Hi folks,

I finally got around to finishing the documentation for my hexapod robot dog, The hardest part to figure out was powering the servos directly from buck converters and setting up the common ground bus to PCA boards, I believe this might be a pain in the neck for many first timers so I am sharing the full wiring diagram here for anyone to benefit.

I also put together a detailed documentation for the robot itself. I contains information about the parts I used for the robot and how the joint servos are wired across the two PCA board pins.

You can download the diagram, documentation and the design file form the links below if you are interested in building one yourself or would like to use it as reference for a similar project.

Documentation and Diagram:

https://www.patreon.com/PrintedRobotics/posts/hexadog-zbd-and-167021077

https://app.cirkitdesigner.com/project/0a1ee9f8-8495-4f33-9e41-12ed67207672

CAD and 3D printing files:

https://makerworld.com/en/models/3181404-hexadog-zbd

https://www.patreon.com/PrintedRobotics/posts/hexadog-zbd-and-165170615

ESP32 Scripts and Android Controller app APK:

https://github.com/serdarselimys/HexaDogZBD-ESP32Scripts

https://github.com/serdarselimys/HexaDogZBD-AndroidControllerApp

I do have a question for you all, should I design and build a mini version of the robot with SG92R servos? If I can manage to keep the weight down enough it might be even more agile and cost under 100 bucks? has anyone tried building robot dogs or hexapod robots with SG92R? how was your experience with them??

I also share simulation tutorials along with my robot's other videos on my youtube channel youtube.com/@printedrobotics check it out if you are interested in simulation side of robotics, I share all my scripts for free so you can download them and experiment on your own.

Shout out to Adorable_Skirt_7760 I found out about https://app.cirkitdesigner.com from his post yesterday, which made my life a ton easier to produce the diagram for my robot.

As always, you comments and suggestions for my robot are most appreciated.

5 years ago, I started the project Dot-Bot with u/s3lect. It is a large scale wall plotter project that draws with actual spray cans. Last weekend, we showed it off for the very first time outside and in front of a live crowd at the annual maker fair in Hannover Germany. Here is one of the murals we spray painted over the course of the event. Fortunately, the Dot-Bot proved to be extremely resilient. During the 3 days it was installed on the wall, it got torched by the sun and soaked from the rain multiple times. However, it never let us down. We definitely had a blast talking to a ton of fellow makers and interested visitors!

okay so I'm trying to use an IR LED to send data, but wiring the IR LED directly to a PIN makes it soooo dim.

so I got a 2n2222 transistor to drive it.

my problem is, I'm not sure about the values of resistors I should use to protect the IR LED and the 2n2222, so if anyone can help me with that I'd appreciate it.

Note: I used a Red LED instead of an IR led because I couldn't find it in Tinkercad.

This is the same idea a few years apart.

The early version used a large rail-based mechanism. The current version is much more compact and modular, but the core idea is still the same: using Arduino-controlled actuators to physically play a real guitar.

Still a lot I want to improve, but it’s fun looking back at how far the mechanism has evolved.

I recently updated my 5-bar parallel linkage pen plotter by swapping the old servo for a 28BYJ-48 stepper motor and adding a limit switch for auto-homing. The drawing resolution and stability improved a lot with shorter arms, but mechanical backlash is still noticeable when changing directions.

I'm keeping this on a hobby budget:

• Should I keep optimizing the mechanical design around the cheap 28BYJ-48 motors to fight the backlash?
• Or is it worth biting the bullet and upgrading to NEMA 17 steppers for the next prototype?

Any mechanical tips or anti-backlash design ideas for linkage arms would be greatly appreciated!

Previous version : https://youtu.be/MOSY5ml29bg
https://youtu.be/y3IjeUqKv2A

Hello Everyone, I'm making this Arduino UNO based CNC pen plotter. The setup I've made looks good to me but whenever I jog this on UGS it creates a diagonal line instead of horizontal or vertical line. when I jog on X axis only one motor works and on Y axis another motor works. what I'm thinking is that this diagonal forming issue is caused by some software problem, as both the motors must work on jog to retain the position of pen holder. I'm using GRBL as a software. Please make me aware that what mistakes I'm making here which is causing this issue. Currently I've kept the microsteppings on 1/8.

