There are many types of watches and alarm clocks, but finding one that’s fun and suits your tastes isn’t as easy as you’d think. This Pac-Man-themed alarm clock, however, can brighten your mornings with your favorite sound, and on top of that, you can play on its screen!

The time is synchronized via Wi-Fi, and users can still interact with the game and characters through the colorful touchscreen. The project’s designer gives you three build options that vary depending on your “appetite” for complexity. You can either order a complete kit or build everything from scratch using a stripboard.

• Designer: TechKiwiGadgets
• Project page: Instructables
• Core components: Esp32 development kit, 3D printed parts, amplifier board, TFT touchscreen, 3-W speaker, prototype strip board, female header strip
• Difficulty: Beginner

Smart mirrors are all the rage, they’re popping up everywhere! Capable of displaying real-time information, most designs call for a TV or monitor. But what do you do if you don’t have a spare screen lying around and don’t want to spend much money? Make a smaller one, of course! This pint-sized smart mirror is the perfect choice!

You won’t have to worry about complex assemblies and wires because only the Adafruit board is used. Instead of glass, a piece of mirrored acrylic is used, which is great to avoid accidents.

• Designer: Adafruit 
• Project pages: Printables, Thingiverse
• Core components: Adafruit PyPortal, 3D printed parts, acrylic sheet, roll of mirror film
• Difficulty: Beginner

Not everyone has a pet. Sometimes, you only have your precious and delicate plant, but like a pet, they need tender loving care as well. Depending on your routine, this can be challenging, but with this planter, you’ll have everything under control and can monitor your plant’s conditions in detail through your web browser.

You can remotely monitor the water level and temperature – even with the option of viewing data in a historical graph. The visual display on the planter’s front screen shows the real-time water level so you don’t forget to water it if it’s too low.

• Designer: Adafruit
• Project pages: Printables, Thingiverse, Cults
• Core components: PyPortal Titano, Stemma soil sensor, mini oval speaker, power supply, 3D printed parts
• Difficulty: Beginner

This project can change everything in your space and give that finishing touch you were looking for! With its vibrant and cheerful colors, it’ll be easy to give your space a new look without spending a lot!

The project can be easily customized to your style. Choose as many panels as you want, and arrange them however you’d like. The lights are controlled via the browser for your convenience.

The designer of this project created it to both decorate his home and to give it as a gift to his loved ones at Christmas. This can be an excellent choice that will please the whole family.

• Designer: WarrenW17
• Project page: Instructables
• Core components: Wemos D1 Board, LED strip, level shifter, breadboard, push-button switch, power supply, 3D printed parts
• Difficulty: Intermediate

Answering the door without knowing who’s there is not very pleasant and, worse, not safe. This wireless video doorbell is simple and designed so that you can create at home with minimal effort and cost. When you’re all done, you’ll be able to see who’s at the door with your smartphone.

In addition to the components, you’ll need to set up an IFTTT account to make this project work. It’s a free web-based service that allows you to create simple chains of conditional statements. When the doorbell is triggered, it not only plays a personalized tune on your phone but also sends a text message with the access link to the video.

• Designer: Ashish Choudhary
• Project page: Circuit Digest
• Core components: Esp32-CAM, FTDI programming board, 220-V AC to 5-V DC converter, 3D printed parts, buzzer, push button switch, LED light
• Difficulty: Beginner

Automating your home is one of the most obvious things to do with IoT. Use switches, voice commands, your mobile phone, and even an IR remote to control not only lights but also other appliances. Talk about comfort!

The use of a specific PCB is not mandatory, but it gives the project a more professional and polished look. To ensure that voice commands work correctly, you’ll need to create an account on the Sinric server, which completes the communication with the controller.

• Designer: techstudycell
• Project page: Instructables
• Core components: Arduino Uno, Esp01, IR receiver, relay module, switches, USB-to-TTL converter, power supply
• Difficulty: Intermediate

Global warming continues to reshape our climate, and this unpredictability is very dangerous. Whether you live in a remote area or just want to have your own security measures, this is a great idea for your home to make it smarter and safer.

With this weather station, you can measure temperature, humidity, air pressure, wind speed and direction, and the amount of rainfall. The information is sent to your smartphone and can be accessed through the app or a web browser. To make everything work correctly, you’ll need to have the Home Assistant app installed on a Raspberry Pi or computer.

• Designer: Giovanni Aggiustatutto
• Project page: Instructables
• Core components: Esp32 board, external Wi-Fi antenna, various sensors, perfboard, 3D printed parts
• Difficulty: Intermediate

Countless people around the world need to undergo physical therapy but often neglect or skip their treatments. Well, now there are no more excuses. With this device, you can attend to your health from the comfort of your home.

The device shares your exercise data with your physiotherapist, making it much easier to monitor the your progress. Auditory cues let you know when to switch between rest and activity. Visual cues to track the status of the exercises. There’s also a cool safety feature: The device sends an emergency email when it detects a cry if something goes wrong.

