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OPEN-SOURCE HARDWARE // BREAKOUTS, MODULES & REFERENCE DESIGNS

Public hardware projects, sensor breakouts, and reference platforms.

Pure Engineering LLC publishes open-source circuit board designs, USB UVC thermal camera carriers, Time-of-Flight laser ranging breakouts, UWB indoor location systems, and solderless PUREmodules IoT hardware. Select any project card below for hardware photos, pinouts, datasheets, and GitHub source repositories, or view our 28-Year Engineering Portfolio (56 Systems).

Thermal & Optical LWIR & ToF PureThermal Mini, PureThermal 1, Lepton, C12666MA, VL53L1/L5, Grid-EYE
Wireless & RTLS UWB, BLE & LTE-M Indoor Location RTLS, nRF52 Core, nRF9160, Asset Tracker
Modular IoT Standard PUREmodules 62-mil card-edge CoreModules, SuperSensor, Soil & Tri-Gas probes
Preserved Routes 76 Pages Hardware photos, schematics, datasheets, and embedded tutorials
Historical Case Studies 56 Systems → View 1998–2026 client & internal portfolio tab

01 // Thermal Imaging, Spectroscopy & Optical Ranging

PureThermal Mini PCB with a socketed FLIR Lepton LWIR core next to a US quarter dollar.
PureThermal Mini — Compact STM32F412 USB UVC smart I/O carrier for FLIR Lepton 2.x and 3.x LWIR thermal cores.
PureThermal 1 development board showing STM32F411CEU6, FLIR Lepton core, TMP007 thermopile, and expansion headers.
PureThermal 1 — Open-source STM32F411 development board with FLIR Lepton socket, TI TMP007 reference thermopile, and USB UVC firmware.
Pure Engineering FLIR Lepton Thermal Camera Breakout v1.3 with 8-pin SPI and I2C header.
FLIR Lepton Breakout Board — 25 x 24 mm LWIR breakout with 2.8 V / 1.2 V LDOs, 25 MHz clock, and Raspberry Pi / Nucleo SDK.
FLIR Lepton Handheld OLED Pocket Thermal Camera rendering live thermal video.
FLIR Lepton Pocket Thermal Camera — Handheld SAMD21G18A thermal imager with 96x64 SSD1331 color OLED and rechargeable LiPo battery.
Hamamatsu C12666MA MEMS micro-spectrometer breakout board.
Hamamatsu C12666MA / C12880MA — Hermetic MEMS grating micro-spectrometer breakout (340 to 850 nm) and Arduino capture code.
Panasonic Grid-EYE AMG8833 8x8 thermopile array breakout board.
Panasonic Grid-EYE Breakout — 64-pixel 8x8 MEMS thermopile array on Arduino / Nucleo and 62-mil PUREmodules card-edge connectors.
ST VL53L0X 940 nm Time-of-Flight laser ranging breakout board.
ST VL53L0X 2m ToF Breakout — Eye-safe 940 nm VCSEL Time-of-Flight laser distance sensor with I2C header and PUREmodules edge fingers.
ST VL53L1X 4-meter Time-of-Flight laser ranging sensor diagram.
ST VL53L1X 4m ToF Sensor — Third-generation FlightSense 940 nm laser-ranging architecture with programmable 16x16 SPAD ROI up to 4 m.
Pure Engineering VL53L1X Time-of-Flight breakout board with card-edge connector.
ST VL53L1X Breakout Board — Dual-footprint 4 m Time-of-Flight carrier with 3 V to 5 V regulator for Arduino, Nucleo, and nRF52 CoreModules.
ST VL53L5CX 64-zone multizone Time-of-Flight depth sensor.
ST VL53L5CX 64-Zone ToF — Wide 61-degree FoV 8x8 multizone Time-of-Flight depth matrix for 3D room mapping and robotics obstacle detection.
Silicon Labs Si1153 optical gesture and proximity sensor breakout board.
Silicon Labs Si1153 Breakout — Multi-channel ambient light, infrared proximity, and 3D gesture recognition sensor on a PUREmodules card edge.
Silicon Labs Si1170 optical biometric heart-rate sensor breakout board.
Silicon Labs Si1170 Breakout — Continuous wrist photoplethysmography (PPG) optical heart-rate and pulse oximetry sensor carrier.

