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Your First App for the M5Stack Cardputer
A friendly guide to writing code for the ESP32-S3
If you’re not a Medium member, a video version is available on YouTube.
In the modern era of heavy, corporate-funded monstrous apps and frameworks, I was happy to find a small device that was surprisingly fun to program. It is based on the ESP32, so technically it is not something revolutionary. However, while most ESP32 devices are sold as development boards, the M5Stack company managed to make a ready-to-use portable device. It is small, has a bright IPS screen and plenty of peripherals, like a microSD card, motion sensor, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, speaker, and microphone. If you want more, there are even two ports for peripheral extensions. And all this, with a price of only $29,90, packed in a small credit-card-size case, hence the name “Cardputer,” without hanging wires and duct-taped batteries. And even more. There is no app store, no push notifications, no certificates or enrolling in a developer program for only $100 per year — you can just take it and code something for fun. Surprisingly many people loved it, and at the moment of writing this text, the unofficial catalog for the Cardputer already has 2K+ apps! And you don’t even need to create an account to download these apps — something unimaginable today.
