5 Esp32 Projects That Turned Out More Useful Than Any Store Bought

Emily Johnson

-Mar 12, 2026, 9:15 PM

5 esp32 projects that turned out more useful than any store bought

Last month, a couple of my Tuya-powered smart plugs stopped being responsive over Wi-Fi. When I checked their Home Assistant activity logs, I discovered that Tuya’s servers caused the hiccups. That felt quite familiar, since every time an expensive smart device from a store troubled me. In the past few months, I picked up a couple of ESP32 micro-controllers to build my own smart devices to use with Home Assistant. After discovering a bunch of ESP32-based smart home projects, and even building some, has been a game-changer for my smart home. Any DIY enthusiast who loves tinkering needs to start some ESP32 projects.

Many of them turn out to be more useful than any store-bought smart device. You don't need to splurge to build a smart home One of my neighbors has a store-bought water-level sensor that blares every time their tank fills up, at any hour of the day. But it doesn’t take much to build a DIY water level sensor using an ESP32. You can pick a cheap ultrasonic sensor (JSN-SR04T), which is waterproof, and use it with an ESP32 board to measure the water level. Are you looking to pick up a few ESP32 development boards?

These tiny microcontrollers are super capable and dirt cheap. Here are five ESP32 projects to start you off. The Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C6 is the perfect microcontroller for your next smart home project. The built-in Zigbee and Z-wave radios compliment Matter and Thread support. Plus, with Wi-Fi 6, it'll easily connect to modern wireless networks. I’ve never been a fan of traditional motion detectors.

They’re inaccurate and need active motion to stay triggered. If you used a traditional PIR motion detector in your bathroom to trigger smart lights at night, sitting still for too long would make the lights shut off. Using an ESP32 and a mmWave presence detection sensor, you can actually make something that’s far better than a PIR motion detector. With a mmWave presence detector, it uses radio waves to detect whether there is someone present in the room, not just if there is movement. Some sensors are even accurate enough to detect heart rate—it’s pretty crazy. You can use an ESP32 and one of these sensors to build your own presence detector that integrates with Home Assistant through ESPHome.

The project is fairly simple, requiring just a few components. It can be powered with either USB or a lithium-ion battery (if you get a charge controller), but the rest is really up to you. Top 5 ESP32 Projects You Can Build Today The ESP32 microcontroller has become a favorite in the maker community for its low cost, high performance, and built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities. Whether you’re an electronics hobbyist, IoT developer, or curious beginner, the ESP32 opens up endless possibilities for connected projects. Here are five standout ESP32 projects that are both fun and practical to build.

By pairing the ESP32 with platforms like Home Assistant or ESPHome, you can create a custom home automation system. Add relays to switch household devices, use DHT22 sensors for temperature and humidity, and integrate it with Alexa or Google Home for voice control. Using an ESP32 with environmental sensors like the BME280, you can measure temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure. The ESP32’s Wi-Fi capabilities make it easy to upload data to cloud services or host a web dashboard. Last updated on January 8th, 2026 at 01:46 pm ESP32 is an upgraded version of the famous ESP8266 module developed by Espressif Systems.

The newly added features like an additional core, faster Wi-Fi, and, dual-mode Bluetooth (4.2 and BLE) made it preferable for IoT applications. Today, many enthusiasts prefer this tiny yet powerful SoC (System on Chip) over other development boards. This article presents some new ESP32 projects for enthusiasts that they can try this year. Before we start discussing ESP32 projects, let us see some technical details of the board. This DIY light pollution meter, also known as a free dark sky meter, measures night sky brightness using affordable and easily available components. At its core is an ESP32-C3, responsible for data collection and wireless communication.

You no longer need to spend money on expensive smart devices. If you take your data’s privacy seriously and want your smart home to operate locally, it’s high time to pick up a couple of ESP32 boards. Working with ESP32 does involve some learning curve. However, ESPHome makes things a lot easier and gets you started quickly. Building your own smart devices and sensors isn’t that hard if you're willing to spend an afternoon or a weekend. In fact, an ESP32 and a bunch of sensors can save you some serious money while giving you a smart home you can fully control.

