← all projects

moodoo — ESP32 mood box

2024 · Hardware + firmware

  • Esp32
  • Mqtt
  • IoT
  • NixOS

An ongoing afternoon-of-weekends project: a small physical dial + colour ring that publishes mood context to the house MQTT broker — to flip lights, change dashboard themes, or just to be in the room as a status LED for the family.

Bits that matter

  • ESP32-S3 firmware with BLE provisioning (no hardcoded WiFi passwords)
  • MQTT message schema with a mood topic and a labelled level gauge
  • NixOS sidecar — a tiny service that consumes the topic, archives it, and feeds the home Grafana dashboard
  • 3D-printed housing in translucent PETG so the pixel ring glows softly

It exists because status APIs get stepped on in the stairwell — a physical indicator nobody can scroll past.