ElectronicZoologyfield notes from the garage
Hardware In progress May 2026

Apple iMac at Last

A thick-case aluminium iMac from Freecycle gets gutted and turned into something useful. The screen works. The brain is an Apple TV.

iMacdisplayrepurposeFreecycleApple TVbuild-log
Automotive In progress May 2026

1995 Jeep Cherokee XJ — Speeduino ECU Replacement

The factory PCM is 30 years old. Open-source firmware is not. Replacing the brain of a right-hand drive XJ with a Speeduino v0.4.4b and an Arduino Mega 2560.

SpeeduinoArduinoTunerStudioArch LinuxECUbuild-log
ESP32 In progress May 2026

Rooftop Sunrise and Sunset Camera — Automated Solar Time-Lapse

Two ESP32-CAMs on the roof, one facing east, one west. Both wake at sunrise and sunset, take a photo, and post it to Instagram automatically. No mains power. No manual effort after setup.

ESP32-CAMSolarDeep SleepWiFiPythonInstagram
ESP32 In progress May 2026

Solar-Powered ESP32 Weather Station

A fully wireless weather logger running on solar and battery power. Wakes once a day, takes readings, saves to NVS, serves data over WiFi. No mains power, goes anywhere.

ESP32SolarDeep SleepNVSWiFiSensors
ESP32 In progress Apr 2026

Thomas the Tank Engine — WiFi-Enabled Rolling Experiment

Modding a Thomas the Tank Engine toy, inserting a LiPo, WiFi, and a round TFT, and losing a week to a bad batch of displays.

ESP32-C3WiFiArduinoMotor Control