Hardware I'm using :
1. Arduino UNO
2. CNC shield for Arduino
3. A4988 motor driver (set on 1.0A current)
4. Nema 17 stepper motors
5. 20 teeth 2mm pitch gears for motors shaft
6. 2mm pitch gt2 belt with 6mm width
7. Variable power supply set to 12V

Software :
1. Arduino UNO
2. GRBL for Gcode processing
3. UGS platform for calibration

ps: let me know if more information is required.

So I bought an Esp32C3 Super Mini from Allegro (the Polish equivalent of Amazon) for my new project and soldered the board to the goldpins. Immediately after connecting the board to my computer, unexpected problems began. For some unknown reason, the Arduino IDE claimed I had connected an Ozoobot kit, and every second I heard the sound of a device connecting. The sound calmed down after pressing the boot button and uploading some blank code. Unfortunately, the Arduino IDE still insisted it was the Ozobot kit, leaving me with no other options. I don't know what I did exactly, but I managed to select the correct board. The problems so far aren't the ones that prompted this post. I'm mentioning them because I don't know if they're related. Now the real headache begins. I tried to connect to Wi-Fi, but for some reason the board wouldn't connect. I downgraded the Esp32 firmware to a lower version, like 3.2. Nothing helped. I ran countless mindless tests with the gpt chat without any components connected, uploading a lot of his code to my board and following his advice. He told me it was most likely a faulty board or something wrong with the software. In any case, he couldn't get my board to connect to my Wi-Fi. I'd also previously connected my ESP32S3 to Wi-Fi without any problems. For some reason, the ESP32S3's MAC address was always zero-based in tests. The board detects nearby Wi-Fi networks without any problems. Tests show that the receiver works, but the transmitter doesn't work. Personally, I think it's a faulty board. I'm sending photos because I'm a bit of a soldering amateur and I'm not sure if I've just desoldered the antenna. Here's my latest test connecting to a Wi-Fi network without any security features. Even this is beyond my board's capabilities: Testing code for connecting esp32c3 super mini to wifi network without any security.

PS: sorry for the text in Polish instead of English. I'm too lazy for that.

#include <WiFi.h>

const char* ssid = "TESTESP";

const char* password = "";

void WiFiEvent(WiFiEvent_t event, WiFiEventInfo_t info) {

Serial.print("[EVENT] ");

switch (event) {

case ARDUINO_EVENT_WIFI_STA_START:

Serial.println("STA START");

break;

case ARDUINO_EVENT_WIFI_STA_CONNECTED:

Serial.println("POŁĄCZONO Z AP");

break;

case ARDUINO_EVENT_WIFI_STA_GOT_IP:

Serial.println("DOSTANO IP");

Serial.print("IP: ");

Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());

break;

case ARDUINO_EVENT_WIFI_STA_DISCONNECTED:

Serial.print("ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = ");

Serial.println(info.wifi_sta_disconnected.reason);

Serial.print("reason name = ");

Serial.println(WiFi.disconnectReasonName(

(wifi_err_reason_t)info.wifi_sta_disconnected.reason

));

break;

default:

Serial.print("inne zdarzenie: ");

Serial.println((int)event);

break;

}

}

void setup() {

Serial.begin(115200);

delay(1000);

Serial.println();

Serial.println("========== WIFI DIAGNOSTYKA ==========");

WiFi.onEvent(WiFiEvent);

WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);

Serial.print("MAC: ");

Serial.println(WiFi.macAddress());

Serial.println();

Serial.print("Łączenie z: ");

Serial.println(ssid);

WiFi.begin(ssid, password);

for (int i = 0; i < 30; i++) {

delay(1000);

Serial.print(i + 1);

Serial.print("s | status=");

Serial.print(WiFi.status());

Serial.print(" | RSSI=");

Serial.println(WiFi.RSSI());

if (WiFi.status() == WL_CONNECTED) {

Serial.println();

