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Lab · ESP32 · ESP8266 · Arduino

Internal projects

The lab: firmware that recovers on its own

Here we test, on ESP32, ESP8266 and Arduino boards, the same ideas we later use in software: secure connections, commands that never run twice, sensible retries and systems that get back up on their own after a failure. These are internal projects: we don’t sell them as products.

Reviewed on October 21, 2026 against the lab’s code (the arduinoPersonal and arduinoItems repos).

Jake

In daily use

ESP8266 · NodeMCU

An ESP8266 that turns on a PC remotely (Wake-on-LAN and button), answers to Alexa and watches websites, alerting if they go down.

  • Turns the PC on with a pulse to the motherboard button or with Wake-on-LAN
  • Takes commands from the weSmile chat over a verified TLS connection
  • Watches up to 8 websites: alerts when they go down and when they come back
  • If it runs out of memory or internet it restarts itself and keeps a “black box” of the last crash

Smart feeder

Prototype

ESP32 · servo

An ESP32 with a servo, web panel and Alexa that feeds the fish tank on schedule.

  • A servo delivers the portion at the scheduled time
  • A web panel on the local network to control it
  • Answers to Alexa and updates over the network (OTA)

WiFi portal

Reusable piece

ESP32

Set up a device’s network from your phone, without recompiling the firmware.

  • The board opens its own network with a page to pick the WiFi
  • The chosen network is saved in flash memory
  • The same page is used by the Pidboy handheld console

VS Code Web

Internal tool

Windows · Electron · Docker

A Windows desktop app that starts a Docker development environment from the system tray.

  • Runs VS Code in the browser inside a Docker container
  • Controlled from the system tray icon
  • Installed with a Windows installer

What the lab teaches our software

01

A command never runs twice

Jake saves where it is before running each command: if the command restarts it, it won’t run it again when it comes back.

02

Retry before raising the alarm

A site only counts as down after two failures in a row. False alarms teach people to ignore alarms.

03

Recover on its own

Out of memory or offline, the board restarts itself and reports why it crashed when it boots.

04

Nobody is left waiting

Each loop does a single task, so it keeps answering Alexa and the cloud while it watches the sites.

Other prototypes

  • An analog clock with NTP time on a TFT screen
  • Pidboy: a handheld console with menu, buttons and screen
  • An Arduino Mega and an ESP32 linked over serial to move a motor from the cloud

What’s not there yet

None of the lab’s firmware has automated tests yet, and several prototypes serve their panel without a password: that’s why they only live on the local network and are never published to the internet. It’s a lab, not a product.

Does your project need hardware?

If your system has to talk to a board or a sensor, tell us what you need and we’ll look at it together.

Let’s talk about your project