GLYPH-C6 Beginner Kit
Welcome to the Beginner Kit
The PCB Cupid GLYPH-C6 Beginner Kit is an all-in-one hardware and learning pack designed to take you from your very first line of code to building smart, interactive IoT devices. Powered by the high-performance GLYPH-C6 (ESP32-C6 RISC-V) development board with native Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5 (LE), and Zigbee/Thread support, this kit includes essential sensors, displays, switches, and actuators for hands-on electronics prototyping. Whether you are a student, hobbyist, or developer diving into embedded systems, this kit gives you all the building blocks to learn digital input/output, analog reading, PWM control, I2C/One-Wire communication, motor control, and graphical user interfaces.What’s in the Kit?
Here is the complete inventory of hardware components included in your kit, along with links to their dedicated tutorial guides in this documentation:Component Tutorial Guides
Every component in this kit has a complete, tested guide with wiring diagrams, pinout charts, and ready-to-run Arduino sketches. Jump straight into any tutorial:GLYPH-C6 Microcontroller
Learn the architecture, GPIO mapping, strapping pins, and USB CDC settings for the GLYPH-C6.
LED Blinking & PWM
Master digital output, time delays, and PWM brightness fading with Red, Green, and Blue LEDs.
HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor
Calculate distances using ultrasonic pulse timing and build proximity alerts.
OLED Display (I2C)
Render custom text, geometric shapes, telemetry values, and UI frames on the 128×64 OLED.
TTP223 Touch Sensor
Implement touch-activated controls with software debouncing and edge-detection toggling.
Rotary Encoder & Button
Track bidirectional rotation position, speed, and knob push clicks using hardware interrupts.
28BYJ-48 Stepper Motor
Control precise angular position and rotational speed with the ULN2003 Darlington driver.
I2C Address Scanner
Discover and verify connected I2C peripherals (such as your OLED display) automatically.
What You Can Build
With the components in this kit, you can build a wide variety of standalone gadgets and connected IoT projects. Here are some of the most exciting builds to explore:1. Smart Distance Meter & Parking Radar
- Components: GLYPH-C6 + HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor + OLED Display + Red/Green/Blue LEDs.
- How it works: The ultrasonic sensor measures the distance to the nearest obstacle. The OLED shows the exact distance in centimeters and inches, while the LEDs form a visual proximity bar (Green = Safe, Blue = Approaching, Red = Alert / Too Close!).
- Skills Learned: Ultrasonic pulse timing, multi-threshold logic, OLED graphic rendering, multi-LED states.
2. Interactive Menu & Setting Controller
- Components: GLYPH-C6 + Rotary Encoder (with switch) + OLED Display.
- How it works: Rotate the knob to scroll through custom items, submenus, and adjustable values (such as motor speed, brightness, or thresholds). Press the knob’s built-in button to confirm selections.
- Skills Learned: Embedded UI design, state machines, interrupt handling, encoder quadrature decoding.
3. Touch-Controlled Smart Mood Lamp & Dimmer
- Components: GLYPH-C6 + TTP223 Touch Sensor + Rotary Encoder + RGB LEDs.
- How it works: Tap the capacitive touch sensor to instantly turn the lamp on or off. Rotate the rotary encoder to cycle through RGB color hues or adjust brightness smoothly using ESP32 PWM channels.
- Skills Learned: Capacitive sensing, software debouncing, LED PWM fading, color mixing.
4. Precision Motorized Turntable & Pan-Tilt Indexer
- Components: GLYPH-C6 + 28BYJ-48 Stepper Motor + ULN2003 Driver + Rotary Encoder.
- How it works: Turn the rotary encoder to set an exact target angle (e.g., 45°, 90°, 180°, or 360°). The stepper motor turns with high torque through its 64:1 reduction gearbox to the exact commanded step count.
- Skills Learned: Half-step sequencing, step acceleration, gear-ratio calculations, open-loop angular accuracy.
5. Autonomous Radar Obstacle Scanner
- Components: GLYPH-C6 + Stepper Motor + Ultrasonic Sensor + OLED Display.
- How it works: Mount the ultrasonic sensor onto the stepper motor shaft. The motor sweeps 180° back and forth in discrete increments. At each step, distance is sampled and plotted as a mini radar sweep on the OLED screen!
- Skills Learned: Actuator-sensor synchronization, 2D polar-to-Cartesian screen plotting, robotic navigation basics.
6. Wi-Fi Connected Cloud Dashboard & Remote Control
- Components: GLYPH-C6 (built-in Wi-Fi 6) + All Kit Peripherals.
- How it works: Leverage the ESP32-C6’s wireless capabilities to run a local web server or connect to an MQTT broker. Read live sensor data and command stepper movements or LED toggles from any web browser or phone!
- Skills Learned: Embedded web servers, REST APIs, JSON formatting, IoT telemetry.
Recommended Pin Mapping (Conflict-Free)
When combining multiple modules from your Beginner Kit on the breadboard, use this pin assignment plan so all components can operate simultaneously without GPIO conflicts:Power Sharing Tip: All sensors and the OLED run safely from the GLYPH-C6’s 3.3V pin. The ULN2003 Stepper Motor driver requires 5V, which can be taken directly from the board’s USB pin when powered via USB-C!
Getting Started: 4 Simple Steps
Follow this fast-track checklist to set up your environment and run your first project:1
Set Up Your Arduino IDE
Download the latest Arduino IDE and install the ESP32 board package (
>= 3.1.0). Under Tools → Board → esp32, select Pcbcupid GLYPH C6. Enable Tools → USB CDC On Boot → Enabled.2
Test the Onboard LED (Hello World)
Open the Blink LED Tutorial, select your COM port, and upload the sketch to verify code upload and board communication.
3
Wire Individual Modules
Pick one module (e.g., the TTP223 Touch Sensor or HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor), wire it on the breadboard, and run the example sketch to understand its operation.
4
Combine Modules into Full Projects
Combine your display, sensors, and stepper motor into an integrated device such as the Interactive Radar Scanner or Smart Distance Meter!