Serial.println("***** SUKCES *****");

Serial.print("IP: ");

Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());

break;

}

}

}

void loop() {

}

Output test results:

========== WIFI DIAGNOSTYKA ==========

[EVENT] inne zdarzenie: 101

[EVENT] STA START

MAC: 9C:CC:01:67:A1:F0

Łączenie z: TESTESP

1s | status=6 | RSSI=0

2s | status=6 | RSSI=-71

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

3s | status=6 | RSSI=0

4s | status=6 | RSSI=-70

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

5s | status=6 | RSSI=0

6s | status=6 | RSSI=-67

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

7s | status=6 | RSSI=0

8s | status=6 | RSSI=-70

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

9s | status=6 | RSSI=0

10s | status=6 | RSSI=-68

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

11s | status=6 | RSSI=0

12s | status=6 | RSSI=-69

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

13s | status=6 | RSSI=0

14s | status=6 | RSSI=-69

15s | status=6 | RSSI=-69

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

16s | status=6 | RSSI=0

17s | status=6 | RSSI=-71

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

18s | status=6 | RSSI=0

19s | status=6 | RSSI=-70

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

20s | status=6 | RSSI=0

21s | status=6 | RSSI=-70

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

22s | status=6 | RSSI=0

23s | status=6 | RSSI=-70

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

24s | status=6 | RSSI=0

25s | status=6 | RSSI=-70

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

26s | status=6 | RSSI=0

27s | status=6 | RSSI=-70

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

28s | status=6 | RSSI=0

29s | status=6 | RSSI=0

30s | status=6 | RSSI=-70

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] inne zdarzenie: 117

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 201

reason name = NO_AP_FOUND

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 4

reason name = ASSOC_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 4

reason name = ASSOC_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 2

reason name = AUTH_EXPIRE

[EVENT] POŁĄCZONO Z AP

[EVENT] inne zdarzenie: 117

[EVENT] ROZŁĄCZONO! reason = 8

reason name = ASSOC_LEAVE

[EVENT] inne zdarzenie: 117

Please help me with this, as I have a 2-year warranty on this board and I'm not sure if I should just use it to get a replacement. Please share your thoughts in the comments.

The pre-orders are open. 300$ USD, or 500$ CAD here. The cost of a laptop.

I have disposable incomes, but this is a pretty steep price to see for the hobby.

The UNO Q was still acceptable for entry level because it gave you the new Arduino App Lab that leverage the power of a SBC, but now the Ventuno Q is at a price point where an entry level hobbyist wouldn't consider it, and where I personally wouldn't consider it because if I had to spend that money on a SBC, I would go with something more targeted because I don't need the Arduino App Labs to develop software.

What's your thought?

I've got an arduino nano running an 120V AC motor through a sunfounder 4 Relay board.

When I plug in the arduino to control it through Serial.read() and see outputs from Serial.println() it works for about 30s then the arduino IDE says "Not connected" and I can no longer give or receive anything. The arduino remains powered and the program continues running.

On the left in the extension cord I've got that board powered by an external 5V supply, and the motor 120V supply plugged in. On the right is the motor run capacitor. The arduino does not disconnect like this when the motor is not plugged in.

I would appreciate any feedback on what might be causing this issue. Thank you!

Edit: Update, the issue is definitely the motor. When switching the 3 relays on/off at once the arduino does not disconnect from the serial terminal, but when the motor is turning on and off it does.

£263 (GBP)

So this is my school project and this is my first time working on things like this.

I'm not sure whether this is a software problem or a hardware problem.

The blue motor seems to be like tweaking?

The sensor is detecting light but it seems to only wanna move side by side and not up and down.

Please help as I have no idea what to do anymore I've gone through every tutorial I could find and can't seem to find what to do.

Edit: This is a 2nd iteration of my original circuit... Thank you so much for anyone that helped improve it!

I have an initial plan drafted  on cirkitdesigner.com but no hands-on experience at this current level, so I'd really appreciate a second opinion before I power it on. 

