r/electronics • u/paulsimpngl • 26d ago
Project Ultisense - A devboard to sense as many things as possible
After a lot of learning I finally designed and manufactured my own custom (working) PCB! it's an esp32s3 devboard, with as many sensors as you can think of: NFC, IMU, VOC, humidity/temperature, color/ambient light, magnetometer, microphone, speakers, sd card, I2C expansion. I'm a high school student, so this definitely took a lot of help from people who knew what they were doing, and two failed circuit boards before this lol.
Most recently I've used it for a rhythm game I made, where using the IMU let me make a beatsaber-style anime game of bad apple!
open source at https://github.com/darshg321/Ultisense
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u/Katent1 26d ago
Don't use ai to write your code.
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u/McDonaldsWitchcraft 26d ago
you are getting downvoted but I don't understand why. yes, the firmware is obviously AI. No one uses unicode characters like ± and em dashes so much in comments without AI.
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u/Memerenok capacitor 26d ago
how it feels to be the only human to use ±
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u/McDonaldsWitchcraft 26d ago
in some cases, having to save source files as unicode is an annoyance way beyond the "esthetics" of adding a ± sign.
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u/amestrianphilosopher 21d ago
That’s… not at all how text files work. Unicode is just a standard that assigns each character to a number
Almost every text based file type uses at least utf8 now so you’re fine. I’d be shocked if you were working with any that didn’t, even vscode saves as utf8 out of the box
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u/myself248 25d ago
For real.
I installed a compose-key input method so I could have Ω and µ for electronics, and got ≠ and ± for free. And so much more! I am now constantly disappointed by people's naïveté — perhaps because they don't realize their keyboard can do it too — who assume I'm the AI-regurgitated writings of academics and other language snobs, rather than just a first-generation snob myself.
At least I can properly write Toys `Я` Us and NIИ.
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u/McDonaldsWitchcraft 25d ago
I have a compose key on both my phone and PC. Do not make silly assumptions. You're not the only one who discovered how to input unicode characters linux-style.
And yet, I would not go as far as to throw unicode characters all over source code because I know portability can become an issue when you have old ass hardware like the shit I play around with.
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u/capsicum_fondler 25d ago
I use AI to write all my ESP code as well.
Before AI the coding would make me pull my hair out, but now it’s a breeze. I don’t really care about fully understanding the code, I care about creating something fun and useful.
With the ongoing rapid advance in the quality of the AI generated code I don’t see any personal value in spending time to learn it.
I just love making things, and with code being a solved problem I can spend my mental effort on the more creative aspects instead!
So I downvote him because I (1) don’t agree with him, and (2) find it rude when OP is just a teenager who’s new to the hobby and have achieved something that’s fun and meaningful to them.
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u/ZheWeasel 25d ago
You are not really creating something then are you. You ask someone else to do it and dont understand it.
Also. Coding might be "solved". Debugging is fcking not. Stop quoting/bootlicking the Ai ceo's telling you lies.
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u/masterX244 25d ago
Debugging is fcking not.
And hardware got surprising ways to throw wrenches into your way. stuff being slightly off-spec or other quirks that you need to measure out can send you on long bughunts....
Currently fighting one with micro-sd-cards where larger ones misbehave just a bit so stuff starts to not work under some circumstances
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u/diffusionist1492 19d ago
Yes, you are. You didn't build your computer, build your tool chain, wherever you want to draw the line...
Also, debugging isn't hard either. Just write skills to use your scope or other lab equipment over usb, ethernet, com.... whatever. I design industrial products for a living and do this. You're just going to be left in the dust like the old turds who thought the internet was a fad.
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u/Katent1 25d ago edited 25d ago
Then you shooting yourself in the foot. Don't get me wrong, i've been there, i used them too even to write whole programs ready, and no you don't even know how much i used them, a fuck ton, think of multiple subscriptions and so on with friends, all we cancelled. And i'm saying, don't, bc all are flawed and all have same problems, starting off with hallucinations. And no you hadn't envounterd it, it's not oh it written a thing, a bit more/less, changed number , somewhat it keeps thinking of something else ect. These are ones repetable, between different models tho they are not as much as they all orginate from somewhat similiar coding engine. I'm saying of a prompt, rewritten in multiple of ways, more than your nuddle could think of, asking with or without something else, with different background and so on. All failed, all had same hallucination. And this is not common, it's rare, but if you encounter it you gonna take more time walking over and over with clanker, retyping it, showing it examples ect. It won't matter it's code won't ever run on any of boards. And that's enough of not using it as it was more frustrating than ever, but pushed me to learn programming. And so be clear, i'm not a programmer, but i do understand code, and ecen then no, you are not, whatever shit clanker does spill for you u don't understand it fully. It's human thing, even if you read it multiple of times a command or two missing inside will not strike you nor hallucinating clanker yet it will break your code from working properly. Another thing is gasliting, as it can shit out function or two that don't exist or doesn't work as it says so and thank god if it gets triggered early on and not in that one provided situation used as safety/very, very rare need in code. Also for subscriptions it won't tell you what version it used of given library like ms copilot would freeze or search for newest to blab it out, lying of truth behind it. Then usuals, if you provide code with expected style of comments and it won't recomment it like you want - don't use it at all, as it doesn't recognise when to use itself as llm or its coding engine and so on. As