• Designer: enavelsasson
• Project page: Instructables
• Core components: Circuit Playground Express, Esp8266, 3D printed parts, AAA batteries, battery holder, USB cable
• Difficulty: Beginner

Here’s a machine for those who want to make their own healthy food at home. This device helps with making yogurt, allowing you to easily customize its texture and flavor – all while keeping an eye on all the details of the process. You can control and monitor all the fermentation details remotely through a dashboard.

An artificial neural network makes predictions about the yogurt’s consistency. The designer doesn’t guarantee perfect results, considering the various factors that can affect the process, such as temperature, humidity, pressure, milk temperature, and yogurt culture amount. However, in the designer’s tests, it was observed that the end result aligned with the predicted outcome.

• Designer: Kutluhan Aktar
• Project pages: Instructables, Hackster
• Core components: Seeed Studio Xiao Esp32C3, Seeed Studio Xiao expansion board, 3D printed parts, various sensors
• Difficulty: Advanced

Unfortunately, clean water and fresh air are becoming increasingly scarce nowadays. Many live in large urban centers or industrial areas where the air quality is often very poor. This is especially hazardous for people with respiratory problems.

With this project, you’ll be able to monitor not only air quality but also surveillance images and weather data. There are various sensors sensitive to highly reactive gases that can cause respiratory illnesses, and everything can be conveniently accessed from a remote web interface.

• Designer: Kutluhan Aktar
• Project page: Hackster
• Core components: Arduino Mega 2560, 3D printed parts, FireBeetle Esp32 IoT microcontroller, FireBeetle covers, LattePanda 3 Delta 864, various sensors, OLED display
• Difficulty: Intermediate

With so many smartwatch models out there, you might be wondering why bother making one? For DIY hobbyists, there are good reasons, including customization at all levels, the ability to use the materials you prefer, and perform repairs at home, among other things.

Even though it’s a DIY Smartwatch, it doesn’t leave anything to be desired; it contains all the major sensors and functions that a typical store-bought device would have. Keep in mind, however, that replicating this project will require patience and a good technical knowledge because everything here was done from scratch, including the circuit boards.

• Designer: Jobit Joseph
• Project page: Circuit Digest
• Core components: TTGO Micro, TFT display, power supervisor reset controller, 3D printed parts, USB UART controller, battery charger, PCB, a variety of sensors
• Difficulty: Advanced

Playing chess requires skill, patience, and an opponent! Unfortunately, opponents aren’t always available, or your favorite gaming partner may not live nearby. With this chessboard, you can still enjoy a game of chess even if your partner is thousands of miles away.

This chessboard is packed with smart features like move tips, integrated backlighting with feedback, and confirming moves align with game rules.

• Designer: DIY_Machines
• Project pages: DIY Machines, Thingiverse, GitHub
• Core components: Arduino Nano, Raspberry Pi 3 A+, LED strip, push-button switches, MicroSD card, 0.96-inch OLED screen, logic level shifter, 3D printed parts
• Difficulty: Intermediate

They say you can find practically anything on the internet these days, but when your furry friend decides to go for a stroll, conventional trackers are pushed to their limits. Tracking services are widely used today, but they are either expensive or don’t deliver what you’re expecting. But here, the designer decided to take matters into their own hands and create their own pet tracker.

The device is designed for both indoor and outdoor environments. It’ll even assist you when you’re too close to use GPS, pointing you in the direction of your pet on your smartphone. This is an open-source project, which means you can make improvements if you have the knowledge and motivation. One of the standout features is that the battery can last up to 6 months!

• Designer: Chitlange Sahas
• Project page: FindMyCat, Instructables
• Core components: FindMyCat PCB, 3D printed parts
• Difficulty: Advanced

Get ready to party in style! This humorous project is essentially a hat outfitted with a multicolor LED strip that displays messages sent over your smartphone app. You won’t need to worry about complex and difficult assemblies here because the system is actually very simple and uses only a few electronic components attached to the hat. As an optional step, it’s suggested to add an on/off switch so you don’t have to disconnect the battery every time.

Whether you want to apply it to a hat or another accessory is up to you. The project is a fun way to display messages however you decide to implement it.

• Designer: OlivierZ
• Project page: Instructables
• Core components: Arduino Nano, a hat, flexible led strip, Bluetooth module, 9-V battery and clip
• Difficulty: Beginner

Our best friends always need to be well-fed, but what do you do when you need to be away from home? That’s when being connected and tuned into IoT devices can help! Through a simple mobile app, you can keep your pets well-nourished using your smartphone.

This device operates with a Wemos D1 board that has integrated Wi-Fi. So, you don’t have to worry about network cables, just a power source. You can either create your own custom app or download the author’s version on PCBWay.

• Designer: MertArduino
• Project page: Instructables
• Core components: Wemos D1 Mini ESP8266 Wi-Fi board, 3D printed parts, stepper motor, stepper motor driver, 608zz bearing, power supply
• Difficulty: Beginner