Hardware

Interactive 3D model

Drag to rotate, scroll to zoom, right-drag to pan. This model is exported directly from the KiCad board (hw/clicker.kicad_pcb) with kicad-cli.

About the model

The board (green soldermask), copper/pads (gold) and the through-hole components — resistors R101–R104, transistors Q101/Q102 and header J101 — are shown. The ESP8266 module and the temperature module use custom footprints with no 3D model assigned, so they appear as their footprint pads without a body.

KiCad's GLB export carries the board colours but drops the component materials (they would otherwise render solid white), so component meshes are recoloured in a small post-processing pass. To regenerate the model after a board change (no system install needed — just Docker):

# 1) Export the board (with component geometry) to GLB
docker run --rm -e KICAD9_3DMODEL_DIR=/usr/share/kicad/3dmodels \
  -v "$PWD":/work -w /work kicad/kicad:9.0 bash -lc \
  'apt-get update -qq && apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends kicad-packages3d >/dev/null && \
   kicad-cli pcb export glb -f --include-tracks --include-zones \
     -o docs/assets/3d/clicker.glb hw/clicker.kicad_pcb'
# 2) Recolour the (material-less) component meshes — see tools/recolor_glb.py

PCB Design

The Clicker is built on a custom KiCad PCB that interfaces an ESP8266 microcontroller with the actuators that press the MHP30's two buttons (A and B). The board uses a front/back copper stack (see the Gerbers below).

PCB Files

All KiCad project files are located in the hw/ directory: - clicker.kicad_sch: Schematic diagram defining all electrical connections - clicker.kicad_pcb: PCB layout with component placement and routing - clicker.kicad_pro: KiCad project configuration

Fabrication

Ready-to-manufacture Gerber files are in hw/fab/: - clicker-F_Cu.gbr: Front copper layer - clicker-B_Cu.gbr: Back copper layer - clicker-Edge_Cuts.gbr: PCB outline - clicker-PTH.drl / clicker-NPTH.drl: Plated and non-plated drill files - clicker-job.gbrjob: Gerber job file with manufacturing notes

Components

The custom symbol/footprint library (hw/nanolab_hw_library.kicad_sym and hw/nanolab_hw_library.pretty/) defines the parts used on the board:

• ESP — the ESP8266 microcontroller module that runs the firmware and drives the two button outputs on D1 (GPIO5) and D2 (GPIO4).
• Temperature_module — footprint for the temperature module.

Note

For the authoritative component list and connections, open hw/clicker.kicad_sch in KiCad. The firmware pin assignment is documented on the Firmware page.

Ordering the board

Upload the contents of hw/fab/ to a PCB fab service (JLCPCB, OSH Park, …), including the drill files (*.drl) for accurate hole drilling.