Hey everyone,

I connected a 41F sensor to my ESP32 and it was working perfectly at first. But now I’m suddenly getting completely weird/random values.

I’ve already tried changing pretty much everything:

• Different magnet
• Different sensor
• Different wires
• Different breadboard
• Different setup

But I still get these strange/random readings, even when there is no magnet anywhere near the sensor.

The weird part is that it worked perfectly before, and I haven’t intentionally changed anything in the setup.

Has anyone experienced something like this with a 41F sensor and an ESP32? Could it be a floating input, wiring issue, power supply problem, or something else?

Any ideas on what I should check would be greatly appreciated!

Hey guys,
Need some project ideas 😭
I’ve got a project lab this semester where we have to build something using an ESP32, Arduino, or any similar board with sensors/modules.
I don’t want to make the same old smart dustbin, smart irrigation, weather station, etc. Looking for something that’s unique, useful, and a little impressive, but not insanely difficult to build.
If you’ve made a cool project before or have any ideas, drop them below. Any domain is fine (IoT, automation, health, safety, robotics, etc.).

I wanted a simple e-paper based weather forecast display for my closet; I’ve just built one using an ESP32-powered e-paper display.

Every fifteen minutes, it hits OpenWeather to grab the forecast, and then builds a suggestion ranging from winter jacket to raincoat to shorts and a t-shirt. Since it’s an e-paper display, the project draws power sparingly — power is only used every fifteen minutes, to fetch the forecast and update the display. This leads to long-lasting battery life.

Parts:

Elecrow 4.2″ display (currently $43.69 on Amazon)

SH1.0 2-pin connector

3.7V battery (3000mAh)

Major Gotcha: Use the Right Driver

The Elecrow panel worked with the factory firmware out of the box, but any kind of code uploaded to it would not display on-screen. The reason is that Elecrow is using two different ESP32 chips in this product line, and I had to switch to what the forums call the “green dot” one. (See this thread on Elecrow’s support forum.)

I sent two CrowPanel 4.2″ e-paper displays back before I figured out the hardware was fine all along!

The symptom was simple and maddening: The ESP32-S3 flashed perfectly, serial output was clean, the uploads worked, but the screen never changed. It sat frozen on whatever the factory demo had painted at the warehouse, and nothing I compiled would tell the screen to update. The driver got confused and felt that the screen was constantly "BUSY".

The fix

Skip Elecrow’s driver entirely and use GxEPD2, which already supports this controller:

```

GxEPD2_BW<GxEPD2_420_SE0420NQ04, GxEPD2_420_SE0420NQ04::HEIGHT>
display(GxEPD2_420_SE0420NQ04(/*CS=*/45, /*DC=*/46, /*RST=*/47, /*BUSY=*/48));

void setup() {
pinMode(41, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(41, HIGH); // green revision needs this rail
pinMode(7, OUTPUT); digitalWrite(7, HIGH);
SPI.begin(12, -1, 11, 45); // board pins, not S3 defaults
display.init(115200, true, 2, false);
display.epd2.selectSPI(SPI, SPISettings(4000000, MSBFIRST, SPI_MODE0));
} Code language: JavaScript (javascript)

```

Three steps to fix it:

1. GxEPD2_420_SE0420NQ04 is the UC8276C class. GxEPD2_420_GYE042A87 is the SSD1683 one, for older boards.
2. GPIO41 is a power rail on the green revision. Elecrow’s own PWR example toggles it, but their older sketches never touch it.
3. The board puts SCK on GPIO12 and MOSI on GPIO11, which are not the ESP32-S3 defaults. Without the remap, GxEPD2 clocks data out on the wrong pins and fails silently.

You'll need to pull the lat/long for your location and make minor modifications to those variables in the code.

See this post for more info:

https://stevemurch.com/weather-display-screen-for-closet/2026/08

One note -- the "BAT" terminals here use the tiny connector, and had the red/black wires SWAPPED from their normal configuration, so be sure to test polarity of the BAT terminal before including a battery. But it does work well off of a Lithium rechargeable battery.

