🌈 ESP32-S3 Rainbow: ZX Spectrum Emulator Board! Get it on Crowd Supply →

Christmas tree train!

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This thing is obnoxiously loud, so I crack it open and do a bit of surgery to tame the volume. If you want one to mess with yourself, they’re on sale—and if you want to help me buy more nonsense, all the usual links are below.

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10¢ MCU Brain Surgery - CH32V003 - I crack open a punchy little toy, show how the original just squishes two contacts to light the eye LEDs off a pair of LR41s, then perform some brain surgery to cram in a tiny lithium cell and my own board that triggers lights—and an incredibly annoying tune—on each punch. It sips about 7 µA in deep sleep and wakes via a yellow trigger wire, but the soldering was fiddly and full of swearing. Tape it up, cram it back in the head, and yes, it works a treat… maybe too well, because the beeping is driving me mad.
Tearing Down a Bistable Cholesteric Display - So, I finally tried out this bistable cholesteric display from my AliExpress stash after seeing Big Clive's teardown. It's super cool to play with, and I mean, it just clears up with a button press after you scribble on it. Gave it a whirl to understand the voltage involved and even ended up sparking it with some reverse polarity action (not the smartest move, I know). I might've broken it, but hey, it still sort of works manually. Check out Big Clive for a deeper dive into its reverse engineering, and remember to like and subscribe!

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Brain Surgery - I cracked open a cheap Halloween toy, found the super-simple LED + LR41 setup with the arm-as-switch trick, and swapped the ‘empty head’ for my own CH32V003 + buzzer PCB. Now it screams as well as shines—powered by a small lithium cell for extra volume because if you’re going to be annoying, do it properly. New schematic, new brains, same spooky vibes.
Tearing Down a Bistable Cholesteric Display - I recently dug out my bistable cholesteric display and decided to see how it works after being inspired by Big Clive's teardown. This nifty gadget, which allows you to write and erase with just a button, operates on bistable cholesteric crystals without needing constant power. Measuring the clear voltage showed around 30V, and a little experimentation confirmed its dependency on polarity. Despite a minor spark mishap, it's still a neat, low-power device. If you're interested, you can grab one from AliExpress for some hands-on fun.
Crowdfunding Success - Was it worth it? - I embarked on a thrilling adventure of turning a nifty idea into a tangible product — the ESP32 Rainbow, a Sinclair Spectrum-inspired gadget that merges retro vibes with modern tech. With the brains of an ESP32-S3, capacitive touch, a built-in display, and some snazzy UV silk screen printing, it's a little marvel that got crowdfunded successfully. But, oh boy, was the journey enlightening — from grappling with pricing conundrums and the bureaucracy of certifications to the harrowing odyssey of international shipping. While it didn't line my pockets with gold, seeing people enjoy something I created is worth all the sweat and jitters. Would I do it again? Well, maybe if lightning strikes twice with another great idea.
Look at my shiny crystal balls - Just upgraded my basic AliExpress crystal balls with some tech wizardry - I've thrown in an ESP32-S3-MINI, a mic, and made them battery powered. Thanks to WLED software, they're now smart and responsive! Shared the KiCAD project for fellow tinkerers. Check out my video to see these balls in action!
10 Cent Music Machine - I built a tiny coin‑cell music board around the $0.10 WCH CH32V003J4M6 (8‑pin, 48MHz RISC‑V, 16K flash/2K RAM). The PCB is just 16.3×11.7mm with a piezo buzzer and transistor, and in standby it sips 7–8µA. I did hit a snag: playback caused 130mA peaks that browned out a CR2032. A LiPo fixed it, but I really wanted coin‑cell, so I upped the buzzer’s base resistor to 10k, dropping peaks to 56mA and average to ~7mA—now it runs happily (and loudly) from a coin cell. Pro tip: if standby bricks programming, wlink can erase via power-off mode. I’m bit‑banging audio, published a simple MIDI→buzzer tool with a 1‑bit SFX generator, and all the code’s on GitHub.

I think we might need to do a bit of surgery on this to turn the volume down…



If you want one for yourself - they are on sale: https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_c4BuZuJL




If you’d like to help support the channel and help me buy more nonsense - I have a Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/atomic14



We’ve also got a shop now! https://shop.atomic14.com



And if you’re shopping on AliExpress or Amazon then if you click on these links I will get a little bit of affiliate money:



Aliexpress - https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Ac05mF
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HELP SUPPORT MY WORK: If you're feeling flush then please stop by Patreon Or you can make a one off donation via ko-fi
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atomic14

A collection of slightly mad projects, instructive/educational videos, and generally interesting stuff. Building projects around the Arduino and ESP32 platforms - we'll be exploring AI, Computer Vision, Audio, 3D Printing - it may get a bit eclectic...

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