Introducing Trellis: Open Source Hardware for Nerves - Gus Workman | ElixirConf EU

Trellis looks cool - congrats @gus!

For anyone interested in the CPU this is what Google returned:

The Allwinner T113-S4 is an industrial-grade dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor with an integrated 256MB DDR3, designed for intelligent control, HMI, and automotive applications. It features a 64-bit RISC-V co-processor, H.264 video decoding, and supports various displays (RGB/MIPI/LVDS). It is pin-compatible with the 128MB T113-S3 but provides doubled memory capacity.

Key Features and Specifications:

• Processor: Dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 + 64-bit C906 RISC-V core.
• Memory: Built-in 256MB DDR3.
• Multimedia: H.264 video decoder, 2D graphics engine, and display support for RGB/MIPI/LVDS/8080 interfaces.
• Application: Ideal for smart home, industrial IoT gateways, digital signage, and automotive, often paired with WiFi6 (e.g., AIC8800D80).
• Availability: Listed on platforms like JLCPCB. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]

The T113-S4 offers a robust, high-temperature resistant solution (up to (105^{\circ }\text{C}) on some modules) for embedded systems needing reliable performance. [1]

Was curious because I’ve become interested in RISC-V (from a security perspective).

Like that is high temperature resistant - two of the Nerves projects I want to do at some point are sauna related

Thanks @AstonJ! This has been an ongoing saga, and it all started with this talk

Unfortunately, Google has got it a little bit wrong on the chip details. The specs and datasheet for this chip can be found here. The highlights: it has two ARM A7 core @ 1GHz, 256MB DDR3, and a pretty good selection of peripherals for a chip of this size (I2C, UART, SPI, CAN, SDIO, Ethernet, LVDS, RGB888, etc). It’s definitely a fun chip to use with Nerves!

Trellis is a project to make designing custom hardware with Nerves more accessible. The design is open source, created with open source PCB design tools

• Template hardware repo: GitHub - protolux-electronics/trellis_core: A barebones KiCad project for Allwinner T113-based designs · GitHub
• Nerves system: GitHub - nerves-project/nerves_system_trellis · GitHub

After ElixirConf EU last year, @lawik and I cooked up a plan to make a Trellis variant for the Goatmire conference last September in Sweden. We managed to pull it off, and thanks to a sponsor covering all the hardware costs, everyone who attended received a Nerves-powered e-ink name badge:

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• Hardware repo: GitHub - protolux-electronics/wisteria_hardware: Hardware files for Wisteria, the Nerves e-ink name badge · GitHub
• Firmware: GitHub - protolux-electronics/name_badge: Software to run on the Nerves name badge, as given out at Goatmire 2025 · GitHub

Now, I’m working on developing the new Nerves Starter Kit, which is a piece of first-party hardware for the Nerves ecosystem. It’s similar to the name badge, but with a larger display, onboard sensors, low power mode and plenty more improvements. Release date later this summer

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• Recent Nerves Meetup EU recording about the NSK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0igh46GLI6c
• I made a basic 3D simulator if you want see what it feels like: https://nsk.protolux.io
• (last week I spoke more about it at ElixirConf EU, stay tuned for that recording)

Like it said, it’s been an ongoing project, definitely been keeping me busy I post pretty regularly about it in the Nerves Discord

Sounds like a fun project! I haven’t played with this chip in any high temperature applications yet, but it should hold up just fine, maybe with a conformal coating on the PCB to make it corrosion resistant. Allwinner markets it as an automotive chip, so the temperature requirements mean it can withstand some fairly harsh conditions

Those name badges look really cool Gus - I bet everyone loved them!

I will mount the hardware outside the sauna tbh, so heat shouldn’t be too much of an issue - it’ll be more steam and moisture that I’ll need to worry about