte sind erste Sahne. Respekt! Freue mich auf weitere Videos

[@makermoekoe]

Vielen Dank! Sowas hört man doch gerne 😍

[@StormBurnX]

Holy smokes! That's tiny. I know someone else already mentioned printing an enclosure but all I can think of, is how PERFECT that would be as a little keyring dongle! Truly impressive work as always (and the departure from the usual narration was noticed haha)

[@makermoekoe]

That's a great idea! And in addition to another comment under this video you could use it as a garage door opener/remote - on your keachain 👌🏻I like it

[@makermoekoe]

Currently working on the enclosure. I will add one with a keychain hole 👍🏻

[@AtomkeySinclair]

You could literally just dip it in epoxy resin... isolate button with a tiny plastic straw cut down to a couple mm. Very cool.

[@StormBurnX]

@@AtomkeySinclair that's quite an idea! Sadly where I live epoxy resin either gets very very soft or very very brittle/crumbly (due to heat and UV exposure, respectively) but that would be a nifty "permanent" solution for those in less harsh climates!

[@AtomkeySinclair]

@@StormBurnX Well, it wouldn't be as pretty... but there's also something called JB Weld that is a two part epoxy that is opaque and nearly black and remains solid in extreme temperatures cold and hot. And there's a plastics version that is white when solid. Clear epoxy would be cool since you could see the innards. If I had the patience this maker had I would try and build one out. I suppose I will have to stick the the not so small variety :) Thanks for commenting.

[@opengreenenergy]

I really love the entire video. Impressed with your hot plate , want to make one for myself too.

[@geeuk]

A video tutorial on your channel would be excellent!

[@maker101io]

I loved Picoclick, also a great video! Thanks for sharing ❤️

[@makermoekoe]

Thanks for your feedback!!

[@jaspervandenameele4834]

Wow this is amazing! I wanted to make an esp-now remote for a smart home application and was disappointed with the esp32 standby power usage, this thing is incredible! I would love to make my own, but I have no experience with doing soldering on such small components so I'm a bit scared!

[@tablatronix]

Adorable, the hotplate is hilarious

[@dummypg6129]

This! I had a shower thoughs in making this kind of device. Thanks for sharing. Plan to make one...

[@bitosdelaplaya]

you are truly a genius. I hope, one day, to have the time and patience to get there. Thanks for the video and sharing

[@jena_thornwyrd]

They are back in stock !!!! Just ordered 2 !!! :D

[@makermoekoe]

They are 😍 Saw your order! Thanks man!

[@jena_thornwyrd]

@@makermoekoe You are welcome sir ! ^^ hey, you make very good stuff, and it happen that I need 2 of those ;) I would have preferred with LiFeO4 battery support, I don't like ticking time bombs XD, but erf, that's good enough for now ^^ And, bonus for you and future customers, I'll design a small enclosure that I'll try to make IP68, with protection against over-pressing the button and maybe a separate compartment for the battery with "security weakness" to let the battery blow toward the outside in case of malfunction, to avoid damaging the PICOClick.

[@Roflan_228]

It's so beatiful! I wish you have 1000000 subscribers

[@makermoekoe]

Thank you! Let's beat the 100k first! 🤩

[@FrancoisvanderMerwe]

I have been searching for months for something like this!! Thank you soooo much!

[@charlescoult]

That reflow tho 😍

[@rpavlik1]

Hey that's a pretty fancy automated hotplate, haven't seen one like that before.

[@makermoekoe]

First time using it! Pretty cool

[@ericoudammerveld424]

Really nice optimizations!! Great design and great result!

[@Yash_Verma5]

This module is needed in the market

[@ohhellothere17]

Just like baking bread.......soo satisfying

[@makermoekoe]

Indeed 😁

[@chaterrony]

cool project! I checked the BOM, but I am missing the component F1. What circuit did you use for the antenna? Two capacitors? Or only a Ferrite F2? Which value? I am building a Wristwatch with a ESP32-pico-d4 and am struggling with the antenna design... As yours seems to work, I would like to "copy" it ;-)

[@makermoekoe]

The matching network of an antenna depends on the actual structure of the board with its layer stackup and dimensions and cannot be "copied" to different boards. For antenna matching you usually use a PI-network which has to be tuned for the correct frequency. Due to the small size of the Picoclick and because I don't have the right tools to tune the antenna I've just placed a zero ohm resistor in series with the chip antenna. Don't be afraid too much regarding the antenna circuit. I've done several designs now and not a single one was like that it hasn't wifi connectivity at all...

