If you’re a regular GitHub user you’ll be familiar with the website’s graphical calendar display of activity as a grid. For some of you it will show a hive of activity, while for others it will be a bit spotty. If you’re proud of your graph though, you’ll want to show it off to the world, and that’s where [HarryHighPants]’ Git Contributions E-Ink Display comes in. It’s a small desktop appliance with a persistent display, that shows the current version of your GitHub graph.

At its heart is an all-in-one board with the display and an ESP32 on the back, with a small Li-Po cell. It’s all put in a smart 3D printed case. The software is the real trick, with a handy web interface from which you can configure your GitHub details.

It’s a simple enough project, but it joins a growing collection which use an ESP32 as a static information display. The chip is capable of more though, as shown by this much more configurable device.

Like many of us of a certain vintage, [Dillan Stock] at The Stock Pot is nostalgic for VHS tapes. It’s not so much the fuzzy picture or the tracking issues we miss, but the physical experience the physical medium brought to movie night. To recreate that magic, [Dillan] made a Modern VHS with NFC and ESPHome.

NFC tags are contained in handsomely designed 3D printed cartridges. You can tell [Dillan] put quite a bit of thought into the industrial design of these: there’s something delightfully Atari-like about them, but they have the correct aspect ratio to hold a miniaturized movie poster as a label. They’re designed to print in two pieces (no plastic wasted on supports) and snap together without glue. The printed reader is equally well thought out, with print-in-place springs for that all important analog clunk.

Electronically, the reader is almost as simple as the cartridge: it holds the NFC reader board and an ESP32. This is very similar to NFC-based audio players we’ve featured before, but it differs in the programming. Here, the ESP32 does nothing related directly to playing media: it is simply programmed to forward the NFC tag id to ESPHome. Based on that tag ID, ESPHome can turn on the TV, cue the appropriate media from a Plex server (or elsewhere), or do… well, literally anything. It’s ESPHome; if you wanted to make this and have a cartridge to start your coffee maker, you could.

If this tickles your nostalgia bone, [Dillan] has links to all the code, 3D files and even the label templates on his site. If you’re not sold yet, check out the video below and you might just change your mind. We’ve seen hacks from The Stock Pot before, everything from a rebuilt lamp to an elegant downspout and a universal remote.

How many times do you have to forget your keys before you start hacking on the problem? For [Binh], the answer was 5 in the last month, and his hack was to make a gesture-based door unlocker. Which leads to the amusing image of [Binh] in a hallway throwing gang signs until he is let in.

The system itself is fairly simple in its execution: the existing deadbolt is actuated by a NEMA 17 stepper turning a 3D printed bevel gear. It runs 50 steps to lock or unlock, apparently, then the motor turns off, so it’s power-efficient and won’t burn down [Binh]’s room.

The software is equally simple; mediapipe is an ML library that can already do finger detection and be accessed via Python. Apparently gesture recognition is fairly unreliable, so [Binh] just has it counting the number of fingers flashed right now. In this case, it’s running on a Rasberry Pi 5 with a webcam for image input. The Pi connects via USB serial to an ESP32 that is connected to the stepper driver. [Binh] had another project ready to be taken apart that had the ESP32/stepper combo ready to go so this was the quickest option. As was mounting everything with double-sided tape, but that also plays into a design constraint: it’s not [Binh]’s door.

[Binh] is staying in a Hacker Hotel, and as you might imagine, there’s been more penetration testing on this than you might get elsewhere. It turns out it’s relatively straightforward to brute force (as you might expect, given it is only counting fingers), so [Binh] is planning on implementing some kind of 2FA. Perhaps a secret knock? Of course he could use his phone, but what’s the fun in that?

Whatever the second factor is, hopefully it’s something that cannot be forgotten in the room. If this project tickles your fancy, it’s open source on GitHub, and you can check it out in action and the build process in the video embedded below.

After offering thanks to [Binh] for the tip, the remaining words of this article will be spent requesting that you, the brilliant and learned hackaday audience, provide us with additional tips.

At one point in time mechanical seven segment displays were ubiquitous, over time many places have replaced them with other types of displays. [Sebastian] has a soft spot for these old mechanically actuated displays and has built an open-source 7-segment display with some very nice features.

We’ve seen a good number of DIY 7-segment displays on this site before, the way [Sebastian] went about it resulted in a beautiful well thought out result. The case is 3D printed, and although there are two colors used it doesn’t require a multicolor 3d printer to make your own. The real magic in this build revolves around the custom PCB he designed. Instead of using a separate electromagnets to move each flap, the PCB has coil traces used to toggle the flaps. The smart placement of a few small screws allows the small magnets in each flap to hold the flap in that position even when the coils are off, greatly cutting down the power needed for this display. He also used a modular design where one block has the ESP32 and RTC, but for the additional blocks those components can remain unpopulated.

