Show us your Tiny Engineer! 🤖

[jamro]

Built your own Tiny Engineer? I’d love to see it.

Share a photo or short video of your build here. It doesn’t have to look exactly like the original... different colors, modifications, alternative parts, new integrations, and completely unexpected variations are all welcome.

If you feel like sharing a bit more, tell us:

• What did you change or customize?
• Which AI coding agent are you using it with?
• What was the hardest part of the build?
• What could make the build instructions easier?

First-time electronics and 3D printing builds are especially welcome. One of my goals is to make Tiny Engineer easy enough to build for software engineers without hardware experience, so your feedback is extremely useful.

And don’t wait for it to be perfect. Work-in-progress and slightly broken Tiny Engineers are welcome too. 😄

Drop a photo below. I’d love to see Tiny Engineers appearing on desks around the world.

[jtruland]

Finally up and running using my compact carrier board for the build. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle the multiple branches of single pins from the ESP and definitely didn't want to solder/join mid-wire.

I used translucent green for the lamp glass, which works pretty well. All of the colors come through and are still understandable.

[jamro]

This is awesome to see! 🎉 You’re officially the first person to share a completed Tiny Engineer build, which is a pretty special milestone for the project.

Thanks for building it, experimenting with it, and sharing the result. It genuinely made my day to see someone else bring this little guy to life 😊

[jtruland]

He's a great addition to my workspace. Thank you for everything you've done to create him and make this possible!

[Mechazawa]

Built one as a gift for a coworker who's leaving us but I'm also building one for myself.

Im using a different screen so I had to modify his head slightly. Also I didn't anticipate how tight of a fit the ESP would be so I tinkered with that a bit aswell. I used a cheap PD trigger board for 5v power and glued it in place.

trim.40CD1B92-8BB0-48D2-B65C-2886CF57CD5B.MOV

[jamro]

This is awesome! 🤖 Building one as a farewell gift for a coworker is such a cool use for the project... and I love that you’re already making a second one for yourself 😄

The custom head looks great! I also like the PD trigger board solution... nice example of adapting the build to the parts you have rather than following the design exactly.

I know the space for the electronics can get pretty tight. I’m currently working on an integrated PCB that should make that part of the build much cleaner and easier.

Thanks a lot for sharing your build! Please post some photos of your second one too when it’s ready... I’m curious what you’ll change after the experience of building the first.

[giraffcontest]

And here’s my tiny engineer.

For the laptop screen, I used a screenshot of the well-known ELIZA program from the 1960s, printed on paper and covered with a cut-out piece of transparent PET plastic from a bottle.

[jamro]

This looks great! I really like the ELIZA screenshot idea... simple, but it gives the laptop a lot of character and fits the whole Tiny Engineer concept perfectly 😄

A slightly crazy idea: in theory, it should be possible to squeeze a tiny OLED display into the laptop and have it show actual changing content. That would probably be serious overengineering though 😂 The printed screenshot + transparent PET is a much simpler and surprisingly convincing solution.

I also really like the texture on the desktop! I assume that came from the 3D printer build plate? It gives the desk a completely different finish and is a cool little customization I hadn’t considered.

Thanks for sharing your build! 🤖

[jamro]

Your build actually inspired another idea 😄

It would be great to include a printable sheet of different laptop screens with the project, so people don’t have to leave the laptop screen plain black. Things like terminal output, code, an AI conversation, error messages, retro computer screens, etc.

The idea would be to provide a normal A4 page that anyone can print on a regular printer, cut out the screen they like, and place it into the laptop... basically the same simple approach you used here.

I opened an issue for this (#56 ). Thanks for the inspiration! 🙌

[giraffcontest]

Полагаю, это из-за платформы 3D-принтера?

I applied textures using a laser to hide print defects.

[giraffcontest]

Немного безумная идея: теоретически в ноутбук можно встроить крошечный OLED-дисплей

Another crazy idea: add a tiny 80s TTS, like the one on the Commodore 64(https://discordier.github.io/sam/). A robotic retro voice would fit the concept and add a unique feel.

