If you love tinkering, ESPHome is a fantastic way to build custom smart home devices. This open-source firmware framework gives you local control over smart home devices that support open standards.

Gesture-controlled gadgets were all the rage at CES back in January. I’m still not convinced it’s a good way to change TV channels, but it can’t hurt to learn how to program for a motion sensor.

Creating capacitive touch-sensitive buttons is easy these days; many microcontrollers have cap-sense hardware built-in. This will work for simple on/off control, but what if you want a linear, ...