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Engineering the smart home.
ESP32. Apple HomeKit. Real projects and guides for people who build their own smart home instead of buying one.
Projects
Builds worth copying.
From ESP32 sensors to 3D-printed enclosures, full write-ups, not just photos.
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HomeKit
Your own accessories.
Bring ESP32 hardware into Apple Home, no hub required, no subscriptions.
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Guides
Pinouts. Tutorials. Answers.
ESP32, Arduino and ATtiny reference guides, written so you actually finish the project.
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A new post every Tuesday.
ESP32-S3-CAM-OVxxxx Pinout (Waveshare)
The complete pin reference for the Waveshare ESP32-S3-CAM-OVxxxx: camera, microSD, audio, display, I2C and UART connectors, the I/O expander and how to program it.
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The library, at a glance
- Guides published
- 73
- Projects documented
- 67
- Ecosystems: Apple HomeKit and Matter
- 2
Articles per section
Horizontal bar chart, axis from 0 to 75 articles. Guides: 73. Projects: 67. HomeKit: 42. An article can appear in more than one section.
- Guides 73
- Projects 67
- HomeKit 42
Matter device types verified on real hardware
The rest are build-verified, not yet tested on real hardware.
Guides and projects
Real hardware. Real answers.
Electronics
Building a micro-Duck, Part 2: The Hardware
Every part you need for the XGO-Duck, what it does, and what to check before you order. A shopping list based on the official parts list, with a checklist for when the boxes arrive.
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CNC
CNC 3018 PRO: Build, Control and Program It
A complete guide to the CNC 3018 PRO: the parts, the build, a Raspberry Pi with CNCjs and a camera, a Fusion 360 job and the bits to choose.
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Reference
1.28-Inch GC9A01 Round TFT Display: Complete Guide
The 1.28-inch GC9A01 is a small round color display with 240 x 240 pixels and a simple SPI connection. It is popular for gauges, watch faces and robot eyes. This guide covers the pinout, wiring to an ESP32, two code examples and the limits you should know.
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HomeKit
Guide to ESP32 HomeKit QR Codes
An elegant tool to generate a full HomeKit pairing label, complete with a scannable QR code, setup code, MAC address and barcoded serials, so provisioning an ESP32 HomeKit accessory looks as polished as a real Apple-certified product.
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Reference
MCP23017 16-Bit I/O Expander: Complete Guide
Add 16 fully configurable GPIO pins to a pin-limited board over a two-wire I2C bus, with per-pin pull-ups and interrupt-on-change. Pinout of the MCU-2317 breakout, I2C address selection, registers, an ESP-IDF example and the limits from the datasheet.
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Reference
CC1101 868MHz SPI RF Module – Complete Guide
A programmable sub-GHz transceiver for the 868 MHz ISM band with hardware packet handling, CRC and RSSI built in. The pinout of the module with labeled diagrams, ESP32 wiring, ESP-IDF SPI setup, register configuration, and how it compares to LoRa.
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Electronics
Building a Budget BD-X Droid, Part 1: The Plan
Disney’s BD-X droid can’t be bought, but an open-source project recreates it at 42 cm. In this series I build it step by step, explain every word along the way, and show what it costs and what goes wrong.
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Reference
ESP8266 Pinout
The complete pin reference for the ESP8266 NodeMCU board: all 30 pins with GPIO numbers, boot pins, flash pins, power and programming.
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Software
ESP32 Matter: 69 Open-Source Smart-Home Devices, No Cloud Required
A from-scratch toolkit for building Matter smart-home devices on the ESP32: 69 real, buildable device types, a wizard that writes the build commands for you, and nothing that phones home.
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Electronics
Building a micro-Duck, Part 1: The Plan
A small duck-shaped biped that walks with a model trained in simulation, built around an Arduino UNO Q. In this series I build it step by step, explain every word along the way, and show what it costs and what goes wrong.
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About Studio Pieters
Every build, fully documented.
Studio Pieters is where ESP32 hardware, Apple HomeKit and
3D-printed enclosures come together, documented
so anyone can rebuild it.
Start here