Sneak Preview of the KiCon Asia 2023 SAO badge ahead of the KiCad Conference

KiCon Asia 2023 has passed! But don't worry, here are the highlights.

With the first-ever KiCad conference coming to Asia next week, what better opportunity to commemorate the occasion with a SAO badge designed with KiCad.

KiCon Asia will be held in Shenzhen this year on the 12th of November

Following the success of the first KiCon in Europe, the second KiCad conference worldwide, KiCon Asia is set to bring together the Asian and Western KiCad communities for an eventful day of technical (and cultural) exchange between casual designers, practicing engineers and developers in the presence of KiCad lead developers Wayne Stambaugh and Seth Hillbrand.

KiCon Europe 2023

HQ (Huaqiu) Electronics, the World’s Leading Industrial Digital Manufacturing Platform, harbors China’s largest community of practicing electronics engineers including a fast-growing KiCad community. 

With HQ Electronics as the major sponsor, KiCon Asia will be held in Shenzhen, China, on the 12th of November 2023, the same weekend as Maker Faire Shenzhen. It is expected to be an eventful day packed with talks from lead developers and local engineers, soldering and 'design your own SAO hat' workshops and all participants will each receive a SAO badge, designed by sprhawk and produced by HQ Electronics (NextPCB).

Why make a badge for a developer conference?

Many will agree that KiCad is the number one PCB CAD software for creating PCB art.

Completely free, beginner-friendly, and open-sourced, KiCad invites developers to build custom plugins and add-ons for the KiCad community to use, which includes various tools for transferring graphics to PCB layers. This accessibility and flexibility allow creators from all levels to explore the artistic possibilities and test the limits of custom PCB manufacturing. With KiCad, extravagant designs can be made with some basic image editing skills and an understanding of how PCBs are made.

HQ NextPCB DFM Ruler designed in KiCad and distributed at KiCon Europe

What is a Simple Add-on (SAO)?

Simple Add-ons (SAOs) is a standard that allows anyone to create a SAO device and operate it from a SAO Capable device, that can support one or more SAOs. The SAO ‘hat’ typically receives power from the main board and can operate independently.  

SAO Badge hat based on a WS2812 (Neopixel) RGB LED

SAO connectors and pin-out

The KiCon Asia 2023 SAO hat

KiCon Asia 2023 SAO Badge

The KiCon Asia badge supports the SAO v2 standard and can be programmed to support I2C or IO communication and supply power to the add-on. 

Early prototype of the KiCon Asia 2023 Badge design in KiCad. The final badge will feature two SAO ports and a USB-C connector

While it is nothing compared to the Badgelife elites, this Kicon badge was whipped up in a few weeks and showcases the speed and convenience of developing hardware in Shenzhen, the Silicon Valley of hardware, the venue for this year's KiCon Asia conference.

Sneak preview of the KiCon Asia SAO badge

The final SAO badge at KiCon Asia 2023

Programming with the KiCon Asia 2023 Badge

The badge will support SAO devices that only require power via VCC and GND by default. To utilize the SDA, SCL and GPIO pins, the badge will have to be programmed accordingly. The KiCon Asia badge is based on Nations Technologies’ N32L406RBL7, a low-cost 32-bit ARM Cortex-M4F microcontroller. SWD/JTAG debugging and UART/USB bootloading are supported. More details to come.

The English datasheet can be found here.

KiCon Asia 2023 has passed! But don't worry, here are the highlights.

Interested? There is still time to sign up

In town for Maker Faire? Spare a day off to meet KiCad developers in person, mingle with local KiCad designers and design your own SAO hat. Tickets cost $15USD and include a light lunch, refreshments and a (not so) secret souvenir.

Find more details on the official KiCad KiCon page.