[jamro]

The laser texture looks super cool! What device did you use for that? I’m asking while trying very hard not to discover another piece of equipment I suddenly “need” to buy 😂

And I really like the Commodore 64 / retro voice idea. I recently added support for mods, including a Halloween mod with a custom head and its own voice lines. It would be awesome to have a Commodore 64-inspired mod as well! If you feel like experimenting with it, please submit a PR... it doesn’t even need custom 3D models; a mod with just the WAV files would already be a great addition.

There’s also PR #57 from Mechazawa that aims to introduce audio streaming. If that works out, it could be a really interesting way to go beyond the current hardcoded audio files and eventually generate/stream voices dynamically.

[ncodaharmless]

Finally got mine ready! What a great project!

[jamro]

Another Tiny Engineer joins the team! 🤖🎉

Love the color combination! the bright yellow, blue, and black look great together! And the matching accessories and front emblem are a really nice touch.

I also noticed that the head seems a bit narrower than the original design, and it actually looks really good! Did you use a different OLED display or modify the head model yourself?

It’s so cool to see more and more Tiny Engineers coming to life, each with its own personality. Thanks for building one and sharing it! 😄

[ncodaharmless]

Thanks - the truth is the colour combination was partly due to my yellow fillament having issues. I didn't modify any of the models, although I did start printing the yellow parts about a month ago, and I noticed the models were updated while I was printing, so originally I printed the desk in the original smaller version, but the updated version was slightly larger.

The OLED display was just the first one I found on AliExpress and it fitted pefectly well, so I just guessed that I had by fluke got the correct one from your specifications? (I ordered several other parts wrong ... like the USB header I got the male vs female mixed up).

The screws were all old PC screws / motherboard spares. This was such a great challenging by rewarding project for a programmer like me who hasn't really done much on the hardware side before.

[ncodaharmless]

[pauldub]

Hello! I just finished building my own tiny engineer. I've yet to successfully print the lamp diffuser, but other than that everything went fine!

edit: Oh, also most of the m2 screw holes are too large, so I will probably reprint with smaller holes.

I've built a small homemade "pcb" using a prototyping pcb board with soldered headers connected together with solder. If I build a new one I will give some more thought about routing so that i can just clip ribbon cables with dupont connectors at the end so that it easier to assemble.

Other than that the build instructions were very clear, except for the photos on https://github.com/jamro/tiny-engineer/blob/main/docs/3d/assembly-modular.md which do not show the modular assembly and I think should be replace with https://github.com/jamro/tiny-engineer/blob/main/docs/3d/assembly_visuals/electronics_1b.jpg and https://github.com/jamro/tiny-engineer/blob/main/docs/3d/assembly_visuals/electronics_3b.jpg

[jamro]

Wow, another Tiny Engineer joins the team! 🤖🎉 Thanks so much for building one and sharing it!
I really love the black and light purple color combination, especially with the matching keyboard and coffee mug! And that emblem on the front is a really nice touch.

Thanks for the feedback on the assembly instructions! You're absolutely right... I'll update the documentation to include photos of both the integrated PCB and modular breakout board setups, so it's easier to follow regardless of which approach people choose.

Really appreciate you taking the time to share your experience. Feedback like this helps make Tiny Engineer easier for everyone to build! ❤️

[jamro]

🤖 Another Tiny Engineer joins the team!

Just finished my latest build, this time using the recently added Emax ES9051 servo configuration!
These servos are smaller than the popular SG90s, making the robot a bit more compact. It's a completely stock build... no custom parts or modifications, just a fresh red-and-white color scheme!

And now I officially have two Tiny Engineers on my desk! 😂 The new guy has already met his spooky coworker, featuring the recently added Halloween mod. 🎃👻

Looks like I'm slowly building my own tiny engineering team! 🤖🤖