This is going to be my biggest project yet. I’ve done quite a bit of research, but I’m currently stuck and honestly don’t know how to proceed from here.

I’m also looking for someone who’s willing to work on this project with me. The idea is that we both build the same thing independently at home, share our progress and insights along the way, and help each other figure things out. If we’re successful, we could even take it a step further and try building a double pendulum balancing system.

Has anyone here worked on or built something similar before? I’d love to hear about your experience, resources, or projects.

Also, what tools, components, software, or other equipment would you recommend for building something like this?

Here's the first prototype in action of my ESP32 powered boat tiller steering control. Used a nema17 stepper with a lead screw and some custom designed and 3d printed brackets. Mapped the controls to a Bluetooth game controller I got at the thrift store. Right joystick moves the boat left and right and stays in that position. Pressing A returns to center position. Left joystick returns to center when you release so the boat will do a "jog".

Next steps

-design a more robust transom mount and some sort of quick release for the lead screw connection at the tiller handle.

-a longer lead screw to get a fuller turn and probably a more powerful stepper to get faster turning

-design a small case for the Arduino/stepper controls

I ran it off one of those 12V supplies for DeWalt batteries and then a 12v 5v buck for the Arduino and that worked well. I don't have any 12v electrical system in my boat currently.

EDIT I forgot to say that this is just intended for slow trolling speeds! Not anywhere near wide open haha. We are talking 2-4 mph.

Eventually I want to have the Arduino steer to follow a heading and then eventually a gpx

Hello!

I am quite new in electronics and Arduino things but from the beginning of the summer me and my friends started building a mini drone. We started quite hard, bought the components, and hop in soldering. Sounds nice but our project use SMD components, which are very small and hard to handle.The guy we follow is Max Imagination and all the things done by him are astonishing. Our problem right now is that the motor driver board is smoking only when conected to the FTDI module (usb-c to serial convertor) so the arduino pro mini board we use is non stop turning off and on. Therefore we couldn't upload any code to it. We are thinking of starting again but this time solder more gentle and use a larger PCB. Unfortunately the school is on the right corner and I personaly don't know what to do next.

PS: I think is good to mention that when connected to the LiPo 250 mha 3.7V battery the motors start working which seemed intresting first but then became annoying. Also the drivers aren't smoking when connected this way.

In the third photograph you can see the drivers.

This is a top-down open-world GTA-style game running entirely on a microcontroller — built from scratch with my open-source C++17 engine, PixelRoot32.

ESP32-WROOM driving a 240×240 display with six buttons.

What’s working:

- Open-world city with 5 districts

- Driveable traffic — steal any car

- Pedestrians, police and traffic

- Weapons and police shootouts

- 5-star wanted system

- Police pursuits on foot and by car

- Arrests and respawning

- Missions and a day/night cycle

- Car radio, sirens and 22 SFX

And the crazy part?

GTA 6 runs on a monster gaming PC. Mine runs on a microcontroller. 😂

https://pixelroot32.org

I am a beginner-intermediate and it's my first time experimenting with audio. I only have used buzzers until now and I need high quality sound.

I have done some research and I found that I need a DFPlayer and a speaker but since it's my first time using those components, I want to make sure I am not buying anything wrong.

Are those two the only thing that I need? Is there anything else I should know?

I bought an arduino uno kit a year or so ago but never had the time to delve into it because of work. I’m currently unemployed so whilst I look for jobs I thought I’d finally put some time into arduino to pass time.

The trouble is most courses don’t have practicals and if they do I’m missing parts to do it. I was able to do a sonar sensor project but all I was doing was copy and pasting code so it wasn’t satisfying when I finished it.

I already have a very basic understanding of Python, C# and C++ as I’ve messed around with code before but I’m struggling to find a course that suits me. I’ve already gone through two 3 hour long courses over the days but it’s hard to retain the knowledge when there is no practical alongside it to show and retain the information shown in the videos.

Any help is appreciated, thank you :))

Well my long distance company is declaring bankruptcy and leaving my 1960s phone useless for calling outside a small zone and AT&T keeps ratcheting up the cost of maintaining a "true" copper landline. I would like to convert it to a cellphone. I've seen projects here and there and there are also some commercial products but I'd like to solder/troubleshoot/suffer this one. Any favourites?

