In a thrilling DIY endeavour, I attempted to build the most minimalist ESP32 dev board possible. Diving deep into the schematic of the ESP32 S3 WROOM module, I chopped out the non-essentials and whittled our needs down to bare bones. The experiment saw me juggling USB data lines and voltage regulators, waving goodbye to an array of capacitors and connectors and boldly embracing the simplicity of direct connections. Despite a few hitches, the miniature Frankenboard came alive, proving that sometimes less is more...at least in the world of microcontrollers.
In a fun-filled deep dive into a Philip's Hue Color light bulb, I disassembled, analyzed, and ultimately restored it to working order. Over the course of the hack, I dismantled the bulb’s interior, from the aluminum PCB to the tiny ICs on the logic board, gave a detailed breakdown of their functions and even reverse engineered the signals controlling the colors. Most of the colors worked out pretty well, except for the dodgy yellow. Also, I tried running the hacked bulb setup with my old Moonlamp project. It was a great challenge and an exciting journey!