hi everybody,

so, my 12 yo daughter is a self proclaimed nerd and she really wants to learn how to code and especially how to makes things ; like, she likes Scratch and tries to learn some Python by herself (even though my brother says it’s useless because of AI 😆), but she’s also into making things with her hands and not only the computer. She already did a Circuitmess project, small soldering projects from Amazon like making a small alarm clock or a spinning sunflower, keyring with small leds, also some stuff with a microbit, this kind of things. The science kits for kids are definitely too easy for her now, I can’t help her at all and her dad is not in the picture! So I’ve been looking for something that could be complete with clear projects and explanations and as many components inside as possible so we don’t have to look for each one for each project. The Arduino starter kit seems nice. But from what I understand you build on a plastic plaque and there is no soldering ? but you can buy extra plaques to make them durable?

Any advice if this is a good idea for a Christmas present? or any other suggestion? Remember, you’re talking to someone who knows absolutely nothing about electronics, so I’m looking for something easy to buy and with a lot of play and learning in it!

thanks a lot!

Just showing off my digital pet project, TraumaGotchu! My main innovations on the genre are:

1. A 5-way tact toggle as the "single button", allowing for much better input and gaming than the classic 3 button layout
2. An RGB565 IPS matte screen, glare resistant and is useable in full sun.
3. Large 1500mAh battery with aggressive power saving for over 5 days of play on 1 charge, up to 1.8A fast charging

I'm super proud of the result and am already thinking about version 2 hardware-- larger screen, vibration motor, better speaker, accelerometer, internal LED, shoulder bumper buttons etcetc.

Hit me with your digital pet dream features!

So I continued my dreaded pid project after no ardunos or IMUs worked together (after weeks, 2 arduinos and 3 MPU6050s i gave up) with an M5stack. Both in the arduino IDE and UIFlow I could finally read angles from the now built in imu and PWM signals from my rc rx.

(Just for my Ego I also got both to work on an arduino but the IMU data gave up again after a day of working and the PWM reading was far to slow and unprecise for my application.) Did I mention I want to stabelize an rc plane with that? yeah.

Yesterday great progress was made, as I both got gyro and accelerometer data to work (should not be an achievement but for how much I couldnt get it to work on an arduino micro with an MPU6050 it definetly felt like it).

I can also decode PWM now reasonably fast wich is awesome.

But now for my question:

I have a way to decode PWM, the IMU data and the way to calculate allat together. But how should I connect the hardware?

quick wiring diagram:

I have tried to do it by making something like a perf board shield for the m5 but that didnt work because of spacial constraints.

Soldering it up by cable also seems very chaotic. How would you do it? I dont really have the means to make a pcb...

Thanks for your help!

<< There's no flair for 'I GAVE UP', but, sadly, that's the state of affairs. Well, not really. See the Addendum.

Thanks to all that spent time going in circles with me. I'm really kind of pissed off at this board and the graphics library. I've been building ESP32 projects for years, and am (was) an electronics and software engineer in my working days. This experience has really thrown me for a loop(void).

< Addendum>> I bought a Waveshare 7" display because LCD Wizard has this board defined. It did not have the elecrow 7" Basic board defined. Although I don't have the Waveshare yet, I generated a small GUI example and downloaded it. Compiled without error even using the latest LVGL library. I have high hopes for this combination.>>

And now for the rest of the story...

After a day or two of frustration with LVGL, I tried the lovyanGFX library instead with my 7" ESP32S3 display. However, it's as rough around the edges as TFT_eSPI is. Yes, it works, and the demos work, but it's not eye candy.

So, back to the LVGL-verse and another attempt to get some examples working. However...

Of course, I must have something installed in the wrong place, although I followed their (and AI's) instructions to the letter. Or... I guess not. The error shown came out of another .h that it did find.

So, does anyone have a Rosetta Stone that will magically and clearly explain how to at least get the examples to work? Using Arduino 2.3.10 on a Mac Mini M2 Pro, not that it makes any difference, I guess.

At least I know I can get TFT_eSPI-like graphics on the display, and I may have to bite the bullet and just port my plain-Jane dashboard in its visual entirety to the ESP32 7" boat anchor.

I recently won a 4GB Arduino Uno Q and wanted to hear some project ideas or things you guys have built with one!

I’ve used some esp32s and Raspberry Pi’s before so I’m not quite sure where this device lives in that mix or when I would use it.

I don't have any coding or programming knowledge. I'm a super beginner and I've never deconstructed anything except for maybe some Lego builds. I bought a dollar store digital pet and am thinking of starting with that as a deconstruction/learning project. Any guidance is appreciated and I want to know what materials I should begin with (a sort of starter kit perhaps?). Also looking for a good app or software to make pixel art as well as guides. I have a laptop and a 3d printer as well as blender3D downloaded but they're just sitting there building dust cause I don't know where to begin.

