I saw another inexpensive ESP32 device on Aliexpress and decided to see if it would work well as a smart home controller like Tessera.
The ESP32 display has wifi and Bluetooth, is about 1 3/4 inches in diameter, and has a roughly 240×240 screen.
The code conversion was fairly simple, mainly focused on the display and putting in swipe functionality. Claude did the heavy lifting.
Didn’t turn out as useful as the square panel Tessera I built previously.
The round form factor made designing a stand for it more difficult. When I did get something to work, it just didn’t have a good tactile feel and felt like a chore to use. Also, getting a stand design that allowed me to plug in and route a USB-C cable for power was a bit of a headache.
I made a short video about the controller.
Not every project is an amazing success. Some are just trying something new.
All the code is here: https://github.com/cruftbox/orbis
