Tutorials

We are done with a few basics on PIC microcontrollers. Now it's time to learn how to load a program to the device itself. There are, in fact, plenty of circuits that can load a HEX file to a PIC microcontroller. Older programmers used the classical RS-232 and parallel ports, while …

The ESP32-S3 Mini, often sold as the ESP32-S3 Super Mini, packs a surprisingly powerful ESP32-S3 microcontroller into a board only slightly larger than its USB-C connector. Despite its size, the board gives you a dual-core processor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Low Energy, native USB, PSRAM on some versions, and enough GPIO pins …

The Raspberry Pi Pico 2 looks almost identical to the original Raspberry Pi Pico, but underneath is a significantly more capable microcontroller. The original Pico uses Raspberry Pi's RP2040, while the Pico 2 replaces it with the newer RP2350. The change brings faster processor cores, more RAM, twice the flash …

The APDS-9960 is probably better known as a gesture sensor. It can detect hand movements such as left, right, up, and down, while also providing proximity sensing. However, the same small module also contains red, green, blue, and clear light-sensing channels. This means we can also use the APDS-9960 as …

Adding an antenna to ESP32 can improve Wi-Fi and Bluetooth reliability when the board is installed far from an access point, placed inside an enclosure, or surrounded by components that interfere with its built-in PCB antenna. However, the modification involves more than soldering a piece of wire to the board. …

The ESP32-S3 analog-to-digital converter works well with low-impedance voltage sources. However, problems can appear when the analog signal comes from a high-value resistor divider, a resistive sensor, or another circuit that cannot supply much current. You may notice that the measured voltage is lower than expected, the first reading is …

The ESP32-S3 is commonly powered through its USB port while programming and testing. However, USB power is not always practical for projects installed outdoors, mounted on walls, or placed far from an electrical outlet. In this tutorial, we will build an ESP32-S3 AA battery power supply using two AA cells …

A 16×2 character LCD is enough when you only need to display a few numbers or short messages. However, once your project needs icons, graphs, progress bars, larger fonts, or a proper user interface, a graphical LCD becomes a much better option. In this tutorial, I will show you how …

In this tutorial, we will connect an IR proximity sensor with the ESP32. This sensor is commonly used for obstacle detection, line-following robots, object counters, and simple automation projects where you only need to know if an object is near or not. The common IR proximity sensor module has an …

The RP2040-Zero from Waveshare is one of those boards that looks too small at first glance, but is actually a very capable microcontroller board. It is based on the same RP2040 chip used in the Raspberry Pi Pico, but Waveshare placed it on a much smaller board with a USB-C …