for now i still use them but for writing a function, an example of a bit of code, all above i said besides moral views on clankers but with this one you tap in that stolen knowledge their companies take on and get as much of that function written by someone before without much of their tweaking. I highly recommend almost dumb models for thatz yea they won't type whole code or finctioning script but in that packed "neural" whatever they just got compressed, raw code from someone, bits lost by that "compression". And that's what i think of it, dude will fell by sticking to it, yea it's good for practicing coding, helping with project but outside of that it's just a bunch of lies, bunch of monetary pushes made by these multi billion companies, even that "oh it hacks whatever it finds" claude is fucking useless when it starts acting like that. And no, they won't ever get better - i mean these hallucinations will be less and less of so, but it's not like with animation sloppers or whatever, these kept just expanding ability to remember previous scenes and that pushed them where they are. With coders such hallucinations could be less and less frequent, but just moment it starts acting these hallucinations will be worse and worse, as only way they fixing them is by teching them to gaslight you about given problem, why it can't tackle it down, or for itself as they often run like recursive function but if they start looping between results that in past led to hallucinations then they break everything. I have rn mistral instruct 3 8b, qwen 3.6 27b fable from davidAU for testing and qwen 3.5 coder 9B (this one much mode as it's somewhat running on my 3070, tho if i need i just leave it for a while). I fully recommend local ones, maybe not that big ones but they are much better for just privacy reasons and also bc they convineantly more remember to not gaslight in comparison to these on cloud. Edit: And still, for a fraction of the code, that's it. You need to be able to type same thing, just longer in comparison, and not get just vibe that you will able to, u need to know how, that's what understanding code means.
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u/diffusionist1492 19d ago
Imagine writing this much, it making no sense, and being wrong as well...
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u/Katent1 19d ago edited 19d ago
Welp that's just my experience, i don't follow tech blindly after that and i wouldn't thrust any more of what it's writing other more than it's being like compressed wiki knowledge of certain programming problems. Might change thing here or there so write me a tiny snippet i can analyse, rewriting with my safety measures at max, or check code from just another angle that i didn't think of. Edit: Which i highly reccomend, or any other way that don't take your brain out of coding for clanker shit. Also it's need to be said, coding is not hard skill, neighter it takes so much time like other skills do.
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25d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/HoM_a_SiDe 22d ago
For a high-school student this is really sick. Obviously there's room for improvement but keep this up. On the AI generated code though, I have no issues with it being used in the hobbyist space to rapidly develop something but just make sure that you aren't hampering your own learning by overly relying on it.
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u/Least-Common-1456 26d ago
Use AI to write your code if you feel like it and don't listen to people telling you it's bad. It is actually very helpful and those people have no idea what they are talking about.
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u/ZheWeasel 26d ago edited 26d ago
Depends. When you vibecode something just to make it work ... sure. Go ahead and let someone else do it for you.
If you want to actually understand how stuff works? Yeah Ai can help you with reviews and bugsearching but you better do it yourself. Its a great tool. You should not use a nailgun if you dont know how to use a hammer.
But in case you ever switch away from the "esp world" to a "more nieche" controller ai will pretty much screw you over.
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u/eimfach 25d ago edited 25d ago
NO, learn how to use LLMs, and what for and what not for specifically. Don't just use it without thinking about your usage of LLMs. Think about: Why you should use LLMs for in any case, and what it could help you with. Don't mindlessly just use it for everything because you feel like it. If you cannot name your intentions, you are doing it wrong.
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u/Tricker12345 25d ago
It would be far more beneficial to not use AI and instead take this as an opportunity to learn how to code everything necessary for a board like this. Would it be hard? Absolutely. But using AI will ensure that you miss out on that knowledge and learning process
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u/Least-Common-1456 25d ago
That's just your opinion
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u/Tricker12345 25d ago
I do think it's pretty objective that as far as learning goes, if you actually take the time to apply yourself and don't quit when the going gets hard you will learn far more without AI coding for you
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u/Least-Common-1456 25d ago
What do you care if someone learns something? Why should someone learn say, to code if they don't intend to use it again? Why should they be limited to only using their own level of skill when there are more options now? You act as if learning is a moral imperative.
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u/Tricker12345 22d ago
I never said anyone has to learn; I just think you're missing out on a good opportunity to learn if you decide to instead use AI. If we set that completely aside there are many other issues with AI use, such as water and energy usage. So it isn't and never will be worth it in my eyes, no matter which way you spin it
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u/Flamesake 25d ago
And give your children plenty of time with their ipad and don't worry about teaching them to read
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u/pisscumfartshit 26d ago
Exactly! He should be proud of himself making this at such a young age and he can learn to do things the proper way later in college. Hats off to him
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u/ZheWeasel 26d ago
Nice... very nice. Janky Silkscreen but pretty nevertheless.
Two things tho .... is the area left/right supposed to snap off? Dont place components/traces so close to the edges.... and as the other guy said: dont use ai to vibecode please. Especially when learning this stuff.