After joining the Neato Connected Discord I ran into another smart banana (4_Fools) that proposed hiding the ESP32 behind the bumper and running a ribbon cable to the debug port like so:
So I plonked a Seeed ESP32-C6 (since they are known for quality HW, especially when speccing the internal antenna) and a generic 4P 0.1" female socket into the SolidWorks assembly and yea this looks like the best way to go, as it's a plug & play mod that (hopefully) does not require any modifications to the bumper:
Next step is to figure out the flex shape and reach out to JLCPCB for their flex, rigid stiffener, & adhesive spec.
