Brainchild of hardware developer Akshar Vastarpara, Maypole is an open-source product that not only appears like the USB flash memory stick but behaves like one. It is the ESP32-powered device that enables you to transfer files over a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi connection to and from an on-board MicroSD card with room for up to 32 GB of data.
"Assume, for instance, you have a printer with the capacity to peruse documents from a USB drive, by connecting Maypole to that USB port, you can grant the permit to anybody or anyone on the network to send print jobs” says Akshar. Maypole's idea sounds closely familiar to full-sized SD cards which has WiFi for remote file transfer.
With Maypole, the USB host can either have access to the documents on the microSD card or a WiFi client can get to those records through the ESP32. This gadget could be helpful in test hardware equipment like Oscilloscopes to save screen captures or save log files onto its SD card and access it throughout the lab without the need to carry a USB flash drive around.
You all must be thinking about the security measures! But Akshar clarifies that the security of this device is considered with the highest standard of the IEEE platform. The device can be spatially used with any kind of Wi-Fi standards and the high-end software stack from ESP is utilized in the best way to provide any level of custom security.
Additionally, this appropriately configured device with its built-in LiPo battery can be used to back up the data without even plugging it in. Also, you can load it up with files through the USB interface and distribute the files to others, in a small group setting that too without having to bother about the malware risks.
The smart little device knows when it is receiving the new data and it disconnects from anything that might be using it as a mass storage device before updating the set of files that it makes available over USB and re-connects automatically. Using C/C++, MicroPython, or Lua and a variety of cross-platform IDEs, including Arduino, VScode, PlatformIO, and Eclipse, you can customize its behavior, add functionality, or extend the platform.
Being an open-source hardware project, Vastarpara plans to give test code and more documentation when the project goes live. As of this composition, Maypole is in the pre-launch stage on Crowd Supply. Join the Maypole announcement on Crowd Supply for notifications about the launch.
