u/No_Tone_8226

Hey r/ArduinoProjects

Sharing FUNDI, a project I built starting as my KSEF (Kenya Science and Engineering Fair) entry — won Regional Merit, went on to Nationals and did considerably well there. It's grown past the fair into something I want more technical eyes on.

The premise: most browser-based "Arduino simulators" fake compilation or skip it entirely. FUNDI's backend actually shells out to Arduino CLI for a real build, surfaces real compiler errors, and drives AVR8js for simulation off the compiled output — the circuit canvas and code editor are just the frontend for that pipeline.

Architecture, briefly:

• Frontend: Next.js/React, Zustand for state, React Flow for the circuit canvas, synced to a multi-file code editor
• Backend: FastAPI service that wraps Arduino CLI for compile/upload, plus an AI generation endpoint (Gemini/OpenRouter) for prompt-to-circuit/code
• Some validation on the backend: path/file safety checks in the compile flow, serial port validation before upload, Pydantic-typed request payloads
• Boards: Uno/Nano/Mega have stable compile + simulation; ESP32 DevKit V1 and Pi Pico compile but simulation is still experimental there

Honest state of things: the live hosted version (https://jamesdesign.me/F.U.N.D.I./) is frontend-only — no backend, so no real compile/sim, just the UI. To get the actual pipeline running, clone the repo (https://github.com/jamesthegreati/F.U.N.D.I./) and run frontend + backend directly — that path is fully tested. There's a Docker Compose path in the README too, but it isn't fully tested yet, so I wouldn't rely on it as-is.

MIT licensed. I'd genuinely value criticism on the backend design and the compile/sim boundary in particular — that's the part I'm least confident is architected well.

I'm about to go quiet for a while (exam prep, back around Nov 22) so replies will be slow, but I'll get to every comment and PR eventually.

Hey r/embedded,

Sharing FUNDI, a project I built starting as my KSEF (Kenya Science and Engineering Fair) entry — won Regional Merit, went on to Nationals and did considerably well there. It's grown past the fair into something I want more technical eyes on.

The premise: most browser-based "Arduino simulators" fake compilation or skip it entirely. FUNDI's backend actually shells out to Arduino CLI for a real build, surfaces real compiler errors, and drives AVR8js for simulation off the compiled output — the circuit canvas and code editor are just the frontend for that pipeline.

Architecture, briefly:

• Frontend: Next.js/React, Zustand for state, React Flow for the circuit canvas, synced to a multi-file code editor
• Backend: FastAPI service that wraps Arduino CLI for compile/upload, plus an AI generation endpoint (Gemini/OpenRouter) for prompt-to-circuit/code
• Some validation on the backend: path/file safety checks in the compile flow, serial port validation before upload, Pydantic-typed request payloads
• Boards: Uno/Nano/Mega have stable compile + simulation; ESP32 DevKit V1 and Pi Pico compile but simulation is still experimental there

Honest state of things: the live hosted version (https://jamesdesign.me/F.U.N.D.I./) is frontend-only — no backend, so no real compile/sim, just the UI. To get the actual pipeline running, clone the repo (https://github.com/jamesthegreati/F.U.N.D.I./) and run frontend + backend directly — that path is fully tested. There's a Docker Compose path in the README too, but it isn't fully tested yet, so I wouldn't rely on it as-is.

MIT licensed. I'd genuinely value criticism on the backend design and the compile/sim boundary in particular — that's the part I'm least confident is architected well.

I'm about to go quiet for a while (exam prep, back around Nov 22) so replies will be slow, but I'll get to every comment and PR eventually.

Hey r/SideProject,

Backstory: I'm a high school student in Kenya. FUNDI started as my project for the Kenya Science and Engineering Fair — won Regional Merit, went on to Nationals, and did considerably well there. That validation is basically what convinced me to keep building it into something real instead of letting it die as a school project.

What it is now: a workbench that puts a visual circuit canvas, a multi-file code editor, and an AI assistant in one place for Arduino/ESP32 development. You can describe what you want to build ("blink an LED," "read a temperature sensor") and it generates the wiring and code together. The backend actually compiles your code with Arduino CLI and simulates it with AVR8js — it's not a mockup.

Where it's at:

• Live demo (https://jamesdesign.me/F.U.N.D.I./) — this is UI-only right now, no backend, so you can explore the design/interaction but nothing actually compiles or runs there yet.
• The real thing (https://github.com/jamesthegreati/F.U.N.D.I./) works end-to-end when you run the frontend and backend directly — that path is fully tested. There's also a Docker Compose option in progress that isn't fully reliable yet.

Solo build, MIT licensed, definitely has rough edges. What I want most right now is feedback — does the concept make sense, is the UI confusing, would you actually use something like this over Wokwi/Tinkercad if the backend were solid?

One caveat: I'm about to disappear into exam prep and won't be able to respond quickly until around Nov 22. I'll still read every comment, so don't hold back — I'll just be slow to reply for a bit.

Hey r/embedded,

Sharing FUNDI, a project I built starting as my KSEF (Kenya Science and Engineering Fair) entry — won Regional Merit, went on to Nationals and did considerably well there. It's grown past the fair into something I want more technical eyes on.

The premise: most browser-based "Arduino simulators" fake compilation or skip it entirely. FUNDI's backend actually shells out to Arduino CLI for a real build, surfaces real compiler errors, and drives AVR8js for simulation off the compiled output — the circuit canvas and code editor are just the frontend for that pipeline.

Architecture, briefly:

• Frontend: Next.js/React, Zustand for state, React Flow for the circuit canvas, synced to a multi-file code editor
• Backend: FastAPI service that wraps Arduino CLI for compile/upload, plus an AI generation endpoint (Gemini/OpenRouter) for prompt-to-circuit/code
• Some validation on the backend: path/file safety checks in the compile flow, serial port validation before upload, Pydantic-typed request payloads
• Boards: Uno/Nano/Mega have stable compile + simulation; ESP32 DevKit V1 and Pi Pico compile but simulation is still experimental there

Honest state of things: the live hosted version (https://jamesdesign.me/F.U.N.D.I./) is frontend-only — no backend, so no real compile/sim, just the UI. To get the actual pipeline running, clone the repo (https://github.com/jamesthegreati/F.U.N.D.I.) and run frontend + backend directly — that path is fully tested. There's a Docker Compose path in the README too, but it isn't fully tested yet, so I wouldn't rely on it as-is.

MIT licensed. I'd genuinely value criticism on the backend design and the compile/sim boundary in particular — that's the part I'm least confident is architected well.

I'm about to go quiet for a while (exam prep, back around Nov 22) so replies will be slow, but I'll get to every comment and PR eventually.