PCB v4 Prototype — Active Bring-Up

Under the Hood.
Built, Running, Still Being Proven.

PCB v4 is fabricated and operating on the bench. Its Hall-sensing grid, 80 LEDs, audio, local runtime, and multi-tile networking are implemented. Production qualification and safe hot-plug behavior remain in development.

Tiny Expeditions PCB v3 — electronic overview

4×4

Playable grid

Analog Hall sensors

Addressable RGB LEDs

137 mm

Tile width

Speaker + Mic

Onboard audio

JS + Markdown

Local story runtime

Analog Miniature Detection

PCB v4 places one analog Hall sensor beneath each of its 16 cells. The prototype detects centered magnet-based pieces across the full grid. Multi-class magnetic identification is being qualified, not promised as production-ready.

Light as Interface

Five addressable LEDs sit beneath each cell. They mark paths, choices, threats, objects, and reactions while the player's attention stays on the miniature world.

Onboard Sound

A speaker and PDM microphone are built into PCB v4. Speaker playback, microphone capture, LEDs, and Hall scanning have run together in bench tests. Voice-input software remains in development.

Under the Surface

The Invisible Layer

Three implemented layers that make authored adventures run locally — independently of any cloud or screen.

Offline-First Content

Rules, scenarios, and packaged audio live on the tile. Core play does not require an account, Wi-Fi connection, or cloud service.

WAV and MP3 Audio

The runtime mixes local WAV assets and includes streaming MP3 decoding for longer dialogue and ambience. Hangar 7 packages music, speech, and effects locally; combined physical listening tests remain in progress.

Embedded Story Engine

Duktape runs JavaScript directly on the ESP32-S3. Authored Markdown is compiled into the narrative-v1 format, separating story content from firmware while keeping the rules local.

Open by Default

Hackable by Design

The PCB is the “Arduino of the tabletop”. JST ports for any custom circuit, CAN Bus as the data backbone, BLE for companion devices like Pixels Dice. Open platform: the scenario format, the 3D theming spec, and the JST plugin interface are openly documented so makers can build alongside us. See what the community builds →

JST Plugin Ports

Two 5-pin JST connectors per tile expose 5V, 3.3V, and a dedicated GPIO. Each port works in two modes selected by a solder jumper:

Data mode — read a sensor (PIR, color), control an output signal
Power switch — GPIO-driven MOSFET toggles a 5V load on/off (fog machine, LED strip, servo)
Scenario code controls both modes in real time via simple commands

SmartLink: A Board That Maps Itself

Edge connectors carry 5V power, CAN data, and topology signals. The runtime discovers connected edges and orientation, builds the board layout, elects one rules authority, and leaves each tile responsible for its own light and sound.

Dynamic topology and master election are implemented
Laboratory-to-Hangar authority handoff passes automated tests
Prototype tile bridges currently omit +3V3 after isolating it as the hot-plug fault domain
Unpowered hot-plugging and automatic recovery remain in development

BLE Companion Devices

Each tile runs a BLE 5.0 bridge that speaks directly to connected peripherals without any hub or phone app:

Pixels Dice — smart electronic d20s blink on cue and report results directly to the scenario engine
LEGO SmartPlay bricks — detect and react to LEGO sensor events
Open BLE scan API — any BLE peripheral can be added via scenario config

What's Coming

Next in the Stack

Two capability layers currently in active development — local intelligence and cloud amplification.

In Development

Local HTTP API

The tile exposes a local HTTP server over Wi-Fi — no cloud, no account required. A browser, a companion app, or a voice assistant on the same network can query board state, trigger scenario commands, or push new content directly to the tile.

Think: a phone as the GM's screen. Or a Raspberry Pi running campaign logic remotely. The PCB becomes a smart peripheral with a real API.

In Development

Cloud Services Layer

When the tile connects to the internet, cloud services extend what the hardware alone can't do:

AI Text-to-Speech — dynamic narrator voices generated live from scenario text, streamed to the tile speaker in real time
Speech-to-Text — voice commands captured by the on-board mic, transcribed and dispatched to the scenario engine
Per-tile AI assistant — context-aware DM running in the cloud, responding to player actions and improvising within scenario boundaries
Screen companion — scenario visuals or Lea's portrait pushed to a TV or tablet on the same network
Cloud is an amplifier — all offline scenarios keep working without it

DeepTech

Four Hard Problems.
Solved Together.

Building a phygital platform from scratch means tackling hardware, artistic design, game engine, and hybrid architecture — simultaneously. Here’s what that actually looks like.

Hardware

A proprietary PCB communicating peer-to-peer via CAN Bus — sharing power and data, bypassing BLE limits, and feeding a diverse sensor array directly into the narrative engine. 10+ years of prototyping distilled into a production-ready design.

Artistic Layer

Light, sound, haptic, olfactory — rooms stackable to infinity in 3D, OpenLOCK-compatible. The PCB's role is to elevate the artistic experience: how universes are designed, how light diffuses, how atmosphere is authored without code.

Game Engine

The board must expose a simple, elegant interface for scenario authors — no firmware knowledge required. Screenless, offline-first. Every hardware capability accessible from a Markdown scenario file. 4 years of framework work behind it.

Hybrid Environment

Alambic framework: offline-first + cloud amplification. Generative AI for story, voice, video. Persistent room identity across sessions. Dozens of arbitrage decisions between local reliability and cloud-powered depth — still live.

The opposite of walled-garden IoT. JST ports, CAN Bus, an open 3D mounting standard, and a public scenario format — designed to be extended, not locked. The PCB is a stage; what you build on top is yours. See the creator program →

Under the Hood.Built, Running, Still Being Proven.