Hackaday · Creativity & design

ESP32 Dev Board Reimagined as a PDA

A project transforms a Cheap Yellow Display (CYD) ESP32 development board into a Portable Digital Assistant (PDA), inspired by 1990s and early 2000s devices.

The custom firmware for the ESP32-based CYD board includes features reminiscent of older PDAs, such as a Gopher browser, RSS reader, and Wikipedia reader.

Additional functionalities include games, a BASIC interpreter, a calendar, calculator, and contact list. The project also offers ebook readers and translators.

The project was easy to set up, taking about five minutes to flash. However, full app testing was not possible without an SD card.

While not the first ESP32 PDA, this project is notable for its simplicity and use of the readily available CYD board, making it easy to replicate.

For those seeking the original Palm OS experience on modern hardware, Pumpkin OS is available for x86 or ARM systems.

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