[@chaterrony]

@@makermoekoe I have read this "issue" with the matching network and that you cannot copy it. However you helped me massively (!) with the comment, that you always had at least a WIFI connection. My device will be 30mm in diameter (round as it is a watch) and I need WIFI for 3 meters max. So I will now go forward and do a PCB to test it :-) Thank you very much for your good comment! Looking forward for your next, cool projects.

[@BlueyMcPhluey]

​@@makermoekoe thankyou for providing your files, I am making a very similar board and am having trouble with brownouts when entering WiFi... I thought it might be an antenna matching issue, but it looks like the problem is that I didn't have a proper ground plane

[@bluegizmo1983]

That is super cool!

[@JLCPCB]

Amaizing video! Great job 😁

[@lagcisco]

fantastic video mate

[@AFRFB09BA]

Could you make a video about the tools you use? Thanks !

[@VicoEsco]

Amazing video! Great work, please keep making more.

[@makermoekoe]

Thanks! Will do :)

[@windyg7261]

Really cool project!!

[@blakesmith4070]

So cool! Out of curiosity, what kind of solder paste are you using? I've had trouble with hot plate reflow soldering, and I'm wondering if it would help to use something lower temperature.

[@conorstewart2214]

The main types are leaded, lead free and low temperature. The leaded I’m not 100% sure about but I think it melts between 180 - 200 C, the lead free is like 220 C plus and the low temperature is bismuth based and melts at like 138 C. If your hot plate can’t melt the lead free or leaded you could try the low temp stuff, just be careful what you use it for though, especially power electronics or heaters, don’t want your solder melting because the device gets too hot.

[@vsetotje]

That so cool, man 👍 I spent hours and days looking for a good solution for a button.

[@HairyTheCandyMan]

I've never seen Solder Paste applied with a steel sheet like that. That's pure geenyus

[@dahahaka]

That's pretty much standard

[@nhlakaniphombatha5769]

TO GOOD ..NICE WORK MAN 👍👍👍

[@ArduinoExperiment]

Love this! ❤️ cool Project . . . . and also fav your Soldering staition .. 😊 its really awesome! 🙌❤️

[@tommipekkala7522]

Nice Work!

[@jena_thornwyrd]

Order received, nothing fancy except a nice sticker! The PicoCLICK are sooooo small ! Oh my god ! I could hide one under the first phalanx of my auricular! (little finger, or pinkie if anyone lack the vocabulary)

[@jena_thornwyrd]

BTW, I was skeptical about the Deutsche Post "Standard Ground Rate", they are truly efficient and the connection with "La Poste" in France was flawless and the tracking continued until reception !!!!!!

[@FareedClarity]

Wow amazing circuit, small but smart device

[@123kamyk456]

That's really cool to watch as someone mentioned it's an engineering porn! How many free I/O pins are left on the ESP? Where did you learn how to do such a things?

[@dooogfella]

What a thing of beauty! This thing is very well made :) May I know what IC you used to regulate the voltage of the lipo battery?

[@makermoekoe]

Thank you! I'm using the 3v3 LDO MIC5504-3.3. It comes in a tiny 1x1-TDFN package

[@dooogfella]

@@makermoekoe Thanks! I’ve been figuring out what’s the best regulator should I use on my projects. This’ll help a lot on my journey on electronics 😊

[@vloppysagina]

@@dooogfella Hey! I'm wanting to start gaining knowledge on electronics in general, and since you specified you're on an electronics journey, may I ask where you've found information? Everything seems so daunting to me, I also have no clue where to *start.* Is there a crash course you've gone through? Any help will be much appreciated, thank you.

[@noonabomber]

if you connect your VBAT divider to another GPIO instead of to GND, you could make it LOW right before you check the battery level. This way you wouldn't be leaking 3ua to ground constantly :)

[@makermoekoe]

Yes, I was trying this in the first Picoclick version. I'm not sure what exactly was the problem but it was somehow not working as it should. I should invest some debugging time into this to save these silly 3µA...

[@BlueyMcPhluey]

wow what a fantastic tip, I'm glad I read the comments

[@kobi-kobsen]

Wow this is a really impressive project.

[@tld8102]

This is good enough for old people

[@SantaDragon]

Impressive work!

[@webmaster1461]

Beautiful and awesome

[@sn0wst0rm]

Really cool project! Did you test the functional range with esp now? How many meters can it cover?

[@danielhussain2900]

Great question👍👍 maybe we can use it as a garage door opener 🤔

[@risingmermo]

It seems it has low range or at least I think so. They don't show any long range uses.