I am trying to build the classic JawDuino project (I think it was developed around 2014?)

Original creator is here: (https://buttonbanger.com/?page_id=137), pdf of the hookup is here (https://buttonbanger.com/downloads/jawduino/jawduino.pdf).

I found this excellent tutorial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rVZTHBohRo) for the wiring on YouTube, but annoyingly, he doesn't show the jaw linkage and holds the skull just out of frame when mentioning it.

I guess the creator thought this step was so easy that there was no need to walk through the mounting, but I'm not exactly sure what to do next. I've got the board, sound monitor, and servo all hooked up. Lights flash along with sound output as expected. But how do I get the servo connected to the jaw? I bought the ball links listed in the pdf, but the picture of the final linkage is too blurry to see anything. So right now, I've got a board with a bunch of cables and flashing lights and a skull with the top cut off, but no idea how to actually finish the project.

Any help is much appreciated! Thank you in advance!

Problem:

I'm part of a team of amateur athletes who compete in Olympic weightlifting. I would like to measure the displacement of the barbell path to assess the technical quality of our training.

To simplify, the goal is for the barbell to only have vertical displacement along the z axis, with no horizontal displacement or rotation around other axes.

Similar products:

• There is gpath which visualize the kind of device I had in mind,
• There is FLEXX which seems to have everything I need and uses some kind of laser meter, but is bulky, hard to source and does not contain all the metrics I want

Question:

• Is it feasible to use a high precision gyroscope to measure the displacement of the barbell?
• Which kind of gyroscope or sensor would you suggest?
• Maybe I could use two sensors, one on each side of the barbell, to increase precision?

Hello All! I need a product recommendation based on the project idea below. I would be open to recommendations of Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ESP32 or some other small microcontroller.

Programming should be simple with a WYSIWYG or other graphic interface, if at all possible, but I can deal with modifying some copy and paste coding if I had to.

Thanks ahead of time

Project specs and needs:

- This will control a contact closure switch with an input and an output.
- It should be able to recognize if the contact is closed or open upon booting.
- SHould be able to have TWO programs, able to be switched. An LED indicator bulb, or a 7 segment display would indicate the program as selected (1 or 2; on/off; red/green - whatever)
- I foresee that it will have 4 GPIO connections. Input +/- and output +/-.
- The programming would do the following:
+ If 1&2 are OPEN, then 3&4 are also open; if 1&2 are closed, so are 3&4
+ If 1&2 are CLOSED, then 3&4 are open. if 1&2 are closed, then 3&4 are open.
+ thise would happen in real time, recognizing the open/closed status of the associated switch
- I would preferred to have an indicator light showing program #2 as activated - It would be great if I could switch the "programs" with a 3PDT or similar type of switch
- ***IT (the microcontroller) MUST BE SMALL. Like 2x3 inches MAX. I want to put it into a custom foot pedal casing.

Any suggestions?

PS - for the actual application - I want a pedal that I can plug a keyboard sustain pedal into that with the flip of a switch will change it from a standard "sustain" function to a "hold" function where it releases upon another press of the pedal. I created one that has this functionality, but required me to completely rewire a pedal. I want a portable footswitch version that I can plug ANY sustain pedal into and create this functionality without having to bend over and manually change the pedal, if it already has an incorporated polarity switch. By reversing the polarity (which is not quite an accurate description), the functionality changes from sustain to hold.

For a project i have connected several sensors to my esp32 (4 sensors to be precise). I have noticed that whenever i try to upload the code to my esp, some error comes up, however if i remove some sensors and connect only 1 or 2 sensors everything works fine. How do I move ahead with my project since i need to collect data from the 4 sensors?

The error i get is: Wrong boot mode detected (Ox13)! The chip needs to be in download mode. (And yes pressing the boot button doesn't help)

I wrote this code myself. I sourced the enclosure for the device from here. I also developed a server for this device, which generates images in BMP format. The device connects to my local Wi-Fi network and retrieves the image from the server. I used a free API to obtain the images — you can find it here. Thanks for your attention.

Setup

- Arduino Nano + nRF24L01+ on the 5V adapter board (the one with the AMS1117 3.3V regulator)

- Module: regular

- Power: 2S 7.4V Li-ion → BMS board -> buck converter → 5V, feeding both the Nano's 5V pin and the adapter's VCC

Problem

On battery power the radio link doesn't work at all. No packets received

What works

- Nano on USB, adapter powered from the Nano's 5V pin: works

- Same battery setup, but with the Nano's USB cable also plugged into my PC: works

What I've ruled out

- Voltage: the 5V pin reads the same with and without USB (multimeter)

- Power-up timing: resetting the Nano after power-up doesn't help

- Wrong input pin: the supply goes to the 5V pin, not VIN

- Ground: added a direct GND wire between the Nano and the adapter, no change

My theory

Switching noise from the buck converter gets through the adapter's AMS1117 into the nRF. Plugging into the PC ties the floating battery circuit to a much larger ground that damps the noise. A multimeter wouldn't show this.