The work he put into this project didn’t stop at the hardware, the software also has a great number of thoughtful features. The ESP32 running the display hosts a website which allows you to configure some of the many features: the real-time clock, MQTT support, timer, custom API functions, firmware updates. The end result is a highly customizable, display that sounds awesome every time it updates. Be sure to check out the video below as well as his site to see this awesome display in action. Also check out some of the other 7-segment displays we’ve featured before.

Look out of a window, ask yourself the question, “Has a nuke gone off?”. Maybe, maybe not, and all of us here at Hackaday need to know the answer to these important questions! Introducing the hasanukegoneoff.com Indicator from [bigcrimping] to answer our cries.

An ESP32 running a MicroPython script handles the critical checks from hasanukegoneoff.com for any notification of nuclear mayhem. This will either power the INS-1 neon bulb, indicating “no” or “yes” in the unfortunate case of a blast. Of course, there is also the button required for testing the notification lights; no chance of failure can be left. All of this is fitted onto a custom dual-sided PCB and placed inside a custom 3D-printed enclosure.

Hasanukegoneoff.com’s detection system, covered before here, relies on an HSN-1000L Nuclear Event Detector to check for neutrons coming from the blast zone. [bigcrimping] also provides the project plans for your own blast detector to answer the critical question of “has a nuke gone off” from anywhere other than the website’s Chippenham, England location.

This entire project is open sourced, so keep sure to check out [bigcrimping]’s GitHub for both portions of this project on the detector and receiver. While this project provides some needed dark humor, nukes are still scary and especially so when disarming them with nothing but a hacksaw and testing equipment.

Thanks to [Daniel Gooch] for the tip.

Regular ding-dong doorbells are fun and all, but it can be nice to put something a little more special by your front door. To that end, [Arpan Mondal] built this neat little piano doorbell to make visiting his home just a touch more fun.

The heart of the build is an ESP32 microcontroller. It’s responsible for reading the state of five 3D printed piano keys: three white, two black. It’s nowhere near a full octave, but for a doorbell, it’s enough. When a key is pressed, the ESP32 plays a short audio sample embedded within the program code itself. This is done with the help of a PAM8403 audio amplifier module, which jacks up the output to drive the doorbell speaker loud enough to be heard throughout the home. It’s not exactly studio quality audio, but for a doorbell, it sounds pretty solid.

If you’re looking for a fun and easy build to make your home just a little bit more whimsical, it’s hard to beat something like this. Your musical friends will love it—they might even develop an intro riff of their very own. We’ve featured some other fun doorbell builds before, too—the best of which are the Halloween projects.

[Moby Pixel] wanted to build a fun MIDI controller. In the end, he didn’t build it just once, but twice—with the aim of finding out which microcontroller was most fit for this musical purpose. Pitted against each other? The ESP32 and Raspberry Pi Pico.

The MIDI controller itself is quite fetching. It’s built with a 4 x 4 array of arcade buttons to act as triggers for MIDI notes or events. They’re assembled in a nice wooden case with a lovely graphic wrap on it. The buttons themselves are wired to a microcontroller, which is then responsible for sending MIDI data to other devices.

At this point, the project diverges. Originally, [Moby Pixel] set the device up to work with an ESP32 using wireless MIDI over Bluetooth. However, he soon found a problem. Musical performance is all about timing, and the ESP32 setup was struggling with intermittent latency spikes that would ruin the performance. Enter the Raspberry Pi Pico using MIDI over USB. The hardwired solution eliminated the latency problems and made the controller far more satisfying to use.

There may be solutions to the latency issue with the wireless ESP32 setup, be they in code, hardware configuration, or otherwise. But if you want to play with the most accuracy and the minimum fuss, you’ll probably prefer the hardwired setup.

Latency is a vibe killer in music as we’ve explored previously.

Over on Hackaday.io there’s a fun and playful write-up for a fun and playful project — the Piko, an ESP32 powered smartwatch.

Our hackers [Iloke Alusala], [Lulama Lingela], and [Rafael Cardoso] teamed up to design and manufacture this wrist-worn fitness wearable. Made from an ESP32 Beetle C6 and using an attached accelerometer with simple thresholds the Piko can detect if you’re idle, walking, jogging, or sprinting; and at the same time count your steps.

