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I’m an application developer by day, but lately Claude Code and Codex have finally made microcontrollers approachable enough for me to start tinkering with them

I’m an application developer by day, but lately Claude Code and Codex have finally made microcontrollers approachable enough for me to start tinkering with them on the side. I built this little “holographic” display that shows the surf forecast for any beach. While my friend built the casing, and mechanical part of it https://x.com/paulnovacovici/status/2041722840190480581?s=46&t=J1Gx8KuGdsiePFlZ06Dg9w https://x.com/paulnovacovici/status/2041722840190480581?s=46...

_def 5mo ago
any details on the display itself?
- paulnovacovici 5mo ago
  Display is part of a dev kit EPS32-s3, and the holographic part is an illusion called “peppers ghost”
  - mikestorrent 5mo ago
    Beautiful piece of kit. I have no idea how it works from looking at it, fantastic. Please do post a full writeup on it.
    - narmiouh 5mo ago
      Its a pretty straight forward technique, the display is at the bottom and in the glass cube there is a mirror at 45 degree angle facing you (you can see the mirrors edge on the side wall) which reflects the image from the display at the bottom making it look like a hologram
      - danparsonson 5mo ago
        You can create the same effect on a smart phone screen with a video like this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CIszi2Kv_lk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CIszi2Kv_lk and a some clear plastic sheet put together like this: https://www.twowaymirrors.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/peppers-ghost.jpg https://www.twowaymirrors.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pep... OP: beautiful work with your surf projector!
        paulnovacovici 5mo ago
        Yup! We first started very similar with a phone and testing out the illusion then moved over to a microcontroller for a little nightstand device
        deskamess 5mo ago
        Do you happen to have instructions on how to build the plastic sheet setup or perhaps a pointer to something that I can buy?
        danparsonson 5mo ago
        You can do it by cutting and folding a sheet of clear acetate or similar from a net like this: https://wp.optics.arizona.edu/oscoutreach/wp-content/uploads/sites/75/2018/04/IMG_2051.jpg https://wp.optics.arizona.edu/oscoutreach/wp-content/uploads... Or you could cut the four sides separately and just sellotape them together. edit: not much help without measurements sorry - try this: https://www.holeinthewallgang.org/Customer-Content/www/CMS/files/crafts/STEM_info_sheets_for_events_Page_02.jpg https://www.holeinthewallgang.org/Customer-Content/www/CMS/f... The required angles appear to be 54 or 126 degrees: https://data.formsbank.com/pdf_docs_html/304/3049/304991/page_1_thumb_big.png https://data.formsbank.com/pdf_docs_html/304/3049/304991/pag...
pastel8739 5mo ago
This is super cool. At first I thought the “tank” on top was filled with water—I wonder what it would look like if it were

_def 5mo ago

any details on the display itself?

paulnovacovici 5mo ago
Display is part of a dev kit EPS32-s3, and the holographic part is an illusion called “peppers ghost”
- mikestorrent 5mo ago
  Beautiful piece of kit. I have no idea how it works from looking at it, fantastic. Please do post a full writeup on it.
  - narmiouh 5mo ago
    Its a pretty straight forward technique, the display is at the bottom and in the glass cube there is a mirror at 45 degree angle facing you (you can see the mirrors edge on the side wall) which reflects the image from the display at the bottom making it look like a hologram
    - danparsonson 5mo ago
      You can create the same effect on a smart phone screen with a video like this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CIszi2Kv_lk https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CIszi2Kv_lk and a some clear plastic sheet put together like this: https://www.twowaymirrors.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/peppers-ghost.jpg https://www.twowaymirrors.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pep... OP: beautiful work with your surf projector!
      - paulnovacovici 5mo ago
        Yup! We first started very similar with a phone and testing out the illusion then moved over to a microcontroller for a little nightstand device
      - deskamess 5mo ago
        Do you happen to have instructions on how to build the plastic sheet setup or perhaps a pointer to something that I can buy?
        danparsonson 5mo ago
        You can do it by cutting and folding a sheet of clear acetate or similar from a net like this: https://wp.optics.arizona.edu/oscoutreach/wp-content/uploads/sites/75/2018/04/IMG_2051.jpg https://wp.optics.arizona.edu/oscoutreach/wp-content/uploads... Or you could cut the four sides separately and just sellotape them together. edit: not much help without measurements sorry - try this: https://www.holeinthewallgang.org/Customer-Content/www/CMS/files/crafts/STEM_info_sheets_for_events_Page_02.jpg https://www.holeinthewallgang.org/Customer-Content/www/CMS/f... The required angles appear to be 54 or 126 degrees: https://data.formsbank.com/pdf_docs_html/304/3049/304991/page_1_thumb_big.png https://data.formsbank.com/pdf_docs_html/304/3049/304991/pag...

pastel8739 5mo ago

This is super cool. At first I thought the “tank” on top was filled with water—I wonder what it would look like if it were