First off, I'd like to address the radio silence. Between graduating college, holiday travel, and a month-long medical leave of absence, it's been a minute since our last update. But tinyCore is alive and well, and there is a lot to catch up on. Let's get into it.
🔥 Highlights
- Rebuilt our entire docs site from scratch with Astro/Starlight
- Rewrote our new main site in Next.js to include a store and blog!
- Officially transitioned to tinycore.cc and tinydocs.cc URLs
- Released 4 new tinyHATs (now available on the brand new store!)
- Began shipping the new V2.1 board!
- Piloted tinyCore in 4 CU Boulder classes with 15+ awesome student projects
- Our "How It's Made" video in November hit 18k views and grew our channel from 250 to 1,300+ subscribers!
- Won a grant for tinyCore units at CU's Integrated Teaching and Learning Labratory
- Sponsored a 24-hackathon at CU Boulder
- Setup a new workshop for filming projects!
New Website, New Docs, New URLs
You might have noticed you're reading this from a brand new site! We've officially migrated to tinycore.cc and rebuilt the entire site from the ground up with Next.js. The blog has been moved there, and we've also written a custom store and cart system to allow for streamlined ordering and multiple items!
I also spent wayy too much time making the stars actually 3D rendered and parallax, so scrolling is much more satisfying now.
I spent a ton of time getting OAuth to work for accounts, and you can now save orders and track your orders progress. You can verify your student email as well for an automatic discount!
Right now we are having a few issues with corrupted Auth cookies on the site, so if you ever get stuck unable to login, clearing your cache will fix it.
The new docs site, tinydocs.cc, has also been rewritten (using Astro Starlight) and now has interactive code components and in-browser firmware flashing.
Anywhere you see the orange "Flash tinyCore" button, you can now upload code demos directly from the site. Just connect your tinyCore via USB-C, click the button on any code block, select the port in the browser, and click program!
We're officially on a new domain!
The old mr.industries domain now redirects here. If you share the project, please use: https://tinycore.cc or https://tinydocs.cc All old links should still work fine however, such as https://mr.industries/get-started
This was a massive undertaking, but it sets us up for a lot of exciting features down the road, including MOOC-style course content. I'm also working to build quite a few useful tools such as a circuit schematic layout tool, a resistor color/value calculator, and a power calculator (in collaboration with one of our pilot courses). Stay tuned for more awesome features!
New tinyHATs
The most requested feature since day one has been expansion modules, and we've now begun shipping all four of them! You can find them in the store right now:
tinySpeak - An AI voice HAT with a microphone and speaker over I2S. I've already got demos running that turn the tinyCore into a synthesizer, a theremin, a ChatGPT bot, and even a walkie-talkie (between two tinyCores).
tinyGlow - A smart LED driver/controller HAT with three separate channels, capable of controlling hundreds of LEDs to glow up your next project.
tinySniff - A MEMS gas and air quality HAT that senses methane, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen sulfide. Perfect for detecting gas leaks (and cow farts).
tinyProto - A perma-protoboard for tinyCore, so you can build your own custom HATs and prototype to your heart's content.
We're actively writing new documentation, example code, and getting-started guides for each of these, so keep an eye on the docs site. We've also certified all of these boards with OSHWA, and the GitHub/Documentation links can be found on each store page above.
Board V2.1
We're also now shipping the tinyCore V2.1, which adds an accessible 5V pin (VUSB) directly from the USB connector. This was a much-requested feature, and it's especially important for our new HATs like tinyGlow, which need 5V input to drive smart LEDs. V2.1 is for sale now Ala-Carte and has already secretly (muahaha) shipped with our most recent orders of tinyKits.
Classroom Pilots: What Students Built
This past semester, two CU Boulder classes adopted tinyCore as part of their curriculum: Wearable Technologies and Alt Arcade (Game Design). The projects that came out of these were incredible. They were honestly some of the most creative uses of tinyCore I've seen so far.
