#hardware
DRV8833 vs MX1508 for N20 Motors on a 2S Pack: Why the Cheap One Stays on the Shelf
Two common dual H-bridge drivers compared for a small 7.4 V robot. The DRV8833 has real protection and rarely dies; the MX1508 sits too close to its voltage ceiling to trust with regenerative braking.
Choosing a Battery for a Small ESP32 Robot: Why Boost Converters, 18650s and Series 1S Packs All Lost
Four N20 motors can stall at over 3 A combined, and a consumer LiPo cell with a 2 A protection board cannot deliver it. The budget, the four rejected options, and the 2S high-discharge pack that won.
ESP32-P4 GPIOs Stuck at 1.2 V: The Internal LDO Power Domain Trap
Four unrelated-looking motor and encoder bugs on an ESP32-P4 board turned out to be one missing line: GPIO45-54 sit on a power domain fed by the chip internal LDO, and nobody had turned it on.