The team 3D printed the requisite parts in PLA using the printer in their university makerspace. In addition to the ESP32 and printed parts, the bill of materials includes a 240×240 IPS TFT LCD display, a LIS331HH triple-axis accelerometer, a 200 mAh battery, and of course, a watch strap.

Demonstrating splendid attention to detail, and inspired by the aesthetic of the Tamagotchi and pixel art, the Piko mimics your current activity with a delightful array of hand-drawn animations on its display. Should you want to bring a similar charm to your own projects, all the source is available under the MIT license.

If you’re interested in smartwatch technology be sure to check out our recent articles: Smartwatches Could Flatten The Curve Of The Next Pandemic and Custom Smartwatch Makes Diabetes Monitoring Easier For Kids.

Some hacks just tickle the brain in a very particular way. They’re, for a change, not overly engineered; they’re just elegant, anachronistic, and full of mischief. That’s exactly what [Frans] pulls off with A Gentleman’s Orrery, a tiny, simple clockwork solar system. Composed of shiny brass and the poise of 18th-century craftsmanship, it hides a modern secret: there’s barely any clockwork inside. You can build it yourself.

Peek behind the polished face and you’ll find a mechanical sleight of hand. This isn’t your grandfather’s gear-laden planetarium. Instead of that, it operates on a pared-down system that relies on a stepper motor, driving planetary movement through a 0.8 mm axle nested inside a 1 mm brass tube. That micro-mechanical coupling, aided by a couple of bevel gears, manages to rotate the Moon just right, including its orientation. Most of the movement relies on clever design, not gear cascades. The real wizardry happens under the hood: a 3D-printed chassis cradles an ESP32-C6, a TTP223 capacitive touch module, STSPIN220 driver, and even a reed switch with magnetic charging.

You can even swap out the brass for a stone shell where the full moon acts as the touch control. It’s tactile, it’s poetic, and therefore, a nice hack for a weekend project. To build it yourself, read [Frans]’ Instructable.

You can buy all sorts of RC cars off the shelf, but doing so won’t teach you a whole lot. Alternatively, you could follow [TRDB]’s example, and design your own from scratch.

The Lizard, as it is known, is a fun little RC car. It’s got a vaguely Formula 1-inspired aesthetic, and looks fetching with the aid of two-tone 3D printed parts. It’s designed for speed and handling, with a rear-wheel-drive layout and sprung suspension at all four corners to soak up the bumps. The majority of the vehicle is 3D printed in PETG, including the body and the gearbox and differential. However, some suspension components are made in TPU for greater flexibility and resistance to impact. [TRDB] specified commercial off-the-shelf wheels to provide good grip that couldn’t easily be achieved with 3D-printed tires. An ESP32 is responsible for receiving commands from [TRDB’s] custom RC controller running the same microcontroller. It sends commands to the speed controller that runs the Lizard’s brushed DC motor from a 3S lithium-polymer battery.

The final product looks sleek and handles well. It also achieved a GPS-verified top speed of 48 km/h as per [TRDB’s] testing. We’ve seen some other great DIY RC cars over the years, too, like this example that focuses on performance fundamentals. Video after the break.

Plenty of consumer goods, from passenger vehicles to toys to electronics, get tossed out prematurely for all kinds of reasons. Repairable damage, market trends, planned obsolescence, and bad design can all lead to an early sunset on something that might still have some useful life in it. This was certainly the case for a sound system that [Bill] found — despite a set of good speakers, the poor design of the hardware combined with some damage was enough for the owner to toss it. But [Bill] took up the challenge to get it back in working order again.

The main problem with this unit is that of design. It relies on a remote control to turn it on and operate everything, and if that breaks or is lost, the entire unit won’t even power on. Tracing the remote back to the control board reveals a 15-pin connector, and some other audio sleuths online have a few ways of using this port to control the system without the remote.

[Bill] found a few mistakes that needed to be corrected, and was eventually able to get an ESP8266 (and eventually an ESP32) to control the unit thanks largely to the fact that it communicates using a slightly modified I2C protocol.

There were a few pieces of physical damage to correct, too. First, the AC power cable had been cut off which was simple enough to replace, but [Bill] also found that a power connector inside the unit was loose as well. With that taken care of he has a perfectly functional and remarkably inexpensive sound system ready for movies or music. There are some other options available for getting a set of speakers blasting tunes again as well, like building the amplifier for them from scratch from the get-go.

A terrarium is a little piece of the living world captured in a small enclosure you can pop on your desk or coffee table at home. If you want to keep it as alive as possible, though, you might like to implement some controls. That’s precisely what [yotitote] did with their smart terrarium build.

