The ESP32 microcontroller has become hugely popular in the worlds of DIY electronics and smart home automation. You can use the small chips to build an enormous range of different things at relatively low prices. One of the biggest barriers for people dipping their toes into the world of ESP32 is the fear of having to get stuck in with a soldering iron, but there are plenty of genius ESP32 projects that don’t require any soldering at all.
A Bluetooth proxy
Make Bluetooth devices part of your smart home
This is one of the easiest projects you can do with an ESP32, because it doesn’t require any additional hardware at all. You don’t need to worry about soldering when everything you need is already built into your ESP32.
Bluetooth is intended for short-range communication, and if your Bluetooth device is too far away from the device running your smart home software, it won’t be able to communicate directly. A Bluetooth proxy can communicate with your devices using Bluetooth, and with your smart home software over Wi-Fi. You can use a Bluetooth proxy to help Home Assistant communicate with supported Bluetooth devices that would otherwise be out of range.
Since both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are already found on most ESP32 boards, all you need to do is flash ESPHome’s Bluetooth proxy firmware, and your Bluetooth proxy is ready to get to work.
Build a tiny local voice assistant
Alexa, you’re fired
Cloud-based voice assistants such as Alexa are easy to use, but they come with a lot of downsides. One of the biggest is that what you say to them gets sent to third-party servers, so you’re sacrificing your privacy for convenience.
A local voice assistant can run on your own hardware, so that nothing you say needs to leave your home. You’re also not reliant on cloud servers being up or your home’s internet connection; if your home network is still up, your local voice assistant can still function.
You can buy ready-made ESP32 development kits that have everything you need already on board. Options such as the M5Stack Atom Voice include an ESP32, an integrated microphone and speaker, a built-in speech-to-text (STT) service, and audio recording and playback, and cost as little as around $13. You can use one to set up your own local voice assistant and say goodbye to proprietary smart speakers.
Why ESPHome is the smart home protocol everyone is switching to (and how to get started)
Accessible to beginners with endless possibilities.
A mailbox delivery sensor
It doesn’t matter if there’s no Wi-Fi at your mailbox
While an ESP32 can work by using your home Wi-Fi for communication, it’s not the only option. You can also use ESP-NOW, Espressif’s peer-to-peer protocol that allows ESP32 devices to talk to each other wirelessly even if your home Wi-Fi is down.
One of the benefits is that you can use an ESP32 in places where your Wi-Fi signal doesn’t reach. For example, you can build a mailbox delivery sensor by connecting a contact sensor to an ESP32 and fixing it to your mailbox. The ESP32 can then communicate directly with another ESP32 in your home which can turn on an LED to indicate when mail has arrived.
If you don’t want to do any soldering, you’ll need to choose a pre-soldered ESP32 board, and a contact sensor that can connect with jumper wires or screw terminals. You should be able to find no-solder options that you can use.
An ESP32-powered device tracker
Never lose your keys or phone again
Do you regularly put your phone or keys down, only to forget where you left them? Instead of hunting around the house feeling like an idiot, you can build your own local device tracker that can tell you which room the items are currently in.
This is another useful project that doesn’t require any additional hardware at all. All you need are multiple ESP32 devices and a phone or Bluetooth tag that advertises a signal your ESP32 devices can detect. You can use the ESP32 BLE tracker component to turn your ESP32s into Bluetooth scanners that measure the signal strength from Bluetooth devices such as your phone or a Bluetooth tracker attached to your keyring. By comparing the signal strength from different ESP32s around your home, you can get a fairly accurate picture of where each device is located.
Build your own bed sensor
Perfect for morning and bedtime automations
Morning and bedtime routines are a common part of smart homes. Having your home shut itself down for the evening by turning out the lights and shutting off devices is a great way to save yourself the effort. In the morning, another automation can start up everything you need and turn on the appropriate lights.
Getting your smart home to trigger these automations at the right time can be a challenge. A good solution is to use a bed presence sensor that can determine when you get into bed and when you get up.
You can build a bed presence sensor in various ways, including by attaching some cheap car seat occupancy sensors to an ESP32. To avoid soldering, you’ll need to use a pre-soldered ESP32 board and connect the pressure sensors using breadboard jumper cables. By adding more sensors, you may even be able to determine not just when someone is in bed, but how many people.
Don’t be scared of ESP32 projects
If you’ve never tried soldering, or your only efforts have been messy disasters, the good news is that there are plenty of ESP32 projects that don’t need any soldering at all. In some cases, you’ll need to ensure you buy the right boards and sensors to avoid soldering, but there’s a lot you can do with an ESP32 without adding any additional hardware at all.
