From PCB to Product: Unpacking the Buttonwall Project

Dear IoT Basel Community,

At this meetup, we're excited to share our journey in building the Buttonwall, a fully integrated hardware and software project. We'll walk you through the entire development process—from the initial design of the PCB to the final product assembly. Expect to learn about:

• PCB Design: Challenges and solutions while working with ESP32 and WS2812 LEDs.
• Manufacturing: How we laser-cut the metal frame, chose materials, and assembled everything.
• Firmware and Software Development: Building the code from scratch, testing it, and ensuring stable communication between the hardware components; both Rust and C++ fans will be picked up ;-)
• Testing: Considerations and strategies to ensure everything runs efficiently and safely.

For those who love hands-on learning, we'll be bringing extra ESP32 and WS2812 modules to tinker with. Feel free to bring your own notebook (make sure you’ve installed PlatformIO with VSCode) and code along with us!

Whether you’re a hardware enthusiast, a software developer, or simply curious about product development, this meetup will offer insights into the end-to-end process of building a hardware device. No prior experience is required, just a passion for learning!

After the talk, we’ll have time for Q&A, networking, and, of course, some drinks.

Note: We'll be in another location than last time, as a functioning Buttonwall is in use in the brand new Escape Bar. So don’t get lost!

Looking forward to seeing you there for another exciting IoT Basel meetup!

Best regards,
Lukas