I have been recently working on a project for indoor localization and I would like to use the
UWB modules (specifically and initially the UWB1000 module), but it has been too expensive (40dollars per module).
So I was looking for a solution that would reduce the price to maybe half or less, such as buying a BU01 chip module that I can soldier into an esp32 (although don’t have much experience with soldering)
What you are highlighting is definitely possible, but I would warn that it could get quite involved as a project.
In researching for the guide you linked, I had a few looks at the chips themselves. It is definitely possible to create your own carrier board for them (with a nice ESP32 onboard as well), but the carrier boards we are using in the video have quite a bit more going on than just breaking out the pins. There is a (I think it’s an STM32) chip handling the UART commands (with its own custom firmware), as well as power management and some other goodies.
You would almost likely need a custom PCB design for this - maybe possible without but would be pretty jank.
UWB is reasonably new, and the reason we jumped on these boards recently is because they were one of the first things to come out that were cheap (by UWB standards, previously these boards would run you above $100 each!), and easy enough to use in maker projects.
If you do wanna make your own board (might be a good project in learning something like KiCad), there are some resources here to get you started. Finding more might be difficult though as a lot of it is hidden in the AI thinker Mandarin forums.
Completely understand the hesitation to get them for $40 a pop.
Jaryd hit most of the main points - we also would like to make a board featuring SoC’s like this.
Keeping development time in mind is often overlooked in maker projects.
Wait so you’re saying that it wouldn’t be as easy as connecting the ch8p to an esp32 because you need ither things like firmware compatibility, antennas that work with uwb waves, etc
And custom pcb would be just for compactness
Also, I know the ai thinker module and the quorvo/makerlabs modules exist
Is there anything else, and only the makerlabs ones work on esp32 right
Also here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_DvDJxV32w
at 2:00 he connects the makerfabs UWB3000 chip to an esp32 board, is this possible just because he custom created things in his esp32 board so that it would be possible to connect an UWB3000 to it via soldering?
It looks like the Bu-01 chips won’t be as easy to just connect to an ESP32 as they use SPI. The STM32 chip on the boards from our video allows you to input a UART command, and it handles all the SPI communication to make the UWB chip do what you want it to do.
The makerlab chip looks more feasible to use as it has UART channels on its pinout. If I were going to try and make something custom with the chip, I would be going with them!