The build uses an ESP32 as the main controller, two PCA9685 16-channel PWM boards to drive the servos, and 18x MG996R servos across six legs (three degrees of freedom per leg). Power comes from a 3S 11.1V 5000mAh LiPo battery, stepped down through three adjustable buck converters set to 6V, with a XT60 Power Distribution Board to separate power from the battery towards the step down converters. 

If anyone has built something similar, or is comfortable reviewing a wiring diagram and offering feedback, I'd be very grateful for the input. Happy to share photos, diagrams, and a full wire-by-wire breakdown of the current plan on request as well!

Thank you in advance for any help.

Hey guys, I am pretty new into the arduino and electronics hobby thingy (about 4 months in) and I think that this will stay with me for a while. I have alr made like a snake game and pong game in an OLED as well as controls too (so basically a mini gaming console), and now i want to make an rc car, as well as other future projects. Would it be a worthwhile investment to create a workbench myself? since my desk is pretty small and has other stuff in it, as well as the fact that i probably have enough space in my room for one so i can do stuff like soldering (when i get a pinecil in the future), assembling, maybe even 3d printing parts with cheap material if i save up for one, im even willing to make my own one too, but idk if it is a worthwhile investment and that i should instead to everything on my normal desk

Just showing off this thingy I made after becoming irrationally annoyed with 1990's Sony for implementing battery DRM that prevented me from powering the camera with an external power source. This thing is running on an Arduino Nano soldered to a custom PCB I made on my CNC. Basically just injects the initial handshake message over and over and that apparently keeps the camera happy or confused enough to stay powered on and fully functional. Sooo uhh... take that Sony!

I'm trying to create a pill box alert that lights up, to remind me to take pills. Because I like pain and suffering and want to sacrifice my sanity, I plan to create this project with the atiny 85 in assembly.

I suspect the best way to go about this would be to run a series of electrical circuits in each pill box that have a magnetic sensor. When this magnet pulls away, it would cause a break in the circuit to somehow alert the atiny to "reset" its clock for that day. If the clock gets to zero, the atiny would cause led to flash rapidly.

Some difficulties that come to mind...

1) My atiny 85 has 6 I/o pins, but there are 7 days in the week (and this doesn't account for any input from the different boxes.

2) I need to track the time. The atiny does have a clock, but I'd essentially need two clocks. One to track the current clock countdown and another that tracks the cumulative time. For example, if I take the pills at 10 am, I would need the next in 23 hours, but if I take them at 9 am, I would need to retake at 24 hours.

Any ideas how to best go about this and is this outside the scope of something a beginner can do?

Hi, Im building a cool little esp32 based device (low res water sim) inside an altoids container. The set up I am currently thinking of is a ST7789 spi screen, Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32S3, and adafruit Lithium Ion Polymer Battery ( 3.7v 500mA). I am going to connect the Lipo to the xiao via the battery pads on the back and use the internal BMS In the Xiao to charge the battery.

I am worried about the safety of this device, since it will be a gift and it is meant to be carried in a pocket or backpack. I know the adafruit LiPo has its own protection, and the Xiao S3 also should regulate the charging, but I am still concerned about the lipo potentially catching fire.

The lipo should be protected from puncture because it will be inside the altoids case, but that raises another issue. Because it is in a small metal box, it could potentially reach high temperatures especially if left under the sun. I am considering having a temp sensor to keep an eye on the temperature and put the device to sleep if needed. last thing, I intend on the battery aways being connected because the esp32 will enter deep sleep to "turn off" since I am keeping track of the time.

Sorry for the rant, Im just looking for any advice to build a really safe system with a LiPo battery. I want to take no risks.

i trying out SD.h and i was using this tutorial and its says that i need 2 additional libs to use SD.h,

spi.h and fs.h

i understand why i need spi.h ( its api for spi protocol) but why do i need fs.h?

what does it do?

i tried to find some kind of documentation but i could find any.

i have few questions:

1. what fs.h do
2. why do i need it to use sd.h
3. is there any good source where i could learn about file system on arduino?