[@priuxls]

I once did a range check with some nodemcu and esp now. I got about 100m with 2 walls in between.

[@Sohailkhan-zw1gl]

@@priuxls this one doesn't have any antenna so , it's gonna be less.

[@raphaellim5815]

I don't understand this video, but it looks really cool.

[@phizaics]

That is actually very nice amazing

[@adamborkowski3175]

Very interesting video!

[@zabique]

Your channel is so inspiring! Thanks

[@PaulJurczak]

Very nice, but I would solder all the through-hole shield tabs of USB connector @4:04

[@pravatiacharya5921]

This shows that you're so perfect in PCB design...A few questions: 1) Can we program the ESP32-C3 in the Arduino IDE? 2) Why did you use a 4 layer board and not a 2 later one? 3) Does the ESP32-C3 has embedded flash?

[@makermoekoe]

1) Yes, it is. Nevertheless you have to disable the boot messages to ensure the boot up time is small enough. Probably possible, but I haven't tested that. 2) The space on the board is very limited. With all the vias and pads, there wouldn't be enough room to route all the signals on a 2L board. 3) The ESP32-C3 with embedded 4MB flash is called ESP32-C3FN4 or ESP32-C3FH4 and is used for this project.

[@Nordicx86]

as variants SPI to "advanced data" pins of USB - but to that pins that not use in charging! and as special feature add QC3.0 compatibility - this allow get from simple USB charge with QC3.0 any level of Voltage from 3.6V to 12V or 3.6V to 20V(with 200mV step) with high current...

[@RaphaelAguirre]

Stellar job, new sub :)

[@makermoekoe]

Thanks man!

[@draglorde]

Looks great! why aren't you using their assembly service? I guess that some parts are not available for that?

[@makermoekoe]

The Picoclick is so tiny and would't fit all the manufactures restrictions. Moreover I love to do it by myself & show it to you ☺

[@bennylloyd-willner9667]

@@makermoekoe I imagine it's like car restoring and such, the journey to finished product is the lion part of the enjoyment 😁. Just got recommended, thanks KZbin and of course thanks to you. Best regards from a new subscriber👍

[@makermoekoe]

@@bennylloyd-willner9667 Exactly what he said! 😛 Thank you!

[@mrmarkom]

Amazing, I am really impressed!

[@googleyoutubechannel8554]

Very cool hardcore design approach using a custom PCB, I think I might have already created a _2 button_ version that is smaller, using off the shelf parts, that took 10 min and is

[@sock501]

Please sell these!! I do tech work for immersive attractions and we’d buy those by the pound at the right price!

[@BlueyMcPhluey]

the video description has been updated with a purchase link: www.tindie.com/stores/makermoekoe/

[@fennoqueven]

USB-C? ESP32? PCBs? IoT? Sounds good to me!

[@AreaMH]

Awesome process!

[@makermoekoe]

Thank you!

[@Bianchi77]

Nice video, thanks for sharing :)

[@jena_thornwyrd]

BTW AWESOME creation ! I love it ! I just subscribed to the wait list ^^

[@hendrikschnack8828]

Tolles Video. Wo hast du die Löt- und Montierhilfen her?

[@makermoekoe]

Vielen Dank! Das ist ein Omnifixo, sehr zu empfehlen. Gibt es auf omnifixo.com

[@kr4k3nCyb3rPunk]

Nice Job bro! 👾

[@danielhussain2900]

Wow impressive. Now u need to make enclosure for the tiny controller so it is more user friendly

[@vorobey6243]

Damn man, such a wonderful work, And also are you german or swiss?

[@Main.Account]

Legend!

[@donpalmera]

KZbin needs to create an ai that flags videos with this sort of music

[@edvardpotapenko]

This is amazing 👍

[@RFADICTOS]

Ohh que super proyecto amigo eres un GURÚ.. Lo FELICITO 😊 amigo.. Grácias por compartir tus Proyectos..

[@LeLaboDeHarry]

Mate I'm so impressed that seems to be so satisfying to press a so tiny button !!! Amazing

[@ESCcrasci]

Amazing! Did you design a 3D Printed enclosure yet?

[@makermoekoe]

It's almost on the printer!

[@TheBigfootdood]

Finally I can activate my rotating water bed with with my cufflinks

[@susugar3338]

Love it!

[@Duraltia]

Mhh... The Battery makes this kind of a hard sell to me. Maybe consider a Piezoelectric Button for generating the power to run it? It's how I believe the Feller Friends of HUE Light Switches work that I'm using as they have no means of being supplied with power 😗

[@rdyer8764]

Great!

