I Plugged a $20 ESP32 Into Claude Code: No Manuals

I plugged three cheap ESP32 boards into my Mac, one at a time, and had Claude Code work out what each one was and then write the firmware for it. No manuals, no Arduino tutorials, no libraries to wrestle with. 📌 WHAT I USED (all three boards: $63.96 total)... Act I: Waveshare ESP32-C6 1.47" Display (~$20) https://mrc.fm/esp32c6 Act II: ESP32 2.8" Touchscreen "Cheap Yellow Display" (~$18) https://mrc.fm/esp32cyd Act III: Waveshare ESP32-S3 1.54" e-Paper (~$26) https://mrc.fm/esp32epaper ALSO MENTIONED (not used in this build) ESP32-S3 3-pack (~$19): https://mrc.fm/esp323pack 3.7V 3000mAh LiPo (~$10): https://mrc.fm/esp32lipo JST 1.25mm pairs x30 (~$7): https://mrc.fm/esp32jst Prices are US, August 2026, and they move. Outside the US your local Amazon usually carries the same boards, and buying direct from Waveshare is cheaper per board before shipping and import tax. Some of the links above are affiliate links. If you buy through one I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Every board came out of the box as a black box. No model number, no documentation, nothing. Claude Code interrogated each one over the USB-C cable and told me what it was holding, right down to the Windows username of the person who built the factory firmware that was still sitting on it. Then it built something different on each one, chosen because the board before it physically could not do the job. Board one, the Waveshare ESP32-C6-LCD-1.47, $19.99 from Micro Center. It became a live window onto the Mediterranean off Paphos, with real sea temperature and wave height coming down the USB cable while the board's own radios stayed switched off. The factory firmware was 1.87 MB. What Claude Code wrote is 376 KB. Board two, the 2.8 inch touchscreen everyone calls the Cheap Yellow Display, usually sold as the ESP32-2432S028R, $17.98. It became a Bluetooth audio spectrum analyser, so I can play a track on my phone and watch it move on the screen. This one was impossible on the first board, because the C6's Bluetooth does not carry audio at all. Claude Code spotted that difference on its own. Board three, the Waveshare ESP32-S3-ePaper-1.54, $25.99. It became a camera for sound. It listens for five seconds and prints the room as artwork on e-paper, building the ink up over six passes like a Polaroid developing, and then it says something dry about what it just heard. Unplug it and the picture is still there. There is a bug in here too, and it is the best bit. The first screen came up shifted and showing the old image underneath. I took a photo, pasted it straight into Claude Code, and it read the fault off the picture: shifted by 34 pixels, the classic signature of a row offset. That would have taken me a whole afternoon. If you are a home labber or you tinker with Home Assistant, this is the video I wish existed when I started. I have been playing with these boards for over ten years and they have come a very long way from switching an LED on and off. Nobody paid for this video and no board here was sent to me. I bought all of it with my own money at Micro Center in the United States and on Amazon. Waveshare do not know I exist. Tell me in the comments which board you would buy and what you would make it do. Best idea gets built and featured in the next video, and there will be a next video. CHAPTERS 0:00 Three boards, no manuals 0:43 The $20 board from Micro Center 2:50 Plugged in for the first time 3:16 Claude Code meets a board it has never seen 6:43 Building a window onto the sea 7:43 It came up wrong 8:06 Shifted by 34 pixels 8:24 Look at that 9:21 The one everyone calls the Cheap Yellow Display 10:41 Making a screen listen to my phone 12:25 Armin van Buuren on a $20 board 15:10 Board three, the e-paper that keeps its picture 18:43 A camera for sound 20:01 Teaching it to answer back 21:11 It talks to me 22:22 Where to buy them, and what next Join the Creator Magic community: https://mrc.fm/cmc