ESP32

587 Articles

An ESP32 Delivers Perfect Slot Car Control

September 28, 2024 by 3 Comments

If your memory of slot cars as a childhood toy is of lightweight controllers with wire-wound rheostats inside, then you’re many years behind the state of the art when it comes to competitive slot car racing. In that world the full force of modern electronics has been brought to keeping the car on the road, and as an example here’s [Maker Fabio] with a cutting edge controller that has an ESP32 at its heart.

It’s obvious that a huge amount of attention has gone into both the physical design of the unit and its software, and the result speaks for itself. The trigger sits on a proper bearing, and the sensor is a Hall-effect device on the PCB. The firmware was written in the Arduino IDE, and through the trigger and a rotary encoder all of its options can be configured on a small OLED display. Individual settings can be configured for each car, and we’re treated to a full explanation of this in the video.

We are told that the files for both software and hardware will be released in due course, as this is still a work in progress for the moment. The video meanwhile provides ample demonstration, so we look forward to the release.

It’s a surprise to find relatively few projects from the slot car world on these pages, given the amount of potential there is in them for electronic improvement. Here’s one from a few years ago though.

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Large Language Models On Small Computers

September 7, 2024 by 6 Comments

As technology progresses, we generally expect processing capabilities to scale up. Every year, we get more processor power, faster speeds, greater memory, and lower cost. However, we can also use improvements in software to get things running on what might otherwise be considered inadequate hardware. Taking this to the extreme, while large language models (LLMs) like GPT are running out of data to train on and having difficulty scaling up, [DaveBben] is experimenting with scaling down instead, running an LLM on the smallest computer that could reasonably run one.

Of course, some concessions have to be made to get an LLM running on underpowered hardware. In this case, the computer of choice is an ESP32, so the dataset was reduced from the trillions of parameters of something like GPT-4 or even hundreds of billions for GPT-3 down to only 260,000. The dataset comes from the tinyllamas checkpoint, and llama.2c is the implementation that [DaveBben] chose for this setup, as it can be streamlined to run a bit better on something like the ESP32. The specific model is the ESP32-S3FH4R2, which was chosen for its large amount of RAM compared to other versions since even this small model needs a minimum of 1 MB to run. It also has two cores, which will both work as hard as possible under (relatively) heavy loads like these, and the clock speed of the CPU can be maxed out at around 240 MHz.

Admittedly, [DaveBben] is mostly doing this just to see if it can be done since even the most powerful of ESP32 processors won’t be able to do much useful work with a large language model. It does turn out to be possible, though, and somewhat impressive, considering the ESP32 has about as much processing capability as a 486 or maybe an early Pentium chip, to put things in perspective. If you’re willing to devote a few more resources to an LLM, though, you can self-host it and use it in much the same way as an online model such as ChatGPT.

A small handheld word game called Batch Craze, where one player tries to get another to guess the word on the screen.

2024 Tiny Games Contest: Batch Craze Is Portable Charades, Kind Of

September 3, 2024 by No comments

So there’s this commercial electronic game out there called Catch Phrase, which, as the game’s own catch phrase explains, is the game that’s played one word at a time. See, a word comes up on the screen, and you have to get the other person or team to guess what it is using gestures and such before the timer goes off. There are a bunch of rules, like you can’t say a word that rhymes, give the first letter, or the number of syllables.

Well, [ahixson1230] and company got their hands on the After Dark NSFW version but found it lacking in the edginess department. So naturally, [ahixson1230] was inspired to build a better one, with a touch screen in lieu of buttons, and a way for players to suggest words to be added to the list. In this version, a player presses anywhere on the screen to start the game, and a random word or phrase comes up. They act it out, get the other person to guess, and then pass the unit over to continue the fun.

Batch Craze is based on the Cheap Yellow Display, aka the ESP32-2432S028R, and [ahixson1230] highly recommends [witnessmenow]’s excellent resource on the subject. As of this writing, [ahixson1230] is still trying to get the speaker to work, and welcomes any help. Can you assist?

There’s still time to enter the 2024 Tiny Games Contest! You have until Tuesday, September 10th, so head on over to Hackaday.IO and get started!

2024 Tiny Games Challenge

3D Printed RC Crane Has Epic 3-Foot Reach

September 3, 2024 by 8 Comments

Have you ever looked out the window at traffic and seen a giant crane driving alone the road? Have you ever wanted a little 3D printed version you could drive for yourself without the risk of demolishing your neighbors house? Well, [ProfessorBoots] has just the build for you.

