Dev Update #4: v0.2.0, 500 Stars, and What Comes Next

[jamro]

A few weeks ago Tiny Engineer was mostly a working prototype on my desk.

Today, v0.2.0 is out, the repo has crossed 500 GitHub stars, people are building their own robots, and some of the best improvements are now coming from the community.

That is probably the part I'm most excited about.

v0.2.0: from prototype to something you can actually build

This release is mostly about removing friction.

Tiny Engineer now has a parametric CAD model with multiple servo options, much better assembly documentation, new OLED expressions, Claude Code and Antigravity integrations, OTA updates, and a Web Flasher that lets you install firmware directly from the browser.

The hardware also took a big step forward.

I finished the first integrated Tiny Engineer Main Board, replacing most of the separate modules and wiring with a single PCB designed around the ESP32-C3, servo controller, audio amplifier, USB-C and power circuitry.

The board design is now ready to order.

❤️ Thank you, community

A lot of v0.2.0 would not exist without contributions from other people.

Special thanks to @jtruland, @Mechazawa, @Hilo-Hilo, @AndreLYL, and @rarephill for some of the biggest additions across hardware, firmware, CAD and integrations.

And thank you to everyone else who submitted fixes, ideas, documentation, tested builds, opened issues, shared photos or simply joined the discussions.

Crossing 500 stars is great, but seeing people actually build, modify and improve Tiny Engineer is much more important.

🔌 Help me figure out the PCB

The Main Board is ready for fabrication, but there is still one problem I would like to solve: how do we make it easy to get one?

Everyone individually ordering five PCBs and assembly from a manufacturer works, but it is wasteful and unnecessarily complicated.

I'm exploring alternatives: aggregated production runs, small community batches, pre-assembled boards, or potentially working with a manufacturing partner.

If you might want a board, please add your voice to the PCB interest check #50

The more signal I have, the easier it will be to find a model that makes sense.

👀 What might come next?

I have more ideas than time, so I would rather let the community help decide where Tiny Engineer goes next.

A few things I'm considering:

• Main Board v2 with better extension headers exposing GPIO, I2S and 5V
• More servo options: I already ordered EMAX ES9051s to test; I like smaller servos, but there is no obvious SG90-like standard in that segment
• Multi-agent support: perhaps an “AI rack” with several Tiny Engineers showing multiple agents working in parallel
• Voice interface: build on @Mechazawa’s audio streaming work in feat(http): stream a WAV over POST /play while the robot talks #57 (sending audio to Tiny Engineer), then add an I2S microphone for two-way voice interaction with any backend AI agent.
• More mods, characters and community-designed variants

Some of these may be great ideas. Some may be terrible. 🙂

So I'm curious: what would make Tiny Engineer significantly more useful or more fun for you?

Drop your ideas below. This is exactly the stage where they can still meaningfully shape the project.

Thanks for building this with me. 🤖