hardware-verified
Physical display bring-up
The actual Waveshare board now boots over USB-C and renders MaxBot boot, face, and icon output. The remaining device and battery paths are still unverified.
Physical bench unit · August 22
An expressive companion.
Now on the bench.
MaxBot is a small, offline-first desk companion now running on the physical Waveshare ESP32-S3 Touch-LCD-1.69 board. Its display has earned its first evidence; its sensors, power path, and connectivity remain deliberately under test.
Physical display verified over USB-C. The rest of bring-up is still itemized.
Physical hardware proofUnit 01 / USB-C bench power
The actual platform
Not a mockup.
A real board with room to earn.
Today’s MaxBot is the photographed Waveshare ESP32-S3 Touch-LCD-1.69 unit: USB-powered and display-proven. It stays a playful system for emotional literacy and regulation practice—not a therapist, authority figure, or exclusive friend.
Current release status
Evidence,
not implication.
implemented
Today’s source pass
Startup color choice, original boot, learning, interaction, recovery, and local-update work are implemented in source; this pass is awaiting compilation and board testing.
compiled
Earlier firmware baseline
The Waveshare ESP32-S3 target compiled on August 20. Today’s new changes have not inherited that result.
simulator-verified
Browser labs
Existing procedural face and behavior models are explorable in-browser; they do not validate the new device interactions.
planned
Hardware behavior
Board bring-up, sensor calibration, power-latch, Wi-Fi recovery, update flow, and physical acceptance testing remain next.
V1 source scope
A small system with deliberate edges.
Procedural face
Expression, gaze, eye color, blink timing, and brightness are generated on-device—no image sequences. Today adds an original boot sequence and a first-run color choice.
Sensor-led behavior
Touch, motion, idle, and sleep events resolve into semantic intents before drawing occurs. Today’s source adds a defined forehead-petting gesture and bounded repeated-shake response.
Local-first care
Aggregate personality and settings stay local. Today’s source adds an icon-only learning menu plus local Wi-Fi recovery and paired update paths.
Bounded regulation
Notice, name, choose, practice, and reflect—with a visible stop and no judgment about the outcome. It remains distinct from learning and developer controls.
Non-negotiable safety boundary
No account. No microphone. No camera. No cloud dependency.
MaxBot does not collect free text, create a friendship score, guilt a child for leaving, diagnose feelings, or ask a child to keep secrets.