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Clear pinouts, practical projects, buying comparisons and hands-on guidance for ESP32, Arduino, Home Assistant and home servers.
Featured electronics stories
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ESP32 for Matter, Thread and Zigbee
Best ESP32 for Home Assistant and ESPHome
BME280 vs BME680 vs BME688
Curated stories while awaiting new announcements
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From your first microcontroller to a fully connected home lab.
Start with these guides
Our hand-picked entry points for boards, wireless protocols and smart-home builds.
ESP32 Versions Compared: Which Should You Buy?
A clear starting point for choosing the right ESP32 family, radio and development board.
Read the guide →Best ESP32 for Home Assistant and ESPHome
Choose between C6, S3, C3 and C5 for everyday smart-home projects.
Read the guide →ESP32 for Matter, Thread and Zigbee
Compare low-power radios and find the right chip for a modern mesh network.
Read the guide →Build a home server that earns its place.
Practical buying advice and setup guides for backup storage, containers, Home Assistant and small servers — without enterprise complexity.
Explore NAS guides →Latest from the bench
Fresh tutorials and comparisons, updated automatically as new articles are published.
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Solar Forecasting in Home Assistant: Forecast.Solar vs Solcast
Compare Forecast.Solar and Solcast in Home Assistant: free tiers, 30-minute forecasts, API limits, Energy dashboard setup and accurate…
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Best External Energy Meters for Hybrid Solar Inverters
Choose the right external energy meter for a hybrid solar inverter: vendor-approved models, CT ratios, grid-export sensing, installation…
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Solar Import and Export Metering: Avoiding Double Counting in Home Assistant
Solar import and export metering in Home Assistant: avoid double-counting PV, battery and household energy using signed grid…
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Off-Grid Solar Monitoring with ESP32, Home Assistant and a Supported Gateway
Build a reliable off-grid solar monitoring system with ESP32, ESPHome, Home Assistant and a supported gateway. Compare Victron…
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Best Battery Shunts and Monitors for Home Assistant and Off-Grid Systems
Compare the best battery shunts for Home Assistant: SmartShunt, BMV-712 and Lynx VE.Can, with local BLE/GX options, sizing,…
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AC-Coupled vs DC-Coupled Home Batteries: Monitoring and Control Differences
AC-coupled vs DC-coupled home batteries explained: conversion paths, solar retrofit choices, efficiency losses, Home Assistant energy sensors, backup…
Projects, news & useful references
More ways to explore the electronics and open-hardware ecosystem.
ESP32 Bluetooth Proxy for Home Assistant
Turn a simple ESP32 into a practical Bluetooth bridge for your smart home.
Read project →News, new chips and open-source hardware
Follow microcontroller announcements, software releases and emerging maker platforms.
Browse news →New to ESP32? Begin here.
Pick a board, install your tools and take the first step with a simple project.