And if you’re willing to roll up your sleeves, there are certain projects that are actually worth building for your smart home. A few require a little more investment and time, but are totally worth it. The ESP32 is affordable and powerful, and there's a lot you can do with one. Modern doorbells from Ring and Nest are expensive, while Reolink and Eufy offer affordable, subscription-free options. Before jumping the gun, you can make your own local-first Ring doorbell alternative using an ESP32-S3-EYE (or ESP32-S3-CAM) board. Plug an OV2640 camera module and add a button input to act as a doorbell button.

ESPHome is excellent for making it work without getting into complex C++ code. That will stream MJPEGs at 10 frames per second, which is good enough to tell if you really need one. Integrate it with Home Assistant to store event snapshots and even craft automations that take screenshots of events. This project will actually tell you whether you really need a fancy doorbell that stores your data locally. Setting up motion sensors can help track humans or pets. The inexpensive PIR motion sensor HC-SR501 has a range of up to 20m, which is good enough for a medium- or large-sized room.

Looking for better human detection? Check out a 24GHz mmWave radar sensor (LD2410C) to detect moving humans as well as those who aren’t, and build a Zigbee-based motion sensor using an ESP32-C6 or ESP32-H2 board. For instance, it can detect if you are not moving or sleeping in a room. That level of presence detection can help with occupancy-based automation in Home Assistant. Alternatively, you can use a PIR sensor with an ultrasonic sensor to help open the garage door when your vehicle arrives and also help park it properly. Mini PCs make excellent home servers.

They're usually incredibly efficient for their size, pack a punch, and are often a turnkey solution for people looking to get started with self-hosting. An old laptop probably won't compare in size or performance, but it has one key advantage over mini PCs most people don't think of. Your laptop makes a great home server because of its battery. Even when battery health becomes significantly degraded, the presence of a battery at all acts as a form of UPS in the event of power loss, and that can be invaluable for a home... Smart homes can be fantastic places to reside if configured properly. There are countless ways to input data for platforms like Home Assistant to collate numbers and other information to trigger specific conditions.

If done properly, you could pull up to your automatic gate in your vehicle, have it open without you reaching for a fob, to then be met by all the lights and HVAC system... The ability to accurately detect motion and presence and become almost required. Meshtastic is one of those projects that sounds too good to be true. It's an open-source mesh network that lets you send encrypted text messages and share GPS locations over LoRa radio, with no cell towers, no Wi-Fi, and no subscription, and all you need is a... I'd been watching it gain traction for a while, especially as more cities started building out their own community mesh networks, and I figured it was time to try it for myself. The Elecrow Thinknode M5 seemed like the perfect entry point, arriving pre-flashed with Meshtastic firmware and ready to go out of the box.

I did the math on my smart home and realized I was paying over $100 a year in subscription fees just for the privilege of seeing who was at my door two hours ago. Ring isn't a doorbell anymore; it's a monthly lease, which can be super frustrating considering I've already invested in the hardware itself when originally purchasing it. For me, it was finally time to find an alternative. In the Old Testament, Israel often faced powerful enemies with bigger armies and stronger weapons. Yet the prophets kept repeating a strange warning: “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” The real danger was never military weakness. It was spiritual confidence in human power instead of divine guidance.

The ESP32 microcontroller has become a popular choice among tinkerers. Released by Espressif Systems, this chip comes with WiFi, Bluetooth, multi-core processing, and enough GPIO pins to handle a variety of projects. Thanks to its versatility, it has found use with students building their first microcontroller project to engineers prototyping commercial products. The ecosystem surrounding ESP32 has grown too, including countless projects, tutorials, and community support across forums and GitHub repositories. As 2026 unfolds, the ESP32 projects scene continues to evolve. Here are 11 builds that show what's possible with this multipurpose microcontroller.

The ESP32 E-Paper Weather Display is a low-power weather station that can run on battery for months. It uses a 7.5-inch e-paper screen to show current weather and a 5-day forecast from OpenWeatherMap. A BME280 sensor tracks indoor temperature and humidity. The e-paper display draws very little power during updates, and combined with the ESP32's deep sleep mode, the USB-C charged 5000mAh battery can last 6–12 months with updates being fetched every 30 minutes.

5 Esp32 Projects That Turned Out More Useful Than Any Store Bought

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