At the heart of the build is an ESP32 microcontroller. It’s armed with temperature and humidity sensors to detect the state of the atmosphere within the terrarium itself. However, it’s not just a mere monitor. It’s able to influence conditions by activating an ultrasonic fogger to increase humidity (which slightly impacts temperature in turn). There are also LED strips, which the ESP32 controls in order to try and aid the growth of plants within, and a small OLED screen to keep an eye on the vital signs.

It’s a simple project, but one that serves as a basic starting point that could be readily expanded as needed. It wouldn’t take much to adapt this further, such as by adding heating elements for precise temperature control, or more advanced lighting systems. These could be particularly useful if you intend your terrarium to support, perhaps, reptiles, in addition to tropical plant life.

Indeed, we’ve seen similar work before, using a Raspberry Pi to create a positive environment to keep geckos alive! Meanwhile, if you’re cooking up your own advanced terrarium at home, don’t hesitate to let us know.

Garage doors! You could get out of your vehicle and open and close them yourself, but that kinda sucks. It’s much preferable to have them raise and lower courtesy some mechanical contrivance, and even better if that is controlled via the web. [Juan Schiavoni] shows us how to achieve the latter with their latest project.

The web-based controller is based around a Xiao ESP32 microcontroller board, chosen for its baked-in WiFi connectivity. It’s set up to host its own web interface which you can login to with a password via a browser. If you have the correct authorization, you can then hit a button to open or close the garage door.

To interface the ESP32 with the garage door itself, [Juan] went the easy route. To trigger opening or closing the door, the ESP32 merely flicks an IO pin to toggle a transistor, which is hooked up to the button of the original garage door opener. Meanwhile, the ESP32 is also hooked up with a magnetic switch which is activated by a magnet on the garage door itself. This serves as a crude indicator as to the current status of the door—whether currently open or closed. This is crucial to ensure the indicated door status shown in the web app remains synced with the status of the door in reality.

It’s a simple project, and reminds us that we needn’t always do things the hard way. [Juan] could have figured out how to hook the ESP32 up with some radio chips to emulate the original garage door opener, but why bother? hooking it up to the original remote was far easier and more reliable anyway. We’ve seen a good few garage door hacks over the years; if you’ve got your own unique take on this classic, don’t hesitate to notify the tipsline!

[Thanks to Stillman for the tip!]

Today we are happy to present a web-based GUI for making a web-based GUI! If you’re a programmer then web front-end development might not be your bag. But a web-based graphical user interface (GUI) for administration and reporting for your microcontroller device can look very professional and be super useful. The Mongoose Wizard can help you develop a device dashboard for your ESP32-based project.

In this article (and associated video) the Mongoose developers run you through how to get started with their technology. They help you get your development environment set up, create your dashboard layout, add a dashboard page, add a device settings page, add an over-the-air (OTA) firmware update page, build and test the firmware, and attach the user-interface controls to the hardware. The generated firmware includes an embedded web server for serving your dashboard and delivering its REST interface, pretty handy.

You will find no end of ESP32-based projects here at Hackaday which you could potentially integrate with Mongoose. We think the OTA support is an excellent feature to have, but of course there are other ways of supporting that functionality.

Thanks to [Toly] for this tip.

The remote for [Dillan Stock]’s TV broke, so he built a remote. Not just as a replacement but as something new. For some of us, there was a glorious time in the early 2000s when a smart remote was needed and there were options you could buy off the shelf. Just one handy button next to the screen had a macro programmed that would turn on the receiver, DVD player, and TV, and then configure it with the right inputs. However, the march of technological convenience has continued and nowadays soundbars turn on just in time and the TV auto switches the input. Many devices are (for better or worse) connected to WiFi, allowing all sorts of automation.

[Dillan] was lucky enough that his devices were connected to his home assistant setup. So this remote is an ESP32 running ESPHome. These automations could be triggered by your phone or via voice assistant. What is more interesting is watching [Dillan] go through the design process. Deciding what buttons there should be, where they should be placed, and how the case would snap together takes real effort. The design uses all through-hole components except for the ESP32 which is a module.

This isn’t the first thing [Dillan] has made with an ESP32, as he previously revamped a non-standard smart lamp with the versatile dev board. The 3d printable files for the remote are free available. Video after the break.

You know how it is. You’re all cozy in bed but not quite ready to doze off. You’re reading Hackaday (Hackaday is your go-to bedtime reading material, right?) or you’re binge-watching your latest reality TV obsession on your tablet. You feel the tablet growing heavier and heavier as your arms fatigue from holding it inches above your face. You consider the embarrassment you’ll endure from explaining how you injured your nose as the danger of dropping the tablet gradually increases. The struggle is real.