Hi everyone,
I wanted to share my first real project after cutting my teeth on simpler stuff (a traffic light and an automatic gate, both basic state machines). This one felt like a proper step up, so I'd love some feedback from more experienced folks here, plus suggestions for what to tackle next.
The build:
• Arduino Uno
• 4WD chassis with 4 TT gear motors (2 in parallel per side)
• DRV8833 dual H-bridge driver, powered by 4x AA NiMH batteries
• HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor mounted on a servo for left/right scanning
• PWM.h library to get above-audible PWM frequency (25kHz) on Timer2, keeping Timer1 free for the Servo library
What it does: Drives forward, and when it detects an obstacle within range, it stops, sweeps the servo left and right to compare distances on both sides, then executes a turn toward whichever side has more open space, before resuming forward motion. The whole thing runs as a non-blocking state machine (nested switch-case, timed with millis()) so the loop stays free for sensor polling and button input.
Challenges I ran into (and learned a lot from):
• Figuring out that slow decay vs fast decay modes have inverted PWM-to-speed relationships — cost me a confusing debugging session where 255 meant "stopped" on one mode and "full speed" on the other
• Timer conflicts between the PWM library and the Servo library (both fight over Timer1 if you're not careful with init order)
• Motor current draw when pivoting in place vs coasting — learned this the hard way when one side stalled and started whining under load once the chassis touched the ground instead of being lifted
• Left/right motor imbalance from cheap TT motors not being identical — still tuning PWM compensation values by eye
What's next: I've got an ESP32 sitting unused, and I was recently gifted a robotic arm, so that's likely my next project — multiple servos, possibly some basic inverse kinematics down the line.
Would love to hear:
1. Anything obviously wrong/inefficient in my approach above?
2. Tips for a first robotic arm project on ESP32 (structuring the code, libraries worth looking at, common pitfalls)?
3. Anything you wish you'd known starting out with H-bridges/motor drivers?
Thanks for reading this far — happy to share code snippets or wiring details if useful!

I’m using an ESP32 with the Arduino framework (PlatformIO) and BLE advertising every ~1 second.

I want the ESP32 to automatically enter light sleep during the idle time between BLE advertising events, rather than manually calling esp_light_sleep_start().

esp_pm_configure() currently returns ESP_ERR_NOT_SUPPORTED, presumably because CONFIG_FREERTOS_USE_TICKLESS_IDLE isn't enabled.

Is there a way to enable:

CONFIG_PM_ENABLE=y
CONFIG_FREERTOS_USE_TICKLESS_IDLE=y
CONFIG_FREERTOS_IDLE_TIME_BEFORE_SLEEP=3

while staying with Arduino, perhaps through PlatformIO/build options or a custom Arduino core?

I’d like to avoid converting the project to a full ESP-IDF application.

Has anyone successfully done automatic light sleep + BLE advertising this way?

Kept hand-modeling enclosures for Arduino projects and got tired of measuring the same board over and over, so I built EnclosureAI: https://enclosure-ai-production.up.railway.app

There's an Arduino Uno quick-start preset that sizes the box to the board - from there you add ports, vents, and standoffs yourself, or just describe the whole thing in plain English ("Arduino Uno, USB-B on the back, vent slots for a fan, 4 mounting holes") and it sizes the box and places everything for you. Exports STL/OBJ/parametric JSCAD, and everything's editable after: drag ports around, change wall thickness, switch to a snap-fit lid.

It's free, no login, no ads. What do you actually need in an Arduino case that off-the-shelf generators usually get wrong - shield stacking height, terminal block clearance, something else? Curious what's missing.

I'm getting started with the ESP32. I've decided to prototype using the Arduino IDE; later I'll give ESP-IDF a try. Until then ...

I have the "Board Manager" open right now in the Arduino IDE. I search for "ESP32" and I have two choices: "Arduino ESP32 Boards by Arduino" and "esp32 by Espressif Systems"

Which do I install?

Using a Lgt8f328p, Ads1115, with a transistor to control the current, and some more passive components. A It have a tare button to tare the lead wire resistance.

How high it can measure depend on the voltage reference, the lower the vref the more stable it's at lower resistance.

Also using more current at lower resistance lead to more stable reading.

If you want to measure to really good result with micro ohm, I would try using 2 INA226.

Edit 1: some said it isn't 4wires and it's true( I didn't know that combining them into 2 lead consider as 2wires ), this one is 2wires with advance taring, it still can be converted to 4wires with some modifications.

Hi everyone! :)

For an exhibition, I built a small Arduino project: it plays audio and lights up an RGB LED.

Components:

Arduino Uno

AZ-Delivery MP3 Player module

RGB LED from an LED strip

Everything works, and the project is supposed to run for long periods during the exhibition, partly unattended.

Unfortunately, I can no longer make any changes to the setup because everything has already been packed and shipped. Time was quite limited, so I just want to make sure:

Can a setup like this run continuously for many hours or even days? Is there any risk of overheating or even fire? Do these components need cooling or overheating protection?