Alternate Arcade - ATLS 4050:
Gimme S'more
Made by Ash
This was cute marshmallow-making boat-rowing game, complete with Sm-oars! (with tinyCore inside)
Camp Cupid
Made by Logan, Estella, and Geoff
This was my team's game: an archery dating simulator. Equipped with Cupid's Bow, shoot your way through an awkward summer camp and hopefully score a date to prom!
Intergalactic Fishing
Made by Jeb and Sam
Exactly what it sounds like! Use the joystick and giant crank to reel in a big one. Who knows what lurks in the space beyond our planets... Maybe a really weird looking blob-fish?
High Road
Made by Aidan
Experience life from the perspective of an infant in kid-backpack. Move a full-size mannequin controller (Ratatoulli style) to help your human caretaker hike all the way to the top of the mountain, while fighting off other pesky hikers.
Wearable Technologies - ATLS 4330:
We had an extremely successful pilot with ATLAS' Wearable Technologies. Studnets built a ton of projects, too many to share here. Luckily, we wrote up a full Field Report on the Wearables class pilot, which you can read here.
- A training posture belt for figure skating that logs feedback to a website
- A heated and air-conditioned prosthetic leg prototype
- The iTote - a mechanical eye that looks left and right (nightmare fuel imo)
- A bat-sonar headband that pivoted into a cat-meow detector
- Glow Warmers - light-up leg warmers
- A gesture-controlled LED hat
- A light-up skirt
- A pace-tracking wearable
- A plant health sensor
These classroom pilots are a huge part of our mission and where tinyCore is headed. More on that below.
tinySpeak + Big Mouth Billy Bass + ChatGPT
Internally, I got ChatGPT running on a Big Mouth Billy Bass using the tinySpeak HAT, and it's exactly as ridiculous as it sounds. This will be our next YouTube video... stay tuned.
"How It's Made - tinyCore"
Speaking of videos, back in November, we finally published our "How It's Made" video, and the response blew us away. The video has racked up over 18,000 views and grew our YouTube channel from 250 subscribers to over 1,300; officially crossing the 1K milestone! More tutorial and behind-the-scenes videos like this are scheduled to be filmed in the next few weeks.
Check it out here:
Events & Opportunities
Sh!tty Hacks
We sponsored Sh!tty Hacks, a 24-hour anti-hackathon at CU Boulder's ATLAS building and BTU Lab, where students teamed up to build the worst invention they possibly could. tinyCore provided sensors, kits, and technical support. It was an absolute blast. You can check out a video of it here.
ITLL Grant - A grant was approved to fund the purchase of more tinyCore kits for CU Boulder's Idea Forge (ITLL). As part of this, we're developing a tinyCore: Intro to IoT course to replace their existing Arduino 3 (WiFi/BLE) curriculum. That course is targeting a mid-March launch.
Sauceathon — Last weekend, we competed at Sauceathon, a 24-hour hackathon spinoff of Open Sauce. Of course, we repped tinyCore! Our project was to build a drift-trike in 24 hours, with unlimited access to a 52,000 sqr-ft manufacturing facility at OSHCut! We didn't win first place, but we did build a semi-functional hand-powered trike. Thanks to OSHCut for sponsoring such an amazing experience!
Behind the Scenes
A bunch of infrastructure work happened during the quiet period:
- New workshop - We rearranged the entire garage into a proper production and filming space
Video studio - Set up a full lights-and-camera rig for upcoming YouTube content
tinyCrab Robot - We started developing our first robotics kit, a quadruped crab robot. Designs coming soon, and eventually a purchasable kit.
What's Next
There's no shortage of things on our roadmap:
- Launching the tinyCore: Intro to IoT course at ITLL in mid-March
- Finishing the tinyHAT docs site pages
- Writing curriculum for upcoming class pilots
- Adding more items to the store (including the tinyCrab and OpenHEG kits soon)
- Building a custom test bench for streamlined automated testing
- Upgrading our enclosures with foam inserts
- Releasing the quadruped crab robot video and design files
- More YouTube videos and weekly documentation updates
As always, we'd love your feedback, and we've made it easier than ever to contribute! Drop us a comment below with your thoughts, projects, or questions!