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u/ikilim

r/YouTubeCreators r/esp32
I Built most meaningful Esp32 project even until this for me
▲ 32 r/esp32

I Built most meaningful Esp32 project even until this for me

Hey everyone!

I wanted to share a project that recently became incredibly meaningful to me. I’ve been building my own DIY Tamagotchi using an ESP32-C3 and a 1.69-inch ST7789 display.

While I was right in the middle of working on the firmware, my orange cat, Tarçın, managed to run away from home. I was absolutely devastated because he’s truly the happiest part of my life. Thankfully, he showed back up at the door a day later, completely exhausted but completely safe.

That scare completely changed how I looked at this build. To celebrate him being home, I used Gemini AI to help me sketch out pixel art frames of his likeness and coded him directly into the hardware as the main character! Now, he lives on my desk as a virtual pet companion. You can feed him, play mini-games, clean up the room, and put him to sleep—just like a classic Tamagotchi.

🛠️ The Hardware Setup

  • MCU: ESP32-C3 (Handmade compact dev board layout)
  • Display: 1.69-inch ST7789 screen (240x280 resolution)
  • Inputs: 3x Tactile buttons using internal INPUT_PULLUP (no external resistors needed!)
  • Audio: A small buzzer for game alerts

💻 Make It Your Own (Completely Open Source!)

The software is written in the Arduino IDE (v2.3.10). I designed it with a highly modular layout split into specific files like character, input, display, and sprites so anyone can modify it. It’s fully open-source under the GPL-3 license.

If you want to immortalize your own pet into a handheld virtual pet, I made sure the sprite logic is straightforward to swap out. If you keep your custom animations at a 90x90 resolution, you can just convert your images to a hex matrix and paste them straight into the code!

🎥 Watch the Step-by-Step Guide & Full Demo:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zm_Z1XUjkTI

💻 Grab the Schematic & Source Code on GitHub:

https://github.com/derdacavga/Esp32-Tamagotchi

(Quick tip for anyone trying to build this: If you run into flash memory limits adding tons of custom pet animations, try swapping the screen for a lower-resolution ST7735 display! It frees up massive memory for extra frame assets.)

Let me know what you think, or if you have any ideas for mini-games I should add to the next software update!

youtu.be
u/ikilim — 1 day ago
▲ 23 r/esp32

I got tired of checking 5 different apps for my stats, so I built a custom ESP32-C3 Info Dashboard from scratch! 🚀

Hey everyone!

Normally, checking all my project and channel stats means going through them one by one—AdMob, Cults3D, Google Console, YouTube Analytics... it takes a massive amount of time. So, I decided to build a custom hardware device to handle the whole process easily in one place.

Here is a breakdown of how it works and what went into it:

The Hardware 🛠️

  • The Brains: At the heart of the project is the ESP32-C3 microcontroller. It pulls data directly from the Google Cloud Console, processes it, and pushes it right to the screen.
  • The Screen: I went with a 1.69-inch ST7789 display breakout board, which gives great color and clarity for the custom UI.
  • The Build: The project is completely handmade. I used thin wire to solder everything together, along with 3 tactile buttons for navigation, a buzzer, a voltage regulator, resistors, and capacitors. If you want to replicate it, you can easily use a standard module or an ESP32-C3 mini dev board and it will work perfectly.

Software & Features 💻

  • Custom Graphics: On the software side, I'm using my own custom DSN_Esp32C3_St7789 C++ library to optimize the graphics and ensure smooth page transitions. https://github.com/derdacavga/DSN-Esp32C3-St7789
  • Secure APIs: It handles API connections through OAuth 2.0 to securely pull subscriber counts and watch time data. (It actually helped me track my goal of 4,000 public watch hours for monetization!)
  • The Metrics: Aside from YouTube, the dashboard tracks my AdMob revenue (from my published mobile games), local weather, currency, last video analytics, and system info. My Games https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=8406385846001418216&hl=En
  • OTA Updates: I added Over-The-Air (OTA) software updating, so it checks to see if a new update is available just like a smartphone or PC.

Because the API portion involves a lot of special permissions, personal information, and complex routing with the ArduinoJson library, I won't be sharing the raw source code publicly just yet. However, if there's enough interest from the community, I’d love to make a long, dedicated tutorial explaining how to do it step-by-step!

I hope this inspires someone out there to build their own digital database instead of writing down new values day after day. It's nothing too hard to make, even with one-by-one thin wire soldering.

Let me know what you think, and what features you would add to a dashboard like this!

Tutorial : https://youtu.be/nwfFMH2-OHI

u/ikilim — 20 days ago
▲ 2 r/esp32

I made a tiny Game Console from old broken Smartwatch and Electronic Boards

I made a tiny game console from old broken smartwatch and electronic boards. In this project I used

St7789 1.3 display
Esp32-C3 Module
3 Tactile Button
On-Off Slide Switch
Tp4056 Charger module
Tiny Battery
3D printed Parts for a case

Project completely handmade. I use too much thin cables. The main purpose of this project was to demonstrate that building something new from usable parts salvaged from old, broken devices isn't as difficult as it may seem. I hope it inspires others to give it a try.

Source Code : https://github.com/derdacavga/Tiny-Game-Console
3D Model : https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/diy-tiny-game-console-1-3-st7789-display-esp32-c3

youtu.be
u/ikilim — 1 month ago
▲ 167 r/esp32

I made Esp3 Xiaozhi Ai Voice Assistant

Video Tutorial : https://youtu.be/hBlcBcnU5mk
Xiaozhi : https://xiaozhi.me/console/agents
Source Code : https://github.com/78/xiaozhi-esp32

In this project I used.

Esp32-16R8 Dev Board
st7789 1.69" tft Display
Inmp441 Mems Microphone
Max98357a I2s amplifier

Project based on custom board configuration and Compiling on Esp-IDF. Also you need a vs code studio. In tutorial video I showed. How you can make it. No claude Server Needed. Completely open source. I think guest this is easiest way to make a chatbot with esp32 development board.

I like that. This isn't just a fun project. Must be check it

u/ikilim — 2 months ago