Shipping Soon!
I'm very happy to announce that all campaign rewards have been programmed, tested, packaged, and have now been shipped to Mouser! Read the full update.
Late April Manufacturing Status
Yikes, time sure flies! It's been awhile, but I've been busy in the meantime and have made good progress toward getting product ready for shipment! Read the full update.
Late March Manufacturing Status
Kingtop has finished assembly of the first batch of ManT1S rev. 5 boards, and they are on their way to me as I'm writing this. Check out the update to find more about this and other manufacturing progress. Read the full update.
Power Considerations, Part Two - Connections
Time for part two on power: What power connections does each board in the ManT1S ecosystem have, and how do you use them? Read the full update.
Power Considerations, Part One - Voltage
I should have written the story of ManT1S' power handling much earlier (I had intended to do it during the campaign), but I never got around to it until now because I never found the time and it is such a large subject to cover. Why is it a large subject? Because the ManT1S provides you with considerable flexibility in how it is powered! Read the full update.
Manufacturing & Documentation Progress
It's been almost two weeks since the campaign ended so it's time for an update on the manufacturing status. Also, some documentation has landed. Read the full update.
Our Campaign Has Concluded Successfully!
Thank you all again for supporting the campaign and helping to launch this exciting new product! When you start something like this, you can never be sure of the market response. I appreciate that for most of you this was somewhat of a leap into the unknown and I thank you for your trust, I will do my very best to not disappoint! Read the full update.
Iterative Hardware Improvements
The Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, states that for many outcomes, roughly 80% of consequences come from 20% of causes. The pursuit of getting the last 20% right is the reason that both ManT1S and ManT1S-Bridge are already on revision five before they are even released! Read the full update.
Network Performance Expectations
One of the comments that tend to pop up about ManT1S is: "Why resurrect 10 Mbit/s networking, when we now have multi-gigabit alternatives?" Some people like to oversimplify complex engineering decisions to "just go with the highest number" or "I'll settle for nothing but the best", where "the best" invariably is defined as some high specification number in one single dimension. While that's the kind of story marketing departments may like to push, engineering requires a different approach... Read the full update.
Development Model With & Without the ManT1S-Bridge
Thank you all for your continued support! The ManT1S campaign is now over 300% funded! :) In this update I wanted to show some of the features of the preinstalled MicroPython firmware to make your life easier, and the differences in use depending on whether you are using a ManT1S-Bridge or not. Read the full update.
Over 200% Funded! And Off-Beat Use Cases
In this update I want to explore a few off-beat use cases for the ManT1S and ManT1S-Bridge. I would imagine that most use cases would involve a few ManT1S boards and a ManT1S-Bridge forming a distributed system, but this surely doesn't need to be the case. Both the ManT1S and ManT1S-Bridge have some great features that make them useful in their own right! Read the full update.
Getting Started With the Preinstalled MicroPython Firmware
Up until now I've mostly been talking about the hardware, so it's time we gave the software side of the ManT1S some love! Read the full update.
What Kind of Wire Should I Use With the ManT1S?
One thing that may be confusing about T1S is that you can't really go to the store and buy a "T1S cable". For standard Ethernet, on the other hand, it's easy to find pre-made Cat5e or Cat6 cables, or to crimp a couple of RJ45's on a length of cable yourself. Luckily, it turns out that the solution is quite simple, and T1S is very forgiving when it comes to the wiring it can work with! Read the full update.
Termination, and Introducing the ManT1S-Gadget!
In this update, I cover endpoint termination in T1S mixing segments and announce the ManT1S-Gadget, which will ship as a freebie along with each ManT1S Starter Kit. Read the full update.
What Value Does the ManT1S-Bridge Add?
The hard truth is that a T1S mixing segment, even though it's a TCP/IP "network", is really an island unto itself. In this day and age, when we think of a "network", we think of something that has worldwide reach, something that we can easily talk to from our computers or cell phones, and can make use of convenient network infrastructure we usually take for granted, such as DHCP and DNS. Read the full update.
Funded! :) And What's All This T1S Stuff Anyway?
The ManT1S campaign reached 100% funding in about a day! Thank you! :) This update also covers why you might care about T1S. Read the full update.
The Campaign Is On!
While the concept for a 10BASE-T1S variant of the wESP32 had been brewing in my head for quite a while (ever since I learned about the technology in fact), I only started to work seriously on prototypes to play with in June 2024. Now here we are in late 2025, 4 revisions and a ton of testing later, and this has become something that's finally ready for prime time. I am very excited about the potential of this board to get the creative juices flowing in the community, and I can't wait to see all the uses you backers are going to come up with that I hadn't even considered! Read the full update.