02 // RF Localization, Cellular IoT & Wireless Platforms

Indoor Real-Time Location System UWB anchors, tags, and location server architecture.
Indoor Real-Time Location (UWB RTLS) — IEEE 802.15.4 UWB Time-of-Flight and BLE indoor positioning to 10 cm accuracy.
UWB Anchor & Wi-Fi RTLS Bridge — Fixed ceiling/wall UWB Time-of-Flight anchor node with Wi-Fi backhaul to the trilateration engine.
Qorvo DW3000 UWB Transceiver — IEEE 802.15.4z Ch 5 & Ch 9 UWB transceiver reference with Scrambled Timestamp Sequence (STS) and PDoA.
Pure RTLS Mesh Network — Self-healing multi-hop wireless location mesh forwarding UWB Time-of-Flight vectors without per-anchor Ethernet drops.
PURE locate Platform — Modular wireless location platform combining UWB Time-of-Flight, BLE proximity, and motion-gated battery tags.
PURE Asset Tracker — Multi-modal outdoor/indoor logistics tracker blending GPS, Wi-Fi BSSID scanning, BLE beacons, and LTE-M / NB-IoT backhaul.
PURE IoT Gateway — Multi-radio edge gateway bridging BLE, 802.15.4, and Sub-GHz sensor nodes to Ethernet, Wi-Fi, and cellular cloud endpoints.
IPv6 over BLE (IPSP) Gateway — RFC 7668 6LoWPAN over Bluetooth Low Energy border router assigning native IPv6 addresses to BLE sensor nodes.
Solar Weatherproof Geo-iBeacon — Outdoor solar-charged Bluetooth beacon with onboard GPS synchronization for autonomous geolocation broadcasts.
FireBeacon emergency responder telemetry architecture and sensor node.
FireBeacon Responder Telemetry — Ruggedized environmental and incident telemetry beacon for emergency responders and wildfire monitoring.
PUREmodules nRF52832 Bluetooth 5 Core Module PCB layout and connectors.
PUREmodules nRF52832 Core — Coin-cell Bluetooth 5 processor module with Arm Cortex-M4F, LIS2DE12 accelerometer, and 62-mil card-edge sockets.
Nordic nRF52833 Direction Finding — +8 dBm Bluetooth 5.1 SoC with Angle-of-Arrival (AoA) / Angle-of-Departure (AoD) I/Q sampling up to +105 °C.
nRF52 Secure BLE DFU Bootloader — Step-by-step guide to ECDSA P-256 cryptographic key generation and signed over-the-air firmware updates.
Nordic nRF54L Series SoC — 22 nm 128 MHz Cortex-M33 wireless SoC with RISC-V coprocessor, non-volatile RRAM, and Bluetooth Channel Sounding.
Nordic nRF54H20 Multi-Core SoC — Dual 320 MHz Cortex-M33 and dual RISC-V wireless SoC with 2 MB embedded MRAM and High-Speed USB.
Nordic nRF9160 Cellular LTE-M / NB-IoT and GPS System-in-Package hardware.
Nordic nRF9160 Cellular SiP — Compact 10 x 16 mm LTE-M, NB-IoT, and GPS System-in-Package with 64 MHz Cortex-M33 and Arm TrustZone.
Cellular & DECT NR+ (nRF9260) — Integrated cellular LTE-M / NB-IoT and DECT NR+ 5G mesh System-in-Package architecture.
Cellular & Satellite IoT (nRF9280) — Integrated terrestrial LTE-M / NB-IoT and 3GPP non-terrestrial satellite (NTN) IoT hardware architecture.
TI CC2650 Multi-Standard 2.4 GHz Core Module PCB.
TI CC2650 2.4 GHz Core Module — Multi-standard BLE and IEEE 802.15.4 / Zigbee / 6LoWPAN wireless MCU with low-power Sensor Controller Engine.
Qualcomm QCC711 Tri-Core BLE SoC — Bluetooth 5.4 Low Energy SoC combining an Arm Cortex-M3 application core, RISC-V security core, and M0 link layer.
Qualcomm QCC744 Wi-Fi 6 & Matter — Tri-radio Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.4, and IEEE 802.15.4 Thread/Zigbee SoC on a 320 MHz RISC-V core.
SIMCom SIM7080G Cat-M / NB-IoT — Global multi-band LTE Cat-M1 / NB2 cellular module with integrated multi-constellation GNSS receiver.
ST STM32WL Sub-GHz LoRa MCU — Single-die Sub-GHz wireless microcontroller integrating Arm Cortex-M4/M0+ cores and a Semtech SX126x LoRa radio.
Industrial IoT (IIoT) Architecture — Ruggedized plant-floor telemetry combining isolated 4-20 mA / RS-485 interfaces with cellular and mesh radios.
Quectel BG77 compact LTE Cat-M1 and Cat-NB2 module.
Quectel BG77 LTE Cat-M1 / NB2 — Compact 14.9 x 12.9 mm cellular LPWA SMT module with integrated GNSS for wearable and industrial trackers.
Nordic dual-core BLE and 802.15.4 wireless SoC reference block diagram.
Dual-Core BLE & 802.15.4 SoC — High-temperature dual-core Cortex-M33 wireless SoC reference for BLE Audio, Thread, Zigbee, and USB devices.
Strada Connected Hardware Platform — Reference hardware and firmware architecture for rapidly fielding commercial connected sensor products.
Wireless Technologies Selection — Engineering tradeoff guide comparing BLE, UWB, Thread, Wi-Fi, LoRa, LTE-M, NB-IoT, and satellite links.
Off-grid mesh and satellite communications network topology.
Off-Grid Mesh & Satellite Comms — Resilient Sub-GHz LoRa mesh and LEO satellite backhaul for remote infrastructure without cellular coverage.

