DEVLOG.md

Development Log

v0.0.1

• ESP32 configured
• E-Ink display working
• First UI rendered

• yes I know, I have soldered pins in a wrong direction (fixed it later)

Front lid

Front lid Prototype 1 (18.6.2026)

• First enclosure top cover printed
• Learned enclosure is too small for PCB
• Screw holes tested, quite small

Front lid Prototype 2 (19.6.2026)

• Fits well, but it sits on top of the PCB, needs to be made slightly over the edge

Front lid Prototype 3 (19.6.2026)

• Fits well, but still I need to adjust the "back" part to have a good grid for the PCB + edges

Front lid Prototype 4 (19.6.2026)

• almost perfect, maybe will adjust the site a bit more
• In the future, I might make it deeper

First button (21.6.2026)

• first button input succeeded!
• and don't forget, BUTTONS HAVE ORIENTATION!

BUTTON PRESSED BUTTON RELEASED

• then I conected the display as well and added a function which refreshes the display
• when I know clikc on the button, the screen refreshes

v.0.0.2

• first button connected to pin 0
• gui refreshment
• renamed happiness to fun so in gui is displayed F instead of second H

Button functions (27.6.2026)

• the button now feeds the monster by 10 until its back to 0

New GUI

• I have updated the gui to look a bit cleaner and polished, obviously its not final yet
• I had to also rename happines to fun so there are not 2 H displayed, it was quite confusing
  • I am considering to change it later to something like HUN, ENG, FUN, AGE or just use icons

Update

• I have connected two more buttons and added them on pins 8, 9 and 10
• Feed button was removed and function in code as well, currently the code only prints out which button was pressed
  • LEFT
  • MIDDLE
  • RIGHT
• later, I might add more buttons, but currently this works fine
  • the breadboard is a mess, I know, but it will eventually be better.
• added interaction with gui when button is pressed, for example
  • press left button => feed the Monster,
    • hunger is decreased by 10
  • press middle button => play with the Monster
    • fun is increased by 10
    • hunger is increased by 10
    • energy is decreaased by 5
  • press right button => Monster sleeps
    • fun is decreased by 5
    • hunger is increased by 5
    • energy is increased by 10

v.0.0.3 (28.6.2026)

• Added flash storage system
• It was quite easy actually so I am happy for that
• Saving is performed after a button is pressed
• Would like to also add an autosave every 5 minutes

v0.0.4 (11.07.2026)

#### Audio System

• Soldered speaker to MAX98357A amplifier.

• Wired amplifier to ESP32-C3.

• Created audio module (audio.hpp and audio.cpp).

• The speaker produces buzz instead of clear tone and I have no idea why, maybe wrong I2C config

• Wiring to ESP:

  MAX98357A	ESP32-C3
  VIN	3.3V
  GND	GND
  DIN	GPIO0
  BCLK	GPIO1
  LRC (WS)	GPIO20
  SD	-
  GAIN	-
  SPK+	Speaker +
  SPK-	Speaker -

Update (13.07.2026)

• finally managed to implement clear sound with a specific configuration
• the problem was not the HW but the config for the audio, wiring can stay as it is
• you can hear one beep sound when you power the device

v0.0.5 (14.07.2026)

• I have decided to switch to a new ESP32 module, the ESP32-S3 mostly because of more GPIO pins which I will need for accelerometer.
  • Currently waiting for the module to arrive (approx. 2 weeks)

UI and Menu System

• added basic menu when middle button is pressed
• user can navigate using left button, right button and middle button to confirm

Update (24.07.2026)

• I have added more polished menu system and made the code more readable and organized
• Settings are still mock, but I will implement them later - the user should be able to turn off the sound and change Monster name
• Next focus is monster logic

v0.0.6 (24.07.2026)

• I have added basic monster logic, the monster has different states and moods
• There are few different options
• States:
  • None,
  • Playing,
  • Eating,
  • Sleeping,
  • Dizzy,
  • Sick,
  • Injured,
  • Dead,
• Moods:
  • Happy,
  • Normal,
  • Hungry,
  • Tired,
  • Bored,
  • Sad,
  • Critical
• Currently it needs to be tested, but not all of them are implemented, for example Dizzy logic will be added when accelerometer is added

Update

• I am trying to add species, starting with slime, Blob

New menu entry (26.07.2026)

• I have added new menu entry "Info" which displays more info about the Monster itself - Name, Species and Status
• the status is currently None, because the monster is alive and healthy, I don't want to add there short term status, only the long term ones
• In a future I want to add an option to reset the monster
• I also increased the sleep and entertainment gain, because it was too low

New ESP board struggle (12.08.2026)

• It has been some time since I last worked on this project, but the new ESP finally arrived!
• I tried switching to the new ESP32-S3 Super Mini board, but what a pain that was!
• After about 3 hours of debugging, arguing with ChatGPT, and almost losing my mind, AI decided that I should create a custom configuration for this board since none of the available ESP32-S3 configs in PlatformIO were working. So here we go.
• The best part is that it works! Or at least I can see the === MONBIT === log.
• The question is whether it's going to work with all the peripherals connected, but that's a TODO for now.

Just a quick note: I wanted to use AI as little as possible, but yeah... here we go.

If you are interested for the custom configuration, I have created a repo for it: ESP32-S3 Super Mini config for PlatformIO