How It Works

cup_trophy_icon-512  HOW IT WORKS


Come Up With An Idea

First, get inspired! We created a simple, maker friendly, wireless board called the NODii that we think you will enjoy playing with for all types of projects. It’s Arduino compatible and best of all expandable by you – the designer.


Submit Your Design

Second, download one of our PCB design templates that allows you to expand the NODii. Once you have finalized your awesome design give the design a great name and submit your design.

Come Up With An Idea

This is usually the hardest part! Look for inspiration on makezine.com, or other hacker sites like sparkfun, adafruit, hackaday and hackster.io.  Check out other submissions. At this time we only take PCB board submissions that are original and extend the following platforms

  • Arduino Pro Mini
  • NODii (see below)

Submit Your Design

Download one of our PCB design templates. It is important to follow our guidelines for presenting your project for the community. Please make sure to submit everything we ask for so we can quickly approve your submission for community voting. The Featured Image for your design is key.  This is the first image voters see. Make it a good one. We usually recommend a 3D rendering of the design. Once your design is submitted, we’ll review and approve it for community voting within a few days.

NODii


Popular and Low Cost

A Maker’s favorite, the famous ATMega32u4 – a low-power, programmable microcontroller with built in USB support.


Built-In Wireless

This Arduino compatible board has wireless built in – offering longer reach and up to 4x the distance of WiFi using 433, 869 and 915 MHz on-board radios.


Maker Friendly

Supports prototyping on standard breadboards so you can design to your heart’s desire.


World-wide Appeal

Based on the famous, open hardware Arduino platform – works out of the box with all Arduino prototyping IDE and tools to help speed up making and playing. 13 digital and 6 analog IO pins.


Connectable

Tested and built to support the open source MySensors platform – focused on DIY home automation and Internet of Things.


Portable

Designed to be battery powered and portable – the NODii supports high performance LiPo battery charging circuits so you can design a truly wireless node.

NODii FEATURES

  • Processor: ATMega32u4
  • Power Supported: 5V and 3.3V (processor runs on 3.3V @ 8MHz)
  • LiPo Battery Charger: On board – SPX3819
  • LiPo Connector: 2 Pin battery connector (footprint on backside of PCB)
  • I/O PINs: All Pins
    • 13 Digital I/O Pins
    • 6 Analog I/O Pins
  • Flash:  32 KB
  • Clock Speed:  8 MHz
  • Mounting Holes: 4
  • Pin Headers: Included (can fit larger machine pin headers)
  • Size: 51mm (2 in) x 25.4mm (1 in)

RADIO FEATURES (included or sold separately) 

  • Chipset: HopeRF RFM69
  • Frequency: 433MHz, 868MHz, or 915MHz
  • Power Output: 13 dBm (RFM69W) or 20 dBm (RFM69HW)
  • Antenna Support: U.FL (footprint on backside of PCB)

 

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

 

  • Download one of the PCB design templates.
  • Use the EAGLE CAD software to open this template.
  • All submitted designs must be validated by the designer to be working. 
  • Submit a screenshot of BOTH your schematic and your layout using the form below.
  • You do not need to submit your schematic (.SCH) or board (.BRD) files for the contest. Just a clear screenshot of your design.
  • Screenshots must be 853 pixels wide, 480 pixels tall, and 72 dpi for both your schematic and your layout.

NODii MINI Template

The NODii MINI template uses a familiar USB Type A connector to connect with the NODii. Use this template to layout an ADD-ON board for anything that uses I2C or 2 Pins with power rails using 3.3V or 5V.

PCB Template Files (download BOTH files)

Schematic: nd-mini-1-1116

Board: nd-mini-1-1116

 


NODii FULL Template

The NODii FULL template uses the same size and pinout features of our NODii board. Use this template to layout an ADD-ON board for anything that requires more space and ALL the pins of our Arduino compatible board including support for 5V and 3.3V.

PCB Template Files (download BOTH files)

Schematic : nd-full-1-1116

Board : nd-full-1-1116

Are You Ready!

Are you ready to send in your design. Go here.