03 // Modular Sensor Architecture, Environmental Probes & PUREmodules

Modular Sensor Architecture nRF52 CoreModule mated with a card-edge sensor board.
Modular Sensor Architecture — Solderless 62-mil PCB card-edge interconnect standard for coin-cell IoT sensor prototypes.
PUREmodules debug adapter and 10-pin Tag-Connect / Cortex SWD header pinout diagram.
PUREmodules Debug Adapter Pinout — SWD programming, UART console, and 10-pin card-edge pinout specification for PUREmodules hardware.
ESP3212 Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Low Energy modular core board.
ESP3212 Wi-Fi & BLE Core Board — Dual-mode 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth processor carrier for the Modular Sensor card-edge bus.
Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S) Gas Module — Amperometric 3-electrode electrochemical H2S gas sensor module with programmable potentiostat AFE.
Custom Sensor Board Design Guide — Mechanical dimensions, 62-mil PCB gold-finger footprint, and electrical rules for building custom PUREmodules.
Pure Soil Sensor three-zone differential capacitive moisture probe with nRF52 CoreModule.
Pure Soil Sensor — Three-zone TI FDC2214 differential capacitive soil moisture probe with BLE and MQTT telemetry.
SGX MiCS-6814 tri-gas sensor breakout PCB for CO, NO2, and NH3.
SGX MiCS-6814 Tri-Gas Breakout — MEMS metal-oxide triple gas sensor module measuring carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), and ammonia (NH3).
ams CCS811 digital indoor air quality eCO2 and TVOC gas sensor breakout.
ams CCS811 Indoor Air Quality — Low-power digital MOX gas sensor reporting equivalent CO2 (eCO2) and Total Volatile Organic Compounds (TVOC).
Sensirion SCD40 miniature photoacoustic true CO2 sensor module.
Sensirion SCD40 True CO2 Sensor — PASens photoacoustic NDIR carbon dioxide sensor (400 to 2000 ppm) with integrated temperature and humidity compensation.
Pure Engineering environmental and industrial sensor modules.
Environmental & Industrial Sensors — Overview of Pure Engineering optical, thermal, gas, soil, and biometric sensor modules.
PUREmodules Ecosystem Overview — Open-source modular hardware ecosystem connecting wireless CoreModules and SuperSensor peripherals without soldering.
PUREmodules nRF52 CoreModule and SuperSensor hardware quick start kit.
PUREmodules Quick Start Guide — Hardware assembly, battery jumper configuration, and out-of-the-box Bluetooth telemetry walkthrough.
Arduino IDE Board Manager setup for PUREmodules nRF52 boards.
PUREmodules Arduino IDE Setup — Installing the Nordic nRF52 Board Support Package, SoftDevice stack, and sensor libraries in the Arduino IDE.
PUREmodules Linux Toolchain — Configuring udev rules, dialout permissions, ARM GCC, and OpenOCD on Ubuntu/Debian Linux hosts.
Nordic nRF52 firmware and SoftDevice programming setup.
nRF52 Firmware & Bootloader Setup — Flashing the Nordic S132 SoftDevice, DFU bootloader, and application hex files over SWD.
Over-the-air Bluetooth Low Energy Device Firmware Update (DFU) workflow.
Over-the-Air BLE DFU Guide — Updating PUREmodules nRF52 firmware wirelessly using nrfutil packages and the nRF Toolbox mobile application.

