An ESP32-C3 keychain with robot eyes and a photo frame

TechWithpion Hackster

A Super Mini ESP32-C3 and a 0.96-inch OLED fit on a keyring, showing animated robot eyes until you send it a photo from your phone's browser.

Build sheet

Controller: ESP32-C3 Super Mini
Display: 0.96in SSD1306 OLED
Interface: Wi-Fi web page, no app
Form: Keychain

Can I build this?Intermediate · AI 4/5 · $10–25

Difficulty: Intermediate
AI-buildability: 4/5
Time: A weekend
Cost: $10–25

Parts

ESP32-C3 Super Mini 0.96-inch SSD1306 OLED

Tools

soldering iron3D printer

Starter prompt

Based on "An ESP32-C3 keychain with robot eyes and a photo frame" on Afterware: https://afterware.xyz/p/an-esp32-c3-keychain-with-robot-eyes-and-a-photo-frame

Write Arduino firmware for an ESP32-C3 Super Mini driving a 0.96-inch SSD1306 I2C OLED. On boot, show animated robot eyes that blink and look around. Start a Wi-Fi access point with a small web page where a phone can upload a photo, then scale and dither the image to 128x64 monochrome and display it on the OLED.

Estimates based on the original write-up. How AI-buildability is scored. Building with an AI assistant? Connect it to Afterware (free MCP server).

Story

The ESP32-C3 Super Mini drives a 0.96-inch SSD1306 OLED, and the whole thing hangs off a keyring. Power it up and it greets you with animated robot eyes, which is the personality the build was after.

The keychain runs a Wi-Fi web interface. Connect your phone to the device, take a photo with the camera or pick one from your gallery, and send it over. The ESP32-C3 receives the image, processes it and shows it on the tiny screen. No app to install.

The author says fitting everything into a compact case without hurting reliability was the hard part, and that firmware and power tuning were needed to make it practical to carry every day. The full code is on GitHub.

Resources · 2

Source code Project page