[@gere364]

What about changing the rechargable battery with a CR2016/CR2032 primary cell? Have you done the maths for battery life? Very cool tiny device btw. And I love your hot plate!! Thanks for sharing! :)

[@LeLaboDeHarry]

I think CR20.. are to large and the enclosure must have a way to access to coincell

[@wei48221]

Awesome.

[@mr.techinventor3463]

NICE

[@robertomanuelpaulik4236]

nice product! 😊

[@morganyodts1375]

So nice! Is it using direct wifi integration or something like esp now? Also how is the battery life?

[@ZsoltBottka]

It was mentioned in the video that it acts as an ESP-NOW slave.

[@makermoekoe]

In the video it uses ESP-NOW, but nevertheless a direct WiFi integration is possible as well. Haven’t yet implemented that for the C3, but for the first/old Picoclick this is working fine. Will update the Github repo once I‘ve implemented this

[@morganyodts1375]

@@makermoekoe Awesome, thanks!

[@joeycallahan913]

I wish I could even know where to start learning these custom PCBs. I can barely make a simple one with headers lol

[@avramitra]

Amazing stuff.. Now you can make another version with a mini rotary encoder or potentiometer so it can also control brightness. I'm not sure if micro rotary encoders are available or not, but micro potentiometers do exist.

[@JasonWho]

Pressing and holding is another option without a potentiometer

[@Oshan_Dissanayaka]

Wow. Great video bro... Thanks

[@makermoekoe]

Thanks for your feedback!

[@jjang_won]

OMG I want to buy this button!!!

[@B1NT0N]

Very nice work You should get a pick and place machine

[@Nordicx86]

why SPI is not output - on SMD connector or pads / pins? With SPI ready it is Incredible base for any device! or Grove interface

[@AndreaFederigi]

Impressive

[@echoswatch]

Ich würde zu gern auch sowas können. Geil gemacht! Aboniert!

[@maciejd7823]

Can't help, but name it a "fancy button"

[@priuxls]

Wow, einfach nur wow! Was mich noch interessiert ist, ob du dir ausgerechnet wie lange die Batterie hält mit, weiß nicht sagen wir mal ca 5 Klicks am tag?

[@electromijin]

Me he quedado helado es una belleza

[@robertd1965]

Very cool.. the only time you need verbosity and validation is for troubleshooting anyway. A production environment this is not needed.

[@BeefIngot]

That chip antenna design seems crazy to me. As a relatively new hobbyist Ive been told over and over that rf is difficult and that you absolutely needed a pi filter and to play with the values. How did you get this to work? Have I been mislead? Does this get good wifi reception without high effort simulation or vna testing?

[@ShainAndrews]

Last one for me. Between the music and the rapid text... then multiple rapid text.

[@ericlotze7724]

This is great! Would make a good project for Makerspace Scale Manufacturing (Get/Make (Since it is Open Source!) one of Steven Hawes' (I guess now "for legal reasons not- ) IndexPnP machines, and crank these things out.

[@ericlotze7724]

Would be good as a key dongle / remote. Also could be used for an IOT button with a similar niche to those "Amazon Dash" Buttons. Or even for those "Pet Request/Talking" Buttons, but IOT enabled!

[@mcb9644]

Is there a way to order it ? Assembled

[@makermoekoe]

I'm currently working on it! Give me a few days

[@tjagusz]

@@makermoekoe that would be awesome. Not everyone has the tools, but every one want to have a couple of those buttons! Awesome project. BTW what is the range?

[@makermoekoe]

@@tjagusz I've just opened my Tindie store! Only a few are available but I'm already working on a restock!

[@newsogn5148]

Lol that’s awesome!!! What about antennas what is needed there? I’m not going to lie my kids would definitely swallow that lol

[@r00yce]

Hey moekoe! As always, an awesome project. Unfortunately, your webpage about your commonly used tools has vanished. What third hand are you using?

[@Jallen262]

This is awesome... could you even do away with the USB-C port and use a micro JST connector or small for charging for an even smaller footprint?

[@remty516]

They could, but usb c is a nice standard to use

[@techmaster6587]

Very nice...

[@kelvin1316]

Like many here, I am kinda more interested in the hotplate than the circuit LOL

[@jstro-hobbytech]

Awesome video as always. How reliable is that hot air station man. Mine just died and I'm a newb but don't want to waste 75 cad for one that was used for less than 20 hours over 6 months and I'm switching to smd for my custom boards.