[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":358},["ShallowReactive",2],{"project-50131189":3},{"id":4,"name":5,"line":6,"line_source":7,"title":8,"url":9,"domain":10,"maker":11,"posted_at":12,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rank_in_year":16,"shown_in_year":17,"top":18,"tier":19,"category":20,"subcategory":21,"format":22,"keywords":23,"reception":28,"sentiment":29,"stance_mix":30,"scored_comments":34,"aspects":35,"strip":42,"post_text":43,"what":44,"said":86,"maker_in_thread":183,"shape":194,"grid":198,"attempts":320,"same_week":321,"maker_shows":38,"maker_hidden":350,"reader_version":351,"card":352},"50131189","Esp32sim","Run ESP32 firmware in the browser","title","Show HN: Esp32sim – Run ESP32 firmware in the browser","https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fmikroverk\u002Fesp32sim","github.com","joakimeriksson",1792245068,2026,212,50,265,4366,7,"notable","dev_tools","microcontroller emulator","web_app",[24,25,26,27],"esp32 emulator","browser emulator","firmware simulation","embedded testing","mixed",0.233,{"positive":31,"neutral":31,"mixed":32,"critical":33},11,0,5,27,{"idea":36,"performance":39,"docs":40,"pricing":41},{"positive":37,"critical":38},3,1,{"positive":32,"critical":32},{"positive":32,"critical":37},{"positive":38,"critical":32},[33,32,32,33,38,33,37,33,37,32,33,32,37,32,37,37,38,38,32,38,33,32,33,37,33,32,37,37,32,32,37,32,32,32,32,33,32,33,32,38],"Hi HN,\n\nI’ve been working on esp32sim, an open-source ESP32 emulator that runs in the browser.\n\nThe fun part of the demo is that there is no ESP32 involved — the firmware is executing in the emulator.\n\nThe goal is to make ESP32 software easier to experiment with, test and simulate without always needing physical hardware connected.\n\nSource:\nhttps:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fmikroverk\u002Fesp32sim\n\nI made a short video showing it in action:\nhttps:\u002F\u002Fyoutu.be\u002FwaoWFilTWEc\n\nI’m particularly interested in feedback from embedded developers: what would an emulator like this need to support before you’d actually use it f",{"problem":45,"audience":51,"pricing":58,"motivation":67,"time_to_build":74,"stack":75,"openness":84,"stage":85,"team_size":85},{"value":46,"source":47,"evidence":48},"Lets developers test and experiment with ESP32 firmware without physical hardware.","maker",[49],{"id":50},"post",{"value":52,"source":47,"evidence":53},"Embedded developers who want to test or run ESP32 software without hardware.",[54,55],{"id":50},{"id":56,"by":11,"text":57},"50139047","Yes, I can agree - no one can read the docs anymore - too long and to messy. Will consider taking a pass on that soon. Thanks for the feedback! I did not really expect this level…",{"value":59,"source":47,"evidence":60},"Free, open source.",[61,64],{"id":62,"by":11,"text":63},"50139022","Wokwi is SaaS emulator with a monthly cost - I need to have a tool for my own vibe coding of new ESP32 software - this is the tool I needed - and it turned out quite ok. Free for…",{"id":65,"by":11,"text":66},"50139024","yes, and this make your cool esp32 software demoable on GitHub pages for free!",{"value":68,"source":47,"evidence":69},"Avoid carrying ESP32 devices around and enable agentic coding without flashing hardware.",[70,71],{"id":56,"by":11,"text":57},{"id":72,"by":11,"text":73},"50138989","Yes, it is also very very useful when doing agentic coding of ESP32 software - no messing with HW until you have something that works reasonably well already. So less time spent…",null,[76],{"value":77,"source":78,"evidence":79},"WebAssembly","commenter",[80],{"id":81,"by":82,"text":83},"50135498","mrtksn","Very cool, that was something I was looking into very recently. I vibe coded a drone simulator that flys drones by simulating ESP32 in the browser where the actual