The build, inspired by the Liebherr LTM 1300, isn’t just a little RC car that looks like a crane. It’s a real working crane, too! So you can drive this thing around, and you can park it up. Then you can deploy the fully working stabilizer booms like you’re some big construction site hot shot. From there, you can relish in the subtle joy of extending the massive three-foot boom while the necessary counterweight automatically locks itself in place. You can then use the crane to lift and move small objects to your heart’s content.

The video describes how the build works in intimate detail, from the gears and linkages all the way up to the grander assembly. It’s no simple beast either, with ten gearmotors, four servos, and two ESP32s used for control. If you really need to build one for yourself, [ProfessorBoots] sells his plans on his website.

We’ve seen great stuff from [ProfessorBoots] before—he’s come a long way from his skid steer design last year. Video after the break.

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CL-32: The Minimum Possible For A Useful Handheld Computer

September 1, 2024 by 19 Comments

For almost as long as there have been microcomputers, there have been attempts with varying success to make tiny handheld microcomputers. Sometimes these have been very good, and other times they’ve missed the mark in some way. Latest to find its way to us is the CL-32 from [Moosepr], it’s a handheld computer with an ESP32 as brains, an electronic paper display, and a QWERTY keyboard in its smart printed case.

The hardware is relatively standard, save for the keyboard which is a dome-switch design in which the membrane carrying the domes is hand-made. We like this, and don’t think we’ve seen anyone else doing that. Expansion is taken care of by a novel socket arrangement in which boards nestle in a recess in the surface. Some experimentation was required as always to drive the display, but the result is a functional computer.

Sadly there’s little detail in terms of what the software will be, and no hardware files as yet. But what we can see is promising enough to make this one to watch, so we’ll look forward to what they come up with. If an ESP32 OS is a problem, there’s always badge.team, who have been continuously improving theirs since 2017.

A Lunar Lander-meets-Flappy-Bird game where you must rescue puppies from a Moon base, on an OLED display.

2024 Tiny Games Contest: Save The Stranded Puppies Of Moon Base P!

August 19, 2024 by 4 Comments

Usually, if something is tiny, it’s probably pretty cute to boot. [Luke J. Barker]’s lunar navigation game is no exception to this unwritten rule. And as far as contest rules go, this one seems to fit rather nicely, as it is tiny on more than one level.

Moon Base P (for Puppies) is built upon a XIAO ESP32-C3, an SSD1306 OLED display, and a single button to keep the BOM tidy. In this riveting side-scroller which sort of marries Lunar Lander and Flappy Bird, the top bar is always yellow and displays fuel and such, and the bottom is a rough, blue lunar surface over which you must maneuver your lunar lander. Keep pressing the button to stay up and avoid mountains, or let off the gas to cool the engine.

Fly that thing over the terrain, avoiding stray meteors and picking up free fuel, and then land gently at Moon Base P to save the stranded puppies. But you must keep flying — touch down anywhere but where you’re supposed to, and it’s game over! Once you’ve picked up the puppies, you must fly them safely onward to the rescue pod in order to win. Don’t miss the walk-through and demo after the break.

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The Sunchronizer Keeps Your Solar Panel Aligned

August 15, 2024 by 34 Comments

In the past few years, the price-per-watt for solar panels has dropped dramatically. This has led to a number of downstream effects beyond simple cost savings. For example, many commercial solar farms have found that it’s now cheaper to install a larger number of panels in fixed positions, rather than accepting the extra cost, maintenance, and complexity of a smaller number panels that use solar tracking to make up the difference. But although this practice is fading for large-scale power production, there are still some niche uses for solar tracking. Like [Fabian], if you need to maximize power production with a certain area or a small number of panels you’ll wan to to build a solar tracker.

[Fabian]’s system is based on a linear actuator which can tilt one to four panels (depending on size) in one axis only. This system is an elevation tracker, which is the orientation generally with respect to latitude, with a larger elevation angle needed in the winter and a lower angle in the summer. [Fabian] also designs these to be used in places like balconies where this axis can be more easily adjusted. The actuator is controlled with an ESP32 which, when paired with a GPS receiver, can automatically determine the sun’s position for a given time of day and adjust the orientation of the panel to provide an ideal elevation angle on a second-by-second basis. The ESP32 also allows seamless integration with home automation systems like SmartHome as well.

Although this system only tracks the sun in one axis right now, [Fabian] is working on support for a second axis which mounts the entire array on a rotating table similar to an automatic Lazy Susan. This version also includes a solar tracking sensor which measures solar irradiance in the direction the panel faces to verify that the orientation of the panel is maximizing power output for a given amount of sunlight. Tracking the sun in two axes can be a complicated problem to solve, but some solutions we’ve seen don’t involve any GPS, programming, or even control electronics at all.

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