Developer Brisk4t has released ToothPaste V2, an open-source hardware project built on an ESP32-S3 and a cryptographic IC that lets a phone or computer transmit AES-256 encrypted keyboard and mouse commands to any USB-compatible device via Bluetooth Low Energy. The system uses WEB-BLE and requires no drivers, server, or cloud service, and devices must complete a pairing flow before exchanging data. Firmware can be flashed via esptool or similar tools, and the project is available on GitHub.
brisk4t.github.io
· 2026-11-03
A Verge editor assembled a touchscreen AI pendant for $50 using the Waveshare ESP32-S3 1.75C devkit, Meta's officially sanctioned hardware for building 'Muse Gadgets.' The device connects to Meta's Muse AI cloud via open-source code, functioning as a pocket watch, camera viewfinder and voice assistant, though it required significant troubleshooting and custom coding to get working properly.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-31
Engineer Kevin Bates has released the Digital Candle, a $149 device that uses an Espressif ESP32-S3 chip running a custom AI model to simulate a flickering flame across a 9-by-16 grid of 144 amber LEDs. The flame pattern is generated live and never repeats, powered via USB-C, and the device is open source, letting owners repurpose it as a clock or for other simulations like Conway's Game of Life.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-29
An independent developer wrote an assembly-level implementation of the FAST feature detector using the ESP32-S3 microcontroller's 128-bit SIMD instructions, achieving about double the speed of the reference implementation and processing a 320x240 frame in roughly 6 milliseconds. The project, including a custom register allocator called basm, has been published as open-source code.
shraiwi.com
· 2026-10-25
The DOJ says Saudi national Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, an OpenAI employee, hid a $14 Seeed Xiao ESP32-S3 Sense device behind a TV in an executive conference room around Sept. 28, concealing it with toilet paper. The device, which includes a microphone, camera sensor and microSD storage, was discovered days later, and Alfozan was reportedly seen checking on it on Oct. 5 before OpenAI security searched his belongings.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-10-14
A developer released PaperMono Shopping List, an open-source C++ firmware (about 2,400 lines) for the M5Stack PaperMono, an ESP32-S3 device with a 3.97-inch e-paper touchscreen. The firmware turns the device into a fridge-mounted shopping list with touch input, an on-screen keyboard, and a companion mobile web page that keeps the list synced.
github.com
· 2026-09-28
A developer built CoyoPedal, a standalone guitar amp and effects unit powered by the Waveshare ESP32-S3-Touch-AMOLED-2.06 board, capable of running full-size Neural Amp Modeler A2 captures in real time. The device uses a class-compliant USB audio interface, a touchscreen UI compiled from TSX to native C++, and also runs identically on a bare ESP32-S3 module or as a WebAssembly build playable in a browser.
github.com
· 2026-09-26
ESP32 Bit Pirate is a free, open-source firmware project that converts common ESP32-S3 development boards into a versatile bench tool for probing dozens of hardware protocols including I2C, SPI, UART, JTAG, SWD, CAN, LoRa, Wi-Fi and BLE. Users can control it via USB serial, a browser-based Web CLI over Wi-Fi, or Web Serial, and the accompanying web tools support flashing, logic capture and chip programming without installing desktop software.
geo-tp.github.io
· 2026-09-06
A hobbyist project called RotaryCell adds internal electronics to an unmodified rotary telephone, letting it place calls over LTE using an ESP32-S3-based LilyGO board, a battery, and the AG1171 ringer chip, while keeping the original handset, dial, and hook intact. The current release is a documented, hand-wired working prototype on firmware v0.10.4, with new integrated PCBs already ordered from JLCPCB but not yet assembled or validated.
github.com
· 2026-09-01
M5Stack has launched PaperMono, a compact development device combining a 3.97-inch grayscale E-Ink touchscreen with NFC, LoRa, microSD, RTC and a 1150mAh battery, all powered by an ESP32-S3R8 chip. The product ships in two versions: a full model with NFC and LoRa, and a Lite variant that drops those connectivity options for makers focused purely on E-Ink development. It's available now through the M5Stack Store.
shop.m5stack.com
· 2026-08-27
GoKawiil