Printed circuit boards are, at their most basic, a way to arrange conductors that travel between solder-mounted parts. At the same time, they’re extremely strong sections of precision-cut and coated fiberglass, that could have structural uses as well.

As I write this, I’ve successfully crowdfunded my JC Pro Macro 2 (JCPM2) mechanical keypad on Kickstarter. I’m extremely proud of this computer interface device, and when this article is published you should still have a few days to get one yourself. It’s an expanded version of the mini keyboard and rotary controller, with the addition of more LED lighting, and additional GPIO breakout features.

When the original Raspberry Pi was released in 2012, it caused quite the stir, selling out in hours. Several years later, in 2015, Raspberry Pi released the scaled down Raspberry Pi Zero, which featured similar specs to the original, but at a mer $5 price tag–and was even included on the cover of their MagPi magazine. A WiFi-enabled ‘Zero was released in early 2017, further enhancing its capabilities.

Castellated holes on a PCB, also known as castellations or crenellations, are plated through holes on a PCB which are cut in half. Typically, these are applied to the outer edges of a board, and are used to solder one board on top of another.

For somewhere around a decade, I have relied on streaming for the majority of my television watching. This meant a computer in the early days, along with a surround sound home theater setup. At some point, however, we simplified to a single Roku Player and the TVs built-in sound.

Today, wireless networking technologies like WiFi and Bluetooth have taken over a huge amount of the world’s short distance data transmission duties.