Hey everyone,

I wanted to share the first milestone of my DIY smart grow tent project. To give you some context: I started getting into these kinds of hardware/AI projects about 2-3 weeks ago in general, and this specific tent project is only about 1 week old.

The craziest part? I don't have a PC available right now, so I challenged myself to build the entire hardware and software stack using only my Android phone and a USB-OTG hub.

1. Why I selected this specific ESP32 chip variant:

I went with the classic ESP32 NodeMCU (WROOM-32). I chose it because it's cheap, widely available, and has built-in Wi-Fi, which is essential for my MQTT setup. The dual-core architecture is more than enough to handle the I2C multiplexing, Wi-Fi stack, and JSON parsing simultaneously without blocking. The large number of GPIOs gave me the freedom to leave room for future expansions (like a 3D ToF sensor on a second ESP32).

2.…