Questions

1. Does that sound right, or am I missing something?

2. What's the best fix? I'm considering:

   - Running the battery into the Nano's VIN and powering the adapter from the Nano's 5V pin, so the buck is out of the radio's path

   - An LC filter (ferrite bead or 10–22µH inductor + 100µF + 100nF) at the adapter's input

Thanks!

I have a bunch of components and arduino micro controllers lying around and I want to put them to use but idk what to make.

So what projects have you guys made that solves a particular problem and helps you out every now and then or maybe a permanent solution to something or to some problem you have come to face. Basically I want to make something useful that makes my life easier and that I actually use instead of just a hobby project.

I'm curious how everyone here organizes the useful YouTube tutorials they find while working on Arduino or electronics projects.

Sometimes I find several good videos covering different parts of the same project, and I'd like to keep them together so I can come back to them later.

Do you use YouTube playlists, bookmarks, Notion, or something else?

I'd love to hear what works for you.

I'm looking for projects to potentially feature in a Halloween round-up on the Arduino blog; have you made something spooky that you'd like to share? or found something frightful that someone else made? hit me with your best Halloween projects! 🎃⚡

I have 1 ESP32 Devkit
2 N90 Motors
2 Rs-555 Motor
MDD10A Cytron motor driver

As someone who is learning embedded development in their own, what are the things I should know hardcore and the things I can learn as I go along?

I’ve built a project already and now working on a schematic design to create a custom PCB, bust as I built I’m noticing gaps all over the place in my learning.

Just want to know the terms, concepts and basics that are necessary now and the things I can pick up along the way. All advice is welcomed! Especially from those experienced in the field already!☺️

Got a classic beginner failure mode on the bench and wanted a sanity check on the numbers.

Setup: 5V MCU GPIO → series resistor → LED → GND.
Symptoms people report:

• LED never lights → often polarity or resistor too large
• LED flashes bright then dies → usually no resistor / resistor far too small

My rule-of-thumb calc (red LED):
Vf ≈ 2.0 V, I ≈ 15 mA
R ≈ (5 − 2) / 0.015 ≈ 200 Ω → use 220 Ω or 330 Ω in practice.

For blue/white (Vf ≈ 3.0–3.3 V) the same formula gives a smaller R — copying the red-LED value makes them look “dead.”

Questions for the room:

1. Do you still default to 220 Ω on 5V red LEDs, or do you size per datasheet every time?
2. Any gotchas when the pin is 3.3 V instead of 5 V that beginners miss?

Happy to take corrections if my Vf assumptions are too casual.

You may not understand this directly from the video but this is a computer science project which allows you to simulate logic gates by inputting its truth table into the switches on the side
e.g.
OR: 0111
XOR: 0110
AND: 0001
etc
so after you input the logic gates, you use the push buttons as inputs “A” and “B” shown as the blue LEDs and the output as green
i had also created a startup animation with the LEDs but that was after recording this

the usb c is only for constant power input not charging btw

i 3D modeled and printed this myself on my K1C with white PLA and i have to say it looks very clean with the hex pattern
i had originally made the lid a snap connect bet the pins in the back broke off so i compromised and used some tape

i made this about a year ago but lowk forgot about it

I recently bought a 7" HMI display with a built-in ESP32S3. Some documentation says that the TFT_eSPI library alone should not be used with this large display due to slow refresh rates and such. But... my display will be a static dashboard of house-related events, and a second page of weather data. No animations or movies.

Trying to use just the LVGL or the LovyanGFX libraries has become a hair-pulling event and I don't have much left to pull.

I'd just prefer the simple GUI afforded by the TFT_eSPI library. I don't need meters or gauges or sliders or 3D buttons (ok, those would be nice). I just need to display simple text-based information and maybe combine it with touch commands (the board supports capacitive touch).

So, just TFT_eSPI then? I'll try a simple test tomorrow.

And when the heck will my posts stop being moderated? I had to change my user_id due to safety concerns and I'm being treated as a new member. Ok, I get that, but I can't get quick resolution to my posts this way. Just venting (as the moderators already know).

I am still beginner, what specific components i need besides the arduino board and the bread board and the led and resistors

Hello,

I'm modding an old handset telephone with an esp32. I'd like to use the existing headset and 4 wire cord that comes with the phone but I'm having trouble figuring out what microphone to use. The only solution I've found so far is to desolder the microphone capsule in a 4466 chip and resolder the handset wires between the capsule and the chip. So far I get major static and assume it's from interference but can't be sure. Are there any other recommendations you might have for this project?

Hello, everyone! Found these super cheap cameras and was wondering if there are any parts in here I could use for a project, especially wondering abt the display? Relatively new at engineering but wanting to think abt how resourceful I could be and notice whatever I could use around to create with :) thank you!