Thanks! The title of this thread probably had you thinking that it was about something else entirely…LOL. I should have went with “Another Terrarium powered by Blynk”. As it’s named now, I don’t think that even a Google Search would find it.
I’m already planning another ESP/Blynk related project… I think this one people will find useful. It will be a mother board of sorts, with a socket mounting slots for a Wemos D1 Mini, NODEmcu, and other IOT boards. Plus a few I2C/Serial based I/O port expanders, PWM controllers, and ADC’s, all broken out to screw/pin headers. Plus pre-configured connection points for the most popular sensors. I’m going to do my best to include everything anyone could want, and release the design files for anyone to use. Please provide feedback, if there’s something in particular that you’d like to have included.
On the subject of custom PcB’s… I’ve been using EAGLE since 2009. There’s a FreeWare version available here- http://www.cadsoftusa.com/downloads/logint. The Freeware version offers just enough work space to cover small ESP8266 related projects.
Locating parts… I use http://www.findchips.com/ to locate and compare prices. More often then not, I order everything I need from Digikey - http://www.digikey.com/.
For the PcB’s themselves… I use Elecrow for conventional FR4 boards - http://www.elecrow.com/ and Seeedstudios for single sided Aluminum boards - http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/login.html . Both PcB suppliers offer very good quality, cheap prices, and exceptionally fast service. My last order from Elecrow was delivered to my hands in 6 days! Nearly instant gratification!