04 // Connected Systems, RTOS & Engineering Technical Notes

Zephyr RTOS embedded firmware architecture and supported development boards.
Zephyr RTOS Firmware Architecture — Devicetree hardware abstraction, Kconfig modular builds, and MCUboot secure OTA on Nordic and STM32 targets.
Contiki OS & 6LoWPAN Mesh — Event-driven protothread RTOS with uIPv6, RPL multi-hop routing, and CoAP for constrained wireless sensor networks.
PureEnergy solar and micro-energy harvesting power management board.
PureEnergy Micro-Harvesting — Low-quiescent-current solar and thermoelectric energy harvesting PMIC carrier for battery-free IoT nodes.
PureMailbox Solar Sensor — Solar-powered optical and accelerometer mail-delivery sensor transmitting through metal enclosures over Sub-GHz RF.
PureSense multi-sensor environmental telemetry node.
PureSense Telemetry Node — Integrated ambient temperature, relative humidity, barometric pressure, light, and motion sensing platform.
PureSOA IoT Service Architecture — Decoupled service-oriented middleware ingesting edge telemetry into time-series storage and alert pipelines.
GraphAI Edge Sensor Fusion — Directed-graph signal processing and quantized embedded neural inference across multi-modal sensor streams.
Wearable Health Monitoring — Continuous multi-parameter biometric telemetry combining optical heart rate, SpO2, skin temperature, and fall detection.
Real-Time Incident Information — Field-to-command situational awareness network aggregating responder locations and hazard sensors in real time.
Biological & Environmental Sensing — Precision optical fluorescence, micro-spectrometry, and electrochemical potentiostat instrumentation for bio-assays.
Sustainable Living & Off-Grid — Solar microgrid telemetry, precision soil moisture sensing, and tank level automation for off-grid homesteads.
Embedded Engineering Tips — Practical bench notes for remote UART bridging, ZModem file transfers, and microcontroller architectures.
Netcat & Socat Serial Bridge — Forwarding physical hardware UART ports over TCP/IP networks using stty, netcat, and socat on Linux.
ZModem File Transfer Over UART — Sending and receiving binary files over an existing embedded Linux UART console using lrzsz (rz / sz).
MCU Instruction Set Reference — Quick comparison of Arm Cortex-M, RISC-V, AVR, MSP430, and PIC embedded instruction set architectures.