Month: May 2024

This is fine.

You’ve seen the meme, but did you know there’s a desktop toy?

Of course I bought one. And immediately tore it apart, wired it up to my favorite ESP32-S3 board, and whipped up some code to make it respond to button presses on my Wiz (ESP-NOW) remote.

But I wasn’t satisfied with the result and was determined to find a way to make everything fit inside the battery compartment. I had some Sparkle IOT ESP32-C3F modules — an ESP32-C3 in an ESP-12 compatible package —on hand, and a solderable PCB I could cut up, and just made it all fit.

Here’s a video of it in action:

All told it’s less than $6 worth of parts: ESP32-C3F, 1K resistor, PC817 optocoupler, AMS1117-3.3 board, Micro-USB breakout, about half of a snappable PCB section.

Workbench

Several weeks ago, a Jeff Geerling video teased a future video on his new electronics workbench setup:

Jeff Geerling's Electronics Workbench

It just so happened that I was also building a dedicated electronics workbench, using a 48×24-inch motorized desk as the base, and I’d been mulling over how create storage for all my electronics tools and components around such a limited space. I wanted to somehow attach some pegboard but was struggling to figure out how to make that both cheap and sturdy using only tools I already have and materials I’m comfortable working with.

Jeff’s shelving kit looked perfectly adaptable to my goals, and being impatient, I scoured the Internets to learn what they were: Shelf Links by 2x4basics.

This is, honestly, an amazing result. All the important stuff is within easy reach, with plenty of space to store less-frequently-used items, all squeezed in to the narrow space I could devote to it in my home office.

I lucked out on getting the desk on manufacturer clearance for half-price (now sold out, sorry), so all-in with the shelf links, lumber, and organization products I spent about $500. If you want to build something like this on a motorized platform, do be aware of its weight limits. Wood is heavy. I’ve got about 100lbs of lumber here and a solid wood desktop of more typical dimensions can easily be another 100lbs.