Board Bring-Up Plan — WiFi Voice AI Hub
Required Equipment
- USB-C 5 V supply/current-limited bench supply or USB power meter.
- Multimeter.
- ESP-IDF flashing environment.
- 4–8 Ω speaker.
Bring-Up Steps
- Visual inspection: verify USB-C, ESP32 module orientation, MAX98357A, microphone, and polarized/large capacitors.
- Power-off resistance check: verify no low resistance short between 5V/GND and 3V3/GND.
- First power: connect current-limited 5 V; verify input current is reasonable with no hot parts.
- Measure rails: verify 5V after fuse and 3V3 regulator output.
- USB enumeration: connect to host and confirm ESP32-S3 native USB appears.
- Buttons: confirm RESET pulls EN low and BOOT pulls IO0 low for flashing mode.
- Flash firmware: load minimal USB serial/Wi-Fi/I2S test firmware.
- Microphone test: capture PDM/I2S data and confirm nonzero audio waveform/noise floor.
- Speaker test: play low-volume sine/TTS sample through MAX98357A and J2 speaker.
- Wi-Fi/cloud test: connect to AP, upload short audio buffer, receive/play response.
Initial Firmware Pin Map
- USB D−/D+: ESP32-S3 native USB IO19/IO20.
- Mic clock/data: IO4/IO5.
- Amplifier BCLK/LRCLK/DIN/SD: IO6/IO7/IO15/IO16.
- BOOT: IO0.
- RESET: EN.
Risks to Validate
- AMS1117 thermal margin under sustained Wi-Fi current.
- Speaker amplifier current and acoustic output from selected USB supply.
- Microphone placement/noise pickup from class-D speaker traces.
- ESP32 antenna clearance and Wi-Fi range in final enclosure.