MAI Alchemy · Family Workbenchfamily.mai-alchemy.com

The Workbench

Everything for our builds in one place. Hover a part to discover what it is. Pick a project and follow the steps exactly. Talk to a chip, flash it, or ask for help. Two big builds: the Port Communicator and the Drone, both starting from your Freenove kit.

Son — you've never done this before, and that's fine. Every project tells you exactly what to grab and where each wire goes. Go slow, do one step at a time, and ask if anything is confusing. — Dad

Everything in the Freenove kit, laid out and labeled

👆 Hover (or tap) a numbered dot on the photo to name that part. The cards below give the full details.

▸ Freenove Tutorial (full PDF + code) ▸ Freenove code on GitHub

Pick a project

Tap any card for the full step-by-step. Start at the top and work down. Each one lists exactly what to grab and where every wire goes.

USB

Talk to a chip

Plug an ESP32 into this computer with a USB-C cable, then connect below to watch what it's saying and send it commands. (Chrome or Edge, on a computer.) This is a piece of the Port Communicator.

Not connected. Click "Connect to a chip", pick the USB port, then press the board's RST/EN button to see it boot.

⚡

Flash MicroPython (one click)

This puts MicroPython onto the ESP32-S3 so you can write Python on it with Thonny. Plug the board in, click Install, pick the port, and let it run. (Chrome/Edge only.) One-time thing per board.

Open this page in Chrome or Edge on a computer to use the flasher.

After it flashes: open Thonny (thonny.org) → Run → Interpreter → MicroPython (ESP32) → pick the port. Now you can type Python straight to the board. The Freenove tutorial has the Python versions of every project.

Ask for help

Stuck? Ask in plain words. It answers common things right away; if Dad switched on the live helper, it can answer anything about your parts and projects.