flight…","open_source","unknown",{"praise":87,"objections":107,"requests":130,"questions":156,"alternatives":164},[88,96],{"value":89,"source":78,"evidence":90},"Useful for testing firmware without hardware, including CI.",[91,95],{"id":92,"by":93,"text":94},"50133189","raminf","Outstanding! Very cool. On a lot of IoT projects, it's easier to create a \"functional\" software simulator for the hardware part so the mobile and cloud people can get going…",{"id":72,"by":11,"text":73},{"value":97,"source":78,"evidence":98},"Free and open source alternative to paid emulators.",[99,103],{"id":100,"by":101,"text":102},"50132692","crazysim","OSS and the price? It may be vibe coded but the price is free.",{"id":104,"by":105,"text":106},"50137063","matthewfcarlson","I have tried to use wokwi several times and I ran into roadblocks trying to do what I want with it. They want you to pay and that’s limiting. I get trying to extract value for…",[108,119],{"value":109,"source":78,"evidence":110},"README is too long and poorly formatted, AI-generated looking.",[111,115],{"id":112,"by":113,"text":114},"50132445","dofm","I actually want to have a play with this sometime. But honestly, these gigantic, poorly-formatted AI-slop paragraphs like the one below this heading……",{"id":116,"by":117,"text":118},"50132643","rvz","I can tell that a README.md becomes a DONTREADME.md when its contents are: ``` 1) As long as a novel. 2) Poorly formatted. 3) Has several claudisms in each sentence. ``` It is…",{"value":120,"source":78,"evidence":121},"Emulation fidelity of peripherals may not be enough to replace hardware.",[122,126],{"id":123,"by":124,"text":125},"50139260","crote","The challenge is is getting the peripherals emulation detailed enough to be useful - and in reality it'll never be good enough to completely replace physical hardware because…",{"id":127,"by":128,"text":129},"50145584","aforwardslash","Only if the emulator emulates the timings faithfully; Also it probably needs to emulate the dma\u002Frmt subsystem at a timing level. Vaguely related, I recently designed a ws28x…",[131,142,149],{"value":132,"source":78,"evidence":133},"Support for ESP32-P4 and H2 chips.",[134,138],{"id":135,"by":136,"text":137},"50138793","snakeman","Very nice! Are you planning P4 support? Have lots of S3 units and some C6, but P4 are the ones getting the most attentation at the moment.",{"id":139,"by":140,"text":141},"50141134","noah_buddy","Any plans to support H2? This is awesome, I will certainly use it for some of my recent embedded work. Will try and contribute back as well.",{"value":143,"source":78,"evidence":144},"ESP-NOW and mesh support.",[145],{"id":146,"by":147,"text":148},"50177142","eduardsik","It supports espnow and mesh features?",{"value":150,"source":78,"evidence":151},"RP2350 support.",[152],{"id":153,"by":154,"text":155},"50138093","djmips","Is there one for RP2350?",[157],{"value":158,"source":78,"evidence":159},"How does it differ from Wokwi?",[160],{"id":161,"by":162,"text":163},"50132088","turbine401","How is this different from Wokwi.com? They’ve been doing for years, and have a large number of microcontrollers emulated.",[165,169,176],{"value":166,"source":78,"evidence":167},"Wokwi",[168],{"id":161,"by":162,"text":163},{"value":170,"source":78,"evidence":171},"Velxio",[172],{"id":173,"by":174,"text":175},"50142431","noahnathan25","A fantastic project. I've used velxio.dev it also runs in a browser with ESP32 and other microcontroller emulation, circuit simulation, and AI-assisted development",{"value":177,"source":78,"evidence":178},"Espressif esp-emulator",[179],{"id":180,"by":181,"text":182},"50148344","0xmaxallen","It seems Espressif is also on working something similar here: https:\u002F\u002Fgithub.com\u002Fespressif\u002Fesp-emulator But source code is not yet available :-( Would be interesting to compare…",{"comments":184,"answered":185,"key":186},16,4,[187,190,191],{"id":188,"text":189},"50138980","Cool - so you also did a ESP32 emulator?",{"id":72,"text":73},{"id":192,"text":193},"50290563","Yes, I guess we could benchmark them at least (given that they have binaries and do not need any re-compiles for running firmwares).",{"commenters":195,"max_depth":185,"maker_replies":184,"first_comment_mins":196,"lifespan_hours":197},32,113,290,[199,201,203,205,207,208,210,214,218,219,222,224,226,229,232,235,237,239,241,246,247,249,250,253,256,257,260,263,267,269,271,273,275,277,278,281,283,286,288,290,293,296,299,302,303,305,306,310,312,317],[81,32,33,200,82,32],"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone",[188,32,32,202,11,38],"commenter\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[204,32,32,202,82,32],"50139211",[92,38,33,206,93,32],"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fidea",[72,38,32,206,11,38],[123,38,38,209,124,32],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fidea",[211,212,33,206,213,32],"50142154",2,"beachy",[215,37,37,216,217,32],"50142486","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone","westurner",[173,185,33,200,174,32],[220,33,33,200,221,32],"50134463","Klovy",[180,223,37,216,181,32],6,[192,223,32,225,11,38],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fperformance",[227,18,33,200,228,32],"50140869","ThePinion",[230,18,32,231,11,38],"50149683","other\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[233,18,32,202,234,32],"50158345","jefichc",[135,236,37,216,136,32],8,[238,236,32,216,11,38],"50138971",[139,240,37,216,140,32],9,[242,243,37,244,245,32],"50145461",10,"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fidea","BHSPitMonkey",[127,243,37,225,128,32],[112,31,38,248,113,32],"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fdocs",[116,31,38,248,117,32],[251,31,32,252,11,38],"50139053","project\u002Fneutral\u002Fdocs",[254,31,38,248,255,32],"50133071","exe34",[56,31,32,252,11,38],[258,259,33,200,105,32],"50137030",12,[261,259,32,262,11,38],"50138999","maker\u002Fpositive\u002Fnone",[264,265,33,200,266,32],"50173942",13,"bratlas",[153,268,37,216,154,32],14,[270,268,32,216,11,38],"50138996",[272,268,33,206,154,32],"50139019",[274,268,32,216,11,38],"50290976",[146,276,37,216,147,32],15,[161,184,37,244,162,32],[279,184,37,216,280,32],"50132384","tyromaniac",[282,184,32,231,11,38],"50139033",[284,184,32,231,285,32],"50132479","WalterGR",[100,184,37,287,101,32],"project\u002Fneutral\u002Fpricing",[65,184,32,289,11,38],"project\u002Fpositive\u002Fpricing",[291,184,32,202,292,32],"50133057","the__alchemist",[294,184,32,202,295,32],"50137824","thisismyanon2",[297,184,32,202,298,32],"50138693","calmingsolitude",[300,184,32,202,301,32],"50139018","qup",[104,184,33,289,105,32],[304,184,32,216,11,38],"50139025",[62,184,32,289,11,38],[307,308,33,200,309,32],"50140461",17,"_mehbish_",[311,308,32,262,11,38],"50152478",[313,314,38,315,316,32],"50142930",18,"project\u002Fcritical\u002Fnone","djndndeb",[318,314,32,319,11,38],"50152475","maker\u002Fneutral\u002Fnone",[],[322,327,332,337,341,345],{"id":323,"name":324,"points":325,"category":326},"50170593","Permit Pending",941,"games",{"id":328,"name":329,"points":330,"category":331},"50127979","Llmspeed",331,"ai",{"id":333,"name":334,"points":335,"category":336},"50102247","Unfenced",319,"web_saas",{"id":338,"name":339,"points":340,"category":331},"50118688","StarSkirmish Bench",254,{"id":342,"name":343,"points":344,"category":20},"50137950","Sphinx",253,{"id":346,"name":347,"points":348,"category":349},"50140769","The Zelda timeline",231,"learning_science",false,"v2",{"id":353,"name":5,"line":6,"ai":350,"cat":20,"year":13,"points":14,"comments":15,"rec":28,"s":354,"top":18,"kw":355,"maker":11,"domain":10,"tier":19,"attempts":32,"strip":356,"url":9,"mix":357,"praise":89,"objection":109,"sub":21},50131189,0.23,[24,25,26,27],"5005153530503033110150535033003000050501",[31,31,32,33],1794036712318]