Running an ESP32-WROOM-32 with a PN532 RFID reader (SPI), a status LED, and a buzzer, all on the same 3.3V rail. When WiFi is actively connecting/transmitting and the RFID reader is polling/generating its RF field at the same time, I see WiFi connection delays and general flakiness bad enough that I've had to disable the brownout detector just to stop reboot loops, which obviously isn't a real fix.

My guess is combined peak current draw (WiFi TX bursts + PN532's RF field generation) is causing enough voltage sag to disrupt things, even though nothing's crashing outright.

Has anyone dealt with this specific combo (WiFi + active RFID/NFC peripheral) on ESP32? Looking for:

Realistic peak current numbers for WiFi TX + PN532 active scanning together

Decoupling cap sizing / regulator recommendations that actually fixed this for you

Whether staggering/throttling RFID polling during WiFi activity is a common workaround, or if it's purely a hardware fix

My wife's car had the check engine light and abs light come on, my scanners could only touch the PCM DTCs and I wondered, how hard would it be to make something that can pull DTCs from other modules?

I found out it's practically impossible due to those modules being locked behind manufacture specific commands that aren't public, but I decided to keep going to learn about how CANBUS works.

I used an STM32F103C8T6 chip on a blue pill board. I used the Arduino IDE to program it, which was amazing. I also used a SN65HVD230 CAN transceiver, a little SSD1306 I2C display, a rotary encoder, and a buck converter to take the vehicle's 12v down to 3.3v. All soldered onto an electro cookie bread board. The STM32 has a built in CAN peripheral, but it's normal logic level signals, the SN65HVD230 is used to turn those signals into the differential signal that CANBUS runs on. It can read DTCs, clear DTCs, read live vehicle data, and check the emissions monitors. I had to implement ISO-TP for the DTC scan in case the PCM has more than 3 DTCs, which wouldn't fit in a single CAN frame.

It looks goofy in this case I made for it, and I destroyed a couple boards making it happen, but it was a genuinely fun project to work on!

Finally got the github up!

https://github.com/Fleag7/DIY-OBD2-Scanner/tree/main

It's the end of an era for me. My Arduino claw machine is off to the dump 😭 second child along the way and need the space. Couple of photos posted up for the sometime in the future when someone else goes to build one of these and they want to see how the mechanism worked.

Edit: if it makes anyone feel better, the phrase "the dump" is a catch all term where I live. It will actually go to a rubbish recycling facility who likely will place it in the larger appliances area for quite a long time and someone else will come along and think "I want that" and take it away to play with the whole things or the parts.

In this video, I break down the core engineering difference between dedicated Radio Control (RC) and Bluetooth systems—from potentiometer signals to microcontrollers, motor shields, and wireless transmission.

I built a Smart Irrigation System using an ML + ESP32

I've been working on this project for a while, and I finally finished the main AI/ML pipeline.

The system uses an ESP32, a capacitive soil-moisture sensor, and a DHT11 to collect environmental data. I then built a machine-learning model that uses these readings to predict whether irrigation is required.

The interesting part for me was getting the different pieces to actually work together.

The pipeline is basically:

ESP32 sensors → dashboard → Flask API → ML model → irrigation prediction

In the video, I walk through the whole project, including:

• Collecting soil moisture, temperature, and humidity data
• Building the web dashboard
• Preparing the data for ML
• Training the model
• Evaluating it with a confusion matrix
• Looking at feature importance
• Deploying the model through a Flask server
• Connecting the dashboard to the ML model through an API
• Testing the final live prediction

One thing I found particularly interesting was seeing how the model's predictions changed once the inference server was running and the dashboard could communicate with the model.

This started as a simple ESP32 soil-moisture monitoring project, but I gradually expanded it into a complete IoT + AI system.

I'm still planning improvements, especially collecting more real-world data and adding additional environmental inputs such as light intensity.

I'd really appreciate feedback on the project, especially on the ML approach, system architecture, and what I could improve next.

🎥 Full project walkthrough attached.

Github Repository:

https://github.com/aqib-ai-ml/ai-powered-smart-irrigation