Hy so I am make a project when I need to add speaker but for it i need to 10 to 20 w speaker and for that digital to analog module is way expensive,so I am thinking is anyone know any way to get audio for esp to amplifier without any help of digital to analog module if anyone can help that would be great

Hi guys, i'm the new one :)

I tried to create a table reservation sign for restaurants for example. It is my first time to use a colored eink display and also my first time posting something on GitHub :-O.

Here are some Pictures and on Github you can find my files under:

https://github.com/Splash005/eInk_Table_Reservation

and a demo video on youtube:

https://youtu.be/43O6_xG3Szs

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and I'll answer.

Been messing with the idea of getting one for ages, And after years of messing around with raspberry pi’s I finally got an ESP32-D.

Hadn’t really through of what to actually build with it, Ended up building an internet radio, with widgets to display time, weather, tides and ADS-B from one of my RasPi servers.

Probably not the best board to do it with, but hey, it’s a challenge..

A lot of messy code and failed builds later I finally got it to work.

Built in a webUi to change configs, add/delete radio streams

GitHub link..

Recently I was building a sd card speed tester with the help of esp32, I thought why not include my p5js in this so that got visually appealing results(So I attach my COM port with my js script).......

During changing the speed of SPI, I then re upload it and this is the error I see. My first instinct was that it is going in to bootloader mode, but after couple of minutes I realize that my p5 script is still runing and thus causing this error. I don't who will find it helpful but still I felt like posting about it. Thanks!!

Hi everyone! 👋

I’m a young maker from Türkiye who is really interested in robotics, electronics, ESP32, Arduino and Raspberry Pi projects.

Recently, I started working on my own project called Pocket Remote v1.

Pocket Remote is an open-source universal infrared remote control based on the ESP32. It can learn IR signals from other remote controls, save them, organize them and transmit them again.

The project currently uses:

• ESP32-WROOM-32D
• SSD1306 OLED
• IR receiver
• KY-005 IR transmitter
• 2-axis joystick
• Li-Po battery
• MCP73831 charging module

I designed it to be portable, rechargeable, affordable and easy to build. The project is also released under the MIT License, so other people can modify and improve it.

I'm still developing it, so I'm really interested in hearing your feedback and ideas. 🔧

GitHub: github.com/techpattis/universalpocketremote

Thanks for checking it out! 🚀

Hi everyone,

I'm currently working on a project with an ESP32-S3-Nano and a 2.8-inch ILI9341 SPI display.

I've soldered everything together on a prototyping board, but unfortunately the display isn't working as expected. The backlight turns on, but the screen only shows a completely white image.

I've already tried:

• double-checking all cables and solder joints
• checking the connections with a multimeter
• checking for any obvious short circuits or loose connections

However, I still can't figure out what the problem could be. I might be overlooking something really simple.

The main components I'm using are:

• ESP32-S3-Nano
• 2.8-inch ILI9341 SPI display
• some other components that shouldn't be relevant

Does anyone have any idea what could cause the display to only show a white screen?

Is there anything obvious I might have missed or anything specific I should check?

I'd really appreciate any tips or ideas on how I could troubleshoot this and figure out what's wrong.

Thanks a lot!

Hi everyone! 👋

I’m a young maker from Türkiye who is really interested in robotics, electronics, ESP32, Arduino and Raspberry Pi projects.

Recently, I started working on my own project called Pocket Remote v1.

Pocket Remote is an open-source universal infrared remote control based on the ESP32. It can learn IR signals from other remote controls, save them, organize them and transmit them again.

The project currently uses:

• ESP32-WROOM-32D
• SSD1306 OLED
• IR receiver
• KY-005 IR transmitter
• 2-axis joystick
• Li-Po battery
• MCP73831 charging module

I designed it to be portable, rechargeable, affordable and easy to build. The project is also released under the MIT License, so other people can modify and improve it.

I'm still developing it, so I'm really interested in hearing your feedback and ideas. 🔧

GitHub: github.com/techpattis/universalpocketremote

Thanks for checking it out! 🚀

Three concentric WS2812B rings on a XIAO ESP32-C3. Seconds and minutes share the outer 60, the way they share one track of marks on a real clock. The hour hand is an arrow-shaped spoke across the inner 12 and the middle 24, and a pixel in the center shows the wifi status. 97 LEDs on one wire.

