Pong Cam - My ESP32S3 Thinks It's a WebCam! I turned an ESP32-S3 into a plug-and-play USB webcamâwith no camera attached. The ESP32 generates its own frames, encodes them as JPEGs, and streams them over UVC as MJPEG. I ramp it up from a static BBC test card, to animated GIF playback, and finally a fully playable Pong running at a solid 30 FPS. Under the hood: Espressifâs UVC device component (TinyUSB), Bulk mode for stability, AnimatedGIF for decoding, and esp_new_jpeg for fast JPEG encoding (~21â23 ms/frame). Itâs a fun proof that the S3 can be a real-time âdisplayâ straight into your PC. 01 February 2026
That was 2025! 2025 was the year I actually shipped hardware: the ESP32 Rainbowâa modern, full-color riff on the Sinclair Spectrumâcrowdfunded, certified, manufactured, and in customers' hands. The economics were brutal (COGS, tariffs, shipping, CE/UKCA), but the community made it worth it. I also went deep on high voltage, made a 10¢ MCU sing and talk, escaped printf hell with USB/JTAG, built a browser serial plotter, fixed broken gadgets, and even let AI pick parts. For 2026: more ESP32 mischief, more joyful builds, and probably more bodge wires than I'd like to admit. 31 December 2025
ESP32-S3 Dev Board Assembly I finally assembled our ESP32-S3 dev boardsâused a stencil for easy SMD work, fixed a few tiny USB solder bridges with flux, and even hand-built one for fun. The EPAD isnât required (per the datasheet), power LEDs look good, and on macOS you can spot it under /dev before flashing. A quick boot-button dance and the blink sketch runs greatâfull build and walkthrough in the video. 13 November 2025
ESP32-S3 USB UAC I turned my new ESP32âS3 board into a USB Audio device. After a ninja LED fix and confirming the IMU and charging, I streamed mic audio over Web Serial (with a slick AI-made âAudio Studioâ) and then via USB UAC. The mic sounds great, but the speaker is crackly over UACâeven though I2S WAV playback is perfectly clean. ESP-IDF worked; Arduino didnât. Bonus annoyance: macOS vs Windows is a toggle, not a combo. Still, this board passes QA. 26 September 2025
Easy esp32 s3 dev board Quick recap: Iâm putting together a super simple ESP32-S3 dev boardâthereâs a video walkthrough, the full KiCad project on GitHub, plus the schematic and a slick 3D render of the assembled board. 20 September 2025
Vibing a PCB - surprisingly good In my latest adventure, I challenged AI to design a working ESP32-S3 development board from scratch using Atopile and Claude. The idea was as simple as vibe-coding actual hardware without diving into the code. It was a chaotic yet fascinating journey, with some misses like unwired components and a forgotten capacitor. After a few prompts, the AI delivered a surprisingly functional board featuring USB-C, an AMS1117 regulator, and status LEDs. While not yet perfect, vibe-coding feels like a glimpse into the future of hardware design. 12 July 2025
E32-S3 no DAC - No Problem! We'll Use PDM In this post, I tackle the lack of a DAC on the ESP32-S3 by demonstrating how to use Pulse Density Modulated (PDM) audio with Sigma Delta Modulation to achieve analog audio output. I explore the simplicity of creating a PDM signal and its reconstruction into an audio signal using a low pass filter, even an RC filter, though a more sophisticated active filter is recommended. I guide through using both a timer and the I2S peripheral on the ESP32 for outputting PDM data, noting the quirks and solutions for each method. And I wrap up with how straight PDM signals... 05 January 2024
ESP32-S3: Which Pins Should I Use? As an enthusiast of the ESP32-S3's versatility, I recognized the importance of understanding which pins are best to avoid. Inspired by the Random Nerds page for the classic ESP32, I've created a comprehensive pinout for the ESP32-S3 available on GitHub. The community's input is highly valued â suggestions and corrections are welcome to refine this resource into a dynamic guide for developers. 21 November 2023
ESP32-S3 Hardware SPI on the Adafruit ST7789 I've had some commenters point out the issue with the slow display updates in my recent Arduino Nano ESP32 video. It turns out, the software SPI of the Adafruit_ST7789 library was the culprit. Lo and behold, the solution is simple - using the hardware SPI constructor of the library. Apparently, this isn't well documented, so I wrote some code to serve as reference for myself and others who might run into the same snags. Trust me, the difference in speed is absolutely bonkers. Check out the video to see the magic in action. 31 August 2023