Build logs, field reports, and deep dives from the people building TrailCurrent. Real work, documented as it happens.
Featured
· 7 min read
The Playbill image is a real artifact. Live TV from a USB antenna tuner, FM and AM radio, AirPlay mirroring, DVD-to-library with OMDb metadata, YouTube, and a header full of rig telemetry, all from one flash. A prebuilt .img is next.
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· 7 min read
The Playbill image is a real artifact. Live TV from a USB antenna tuner, FM and AM radio, AirPlay mirroring, DVD-to-library with OMDb metadata, YouTube, and a header full of rig telemetry, all from one flash. A prebuilt .img is next.
· 4 min read
Fireside moved off the ESP32-S3 and onto the ESP32-P4: dual-core RISC-V at 360 MHz, dedicated MIPI-DSI for the 7-inch panel, and an ESP32-C6 doing WiFi 6 over SDIO. The video walks through the chip and what changes for the dashboard.
· 5 min read
Overlook on your phone now drives Playbill end to end. Power, D-pad, transport, volume, and a streaming text field that types into whatever is focused on the TV. All over the rig's own MQTT bus.
· 4 min read
Switchback now has a full detail page. Eight relay outputs, eight Picket-format digital inputs, one off-the-shelf module. Bill of materials, hardware overview, wiring, CAN protocol, and a high-voltage safety section.
· 3 min read
The video walkthrough of why Headwaters dropped the Raspberry Pi 5 in favor of the Compute Module 5 on a Waveshare base. Availability, cost, assembly, and what changed underneath. Posted to the open-source channel.
· 6 min read
A low-power Linux desktop for daytime work that transforms from computer to TV at night. Built on the Radxa Dragon Q6A, branded TrailCurrent end to end, and wired into the rest of the rig.
· 6 min read
Borealis is being rebuilt around four real sensors instead of two estimated ones. NDIR CO2, VOC trending, electrochemical CO, and propane leak detection. Firmware is complete and waiting on parts to arrive.
· 5 min read
Seven days of always-on cloud monitoring used about 100 MB of cellular data. 24/7 trailer monitoring now fits inside the same phone plan that keeps you streaming and navigating at the campsite.
· 5 min read
The Radxa Dragon Q6A build is no longer on the way. The board boots unattended, the plain Waveshare RS485 CAN HAT brings up can0 at 500 kbit/s, and the full Headwaters stack runs. About fifteen dollars more than a CM5 on the module, and cheaper once you delete the carrier and the fancier hat.
· 4 min read
A walk-through of the Waveshare ESP32-S3 RS485 CAN board, the off-the-shelf module that anchors Bearing, Solstice, Reservoir, and most of our other CAN-bus nodes. Posted to the open-source channel.
· 5 min read
Milepost lives on a wall in a space people sleep in. A lit screen at night is a problem. Here is why Milepost now goes truly dark on timeout, and the CH32V003 backlight quirk that nearly kept it from working.
· 3 min read
TrailCurrent now has a project page on Hackaday. Same code, same MIT license, a second audience of makers and hardware engineers.
· 5 min read
A second reference platform for Headwaters. The Radxa Dragon Q6A joins the CM5 with on-board NVMe, on-board 12V input, and a cheaper CAN hat, widening availability and trimming cost so more people can build TrailCurrent.
· 4 min read
Solstice has a full detail page and the enclosure is on MakerWorld. Bill of materials, orthographic drawings, print profile, CAN map, and assembly animation all in one place.
· 3 min read
Ampline is retired. Solstice now handles both solar MPPT and battery shunt monitoring. One module instead of two, same full data set, shorter bill of materials.
· 4 min read
The Milepost 3D printed wall-mount enclosure is now on MakerWorld. Physical design is locked. Firmware is progressing fast with home, energy, water, and button screens all running, and OTA updates validated.
· 5 min read
Peregrine gets a pre-built image installer. Milepost ships configurable buttons and web OTA. Overlook adds zip deployment so the full system update story works with or without a cloud.
· 4 min read
Reservoir 1.0.0 is complete. Detail page, assembly guide, and the case is on Makerworld. Everything you need to build one is in one place.
· 4 min read
Full build guide for the offline voice assistant is live, and the two-piece case is on Makerworld. Bill of materials, drawings, print profile, and the assembly animation in one place.
· 2 min read
The Peregrine case is now live on Makerworld. Print it, drop the boards in, and you have an offline voice assistant ready to mount.
· 3 min read
Reservoir has its first stable firmware and a complete set of wiring diagrams. Three tanks, twelve sensors, one ribbon cable. Now available in the web flasher.
· 5 min read
Three modules ship their first stable firmware. Multi-device addressing, OTA updates, CAN bus discovery, and twelve pre-built binaries ready to flash from your browser.
· 4 min read
Torrent, Switchback, and Tapper now support multi-device addressing. Run up to three power modules and pair switch panels to any of them. The web flasher handles variant selection automatically.
· 2 min read
Milepost locks in the Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-LCD-7B with a 1024x600 dimmable display. A new detachable wall-mount case keeps the install clean.
· 2 min read
Tank level sensors are mounted and validated. Case design and connectors are in the final stretch. We expect to complete this module this week.
· 2 min read
The Headwaters case is now live on Makerworld, one click from your printer. Every other TrailCurrent case is next.
· 2 min read
Pick a module, pick a release, plug in USB, click flash. No toolchain, no command line. Works in any Chromium-based desktop browser.
· 2 min read
Bearing is the second module with a full build guide. Same format as Headwaters: BOM, dimensioned drawings, print settings, assembly. Every other module is next.
· 3 min read
The first full build guide is live. Every part, every dimension, every print setting, every assembly step. Every other module is next.
· 3 min read
Farwatch gets proximity-based rules for location-aware automation. A new repo, Reservoir, quietly joins the family.
· 3 min read
Headwaters is now installed in the trailer and monitored live via Farwatch. Averaging 15W constant, it lives comfortably on 200W of solar and a 100Ah battery, never dropping below 75% even on cloudy days.
· 4 min read
Low power, dual LAN, dual SIM, wall mount, barrel connector, four SMA antennas. Why the GL.iNet Spitz Plus is the recommended router for TrailCurrent, with a thank-you to GL.iNet for believing early.
· 6 min read
Twelve firmware repos migrated from Arduino to ESP-IDF in a single week. Module auto-discovery lands across the bus. Node-RED comes out of the stack.
· 6 min read
Headwaters drops the Raspberry Pi 5 in favor of a CM5 on a Waveshare base with a Waveshare CAN hat. All off-the-shelf, broadly available, and an entire carrier board EDA deleted.
· 4 min read
Plateau moves to an IMU-based leveling approach, Peregrine gets a new language model and real intents, and Borealis is ready for DIY manufacturing.
· 4 min read
Peregrine (voice assistant) and Borealis (air quality) join the platform. Switchback ships its first Gerbers. And every repo gets renamed.
· 5 min read
Fireside trades wired CAN for WiFi + MQTT and becomes a real wall-mounted remote. Picket and Spotter pick up their first real firmware.
· 4 min read
WiFi credentials now travel over CAN, every firmware repo stops storing secrets, and the iOS PWA finally installs cleanly behind Let's Encrypt.
· 4 min read
21 TrailCurrent repositories land on GitHub under trailcurrentoss. Headwaters gets a proper first-run experience and Milepost lights up for the first time.
Build logs and field reports from the community are welcome. Open a pull request against the website repo with your post.