[Will Dana] has been engineering his way out of this predicament for a few years now, and with the recent upgrade to his iPad suspension system he is maximizing his laziness, but not without putting in a fair amount of hard work first.

The first iteration of the device worked on a manual pulley system whereby an iPad was suspended from the ceiling over his bed on three cords. Pulling on a cord beside the bed would raise the bracket used for holding the iPad out of the way while not in use. This new iteration takes that pesky cord pulling out of the user’s hands, replacing it with a motorized winch. A spot of dark ink on one of the cords in combination with a light sensor helps to calibrate the system so that the ESP32 which controls it always knows the proper limits of operation.

Of course, if, like [Will], you’re using an ESP32, and your room is already fully controlled by a voice interface, you may as well integrate the two. After all, there is no sense in wasting precious energy by pressing buttons. Utter a simple command to Alexa once you’re tucked in, and it’s time for hands-free entertainment.

We’ve covered several of [Will]’s previous creations, such as his Motorized Relay Computer and Harry Potter-inspired Sorting Hat.

The Star Trek tricorder was a good example of a McGuffin. It did anything needed to support the plot or, in some cases, couldn’t do things also in support of the plot. We know [SirGalaxy] was thinking about the tricorder when he named the Tinycorder, but the little device has a number of well-defined features. You can see a brief video of it working below the break.

The portable device has a tiny ESP32 and a battery. The 400×240 display is handy, but has low power consumption. In addition to the sensors built into the ESP32, the Tinycorder has an AS7341 light sensor, an air quality sensor, and a weather sensor. An odd combination, but like its namesake, it can do lots of unrelated things.

The whole thing goes together in a two-part printed case. This is one of those projects where you might not want an exact copy, but you very well might use it as a base to build your own firmware. Even [SirGalaxy] has plans for future developments, such as adding a buzzer and a battery indicator.

This physically reminded us of those ubiquitous component testers. That another multi-purpose tester that started simple and gets more features through software.

[Bill Dudley] had a problem. He had an Onkyo AV receiver that did a great job… until it didn’t. A DSP inside failed. When that happened, the main microprocessor running the show decided it wouldn’t play ball without the DSP operational. [Bill] knew the bulk of the audio hardware was still good, it was just the brains that were faulty. Thus started a 4-month operation to resurrect the Onkyo receiver with new intelligence instead.

[Bill’s] concept was simple. Yank the dead DSP, and the useless microprocessor as well. In their place, an ESP32 would be tasked with running things. [Bill] no longer cared if the receiver had DSP abilities or even the ability to pass video—he just wanted to use it as the quality audio receiver that it was.

His project report steps through all the hard work he went through to get things operational again. He had to teach the ESP32 to talk to the front panel display, the keys, and the radio tuner. More challenging was the core audio processor—the obscure Renaisys R2A15218FP. However, by persevering, [Bill] was able to get everything up and running, and even added some new functionality—including Internet radio and Bluetooth streaming.

It’s a heck of a build, and [Bill] ended up with an even more functional audio receiver at the end of it all. Bravo, we say. We love to see older audio gear brought back to life, particularly in creative ways. Meanwhile, if you’ve found your own way to save a piece of vintage audio hardware, don’t hesitate to let us know!

When was the last time you saw a computer actually outlast your weekend trip – and then some? Enter the Evertop, a portable IBM XT emulator powered by an ESP32 that doesn’t just flirt with low power; it basically lives off the grid. Designed by [ericjenott], hacker with a love for old-school computing and survivalist flair, this machine emulates 1980s PCs, runs DOS, Windows 3.0, and even MINIX, and stays powered for hundreds of hours. It has a built-in solar panel and 20,000mAh of battery, basically making it an old-school dream in a new-school shell.

What makes this build truly outstanding – besides the specs – is how it survives with no access to external power. It sports a 5.83-inch e-ink display that consumes zilch when static, hardware switches to cut off unused peripherals (because why waste power on a serial port you’re not using?), and a solar panel that pulls 700mA in full sun. And you guessed it – yes, it can hibernate to disk and resume where you left off. The Evertop is a tribute to 1980s computing, and a serious tool to gain some traction at remote hacker camps.

For the full breakdown, the original post has everything from firmware details to hibernation circuitry. Whether you’re a retro purist or an off-grid prepper, the Evertop deserves a place on your bench. Check out [ericjenott]’s project on Github here.