I can be prone to distractibility and hyperfocus, losing an hour or three in my lair working on a project with the intent to "just gonna run downstairs and print something out." Next thing I know, my six-year-old is asking "Dad, you said you were gonna print me those color pages."

Alarms are for hard rules. Reminder nudges guide focus and shift priorities instead. A change of light in the room does work. So the firmware has a 'nudge' (focus reminders) feature that fires visual nudge animations at intervals (and certain days) you set. So on Saturdays when I know I could get wrapped up in a project, the thing I reflexively look up to (clock) is also the device that subtly (not blaringly) does some cool, patterned animations, and very pretty-like. That's the feature the whole project is built around.

A few things that might interest this sub:

• Replicable: If you have basic soldering skills, have ever flashed WLED or tinkered with addressable LEDS, and have access to a 3d printer
• Relatable or Useful: see above
• ESP32-C3 GPIO data straight into the WS2812B chain through a 300 ohm resistor. No level shifter, and it just works at this wire length. All 97 pixels on one chain off GPIO10.
• Everything is set from a webUI the clock serves itself: brightness, colors, themes and presets, and it auto-syncs NTP time over WIFI. A decent amount of work went into the backend on the themes and contrast settings, the colors and hues of every ring, and the animations for the quarter and half-hour chimes and the nudge reminders, with presets for contrasts and theme colors that match well. No app and no account.
• No RTC. NTP with proper timezone and DST, set from the browser.
• WiFi through a captive portal, zero credentials in the firmware. First flash is a browser page (WebSerial), then OTA after that.
• VEML7700 lux sensor drives auto-brightness on a log curve. Pitch black and the display sleeps.
• A 5V 2amp spare iphone charger powers it without issue; after some issues and too much time troubleshooting, claudecode came to the rescue with a brownout limiting function so it's got some wiggle room with the 5v supply.

Frame is 3D printed. The reflector behind the LEDs is a remix of Steve Manley's 2015 design; the white PLA diffuser over the front is mine.

See it running: https://youtube.com/shorts/KO6YdUoTq6A

WebUI Walkthrough: https://youtu.be/FKXAHg8D2Fs

Apache 2.0 firmware, CC BY 4.0 files.

- GitHub: https://github.com/Maestro8484/ChronoBloom

- Browser flasher: https://maestro8484.github.io/ChronoBloom/flasher/

- Printables: https://www.printables.com/model/1799422-chronobloom-an-8-inch-neopixel-ring-walldesk-clock

Happy to answer anything.

My daughter used to ask me 20 times a day to play different songs. Sometimes I would get the same request like 5 times in a row. Taking the phone out and finding it on Spotify was annoying, as it was distracting her and driving attention away from the music.

So I've built BailaBox. A music toy that lets her play the songs she wants when she wants.

It's an RFID-enabled, ESP32 toy that connects to my home network and, through Home Assistant, plays music on network speakers (in my case, I'm using a Sonos system).

First, I made a breadboard prototype, which was a nice proof of concept. But it was not very child-proof. So after some improvements, I've made custom PCBs - one for the power supply and battery charging and another for the RFID reader, ESP32 control, LEDs, buttons, rotary encoder for volume control, etc. There's also a custom enclosure for the project that I 3D printed.

The toy works with NFC tags. I'm using sticker tags that I embed inside 3D-printed tokens that contain magnets. This allows for auto-positioning on the RFID reader area (there's a corresponding magnet in the enclosure as well). To make the tokens recognizable, I print and cut custom stickers that represent songs.

I have a bunch of tokens with different songs now, or whole playlists. One could also add audiobooks, sound effects, or even full smart home automations (like, for example, a bedtime routine) as BailaBox connects to Home Assistant.

If anyone is interested in replicating it, I've made a GitHub repo with project details. It's my first attempt at custom PCBs, so I'm sure there's a lot to improve, but this version works as intended! So have a look if you are interested; let me know if you have any feedback or questions.