I would really appreciate any experiences or advice. Thank you!

My Son made this summer his first Micropad but can’t get it to work , he asked to chat gtp but always got different options , he wan’t to use An usb-C cable with a adafruit downstream usb-C breakout, also he wanne switch it Off with a on-Off buttom we for a micro JST XH 2.54 4 pin connector to connect onto the board but don’t know of te wiring is good ?
We put black on gnd , red on Vbus , yellow on D- An white on D+ . When we plug the usb-C info the computer the board is getting hot ? Any help Here pls
Sorry for my english
Thx

so I've recently started working on Arduino and stumbled upon the idea of making a 5 DOF Arduino arm. my first attempt didn't go well and it fried my sg90 motors. I was using a breadboard power supply because I couldn't find a tutorial for other options. is there any other option other than using a servo shield?

i dont know how to fix it i followed a tutorial but no matter what i do i cant get it to display anything other than boxes

touch display, local llm, etc.

My very first real proyect

Okay. First thing you need to know: I absolutely love segmented LED displays.

So about a year ago, I wrote my very first Arduino library, called AutoPlex7. It’s designed to control 7-segment displays, and it features automated timer-based multiplexing so the user never has to worry about display refreshes. Overall, it’s pretty simple though.

Recently, I’ve been itching to expand upon the general idea more. So for the last ~5 days, I’ve been working pretty much non-stop on my second Arduino library - AutoPlex14 - which naturally is designed for 14-segment displays. It inherits the timer-based multiplexing from AutoPlex7, but comes with much more functionality; such as custom fonts and characters, a robust fallback system, partial Unicode support, and even automatically applied floating-point autoranging.

AutoPlex14 took a lot of hard work to build, and I’m excited to say that I’ve finally finished it! You can now install it in the Arduino library manager or from the GitHub repository: https://github.com/TechTronicsEngineering/AutoPlex14

I would love to hear your thoughts!

Is there any way to do more than 256 levels of PWM control on an arduino? Perhaps is there a different board that is capable than more of the standard 8bit control?

Hello! I’m new to the arduino community. I have played around with them in the past with my highschool years ago. I recently came up with an idea of an interactive game and have some questions from those who have knowledge. How hard would it to be to program a game in which there are 30 buttons with 30 unique sounds. The goal of the game is to crack the code and figure out the 4 button/ noise combination. When this happens I need it to either show that you cracked the code or have to try again. I also want to be able to have a free play mode where people can come up and interact with the buttons without the game starting. I am overall curious how hard this project will be, I am an electrician and have knowledge of circuitry/ electronics and bread boards but very limited knowledge on coding. Any help with supply’s, brands, product which could help my project would be appreciated! Thank you arduino community!

Im lolk to automate a cabinet opening for an AC unit on the wall. Im looking for help and essentially looking to see if someone could help me...

I had the idea that I could use something as a trigger from the AC turning on or requested to be turned on I.e Make a simple automation “turn on AC”

\- open door

\- wait xx seconds (for door to be open)

\- turn on AC unit

And off

\- if AC unit is off

\- Then close door

Whilst im handy ive never delved Into the world of custom automation especially when dealing with solenoids and electric push rods etc...

#help

A collaborative project as my friend has done all the 3D printing.

This project contains letters fitted out with WS2812B neopixel LED strip connected with a single serial data line.

Controlled from code running on an Arduino Pro Mini Board fitted to stripboard with an IR motion sensor and some diode droppers as the rechargeable batteries are regulated 1.5V(4 x 1.5 =6V)

The LED Strip is powered from 4xAA rechargeable batteries and the control board by a second 4xAA rechargeable battery set.

When the controller code is not triggered the batteries to the LED Strip are disconnected using a MOSFET power switch to conserve power and the controller goes into a deep sleep mode awaiting IR motion detection.

I wrote logicdec, a tiny header-only C++17 library for parsing logic analyzer captures:

• decoders for I2C, SPI, UART (more buses planned)
• takes raw capture samples, emits decoded frames/transactions
• includes waveform synthesis so the decoders can be tested round-trip without a real capture file

Single-header, no deps: https://github.com/meister5/logicdec

If you've ever parsed a Saleae-style export by hand, this is that, but as a reusable library instead of a one-off script.

I have a small monochrome ttl mda crt i’d like to repurpose. the crt came from an old intel based rack mount computer and drove the display using an 8275 crt controller. since arduinos aren’t great at raster graphics i’m curious if it’s possible to use the 8275 paired with a rom to hold graphics and font driven by an arduino to use the crt.