I don’t own a 3D printer. My public library does.
That’s how my first-ever 3D print became Spoon Box: a translucent ESP32 media player with an OLED display, addressable LEDs, network audio, Home Assistant integration, and a giant spoon on the front.
The Build
I started with pieces from two existing designs: a Universal Project Box from Thingiverse and an OLED enclosure design by John Bradnam on Hackster.
I brought the pieces into Tinkercad, resized and combined them, added my own openings and graphics, and eventually added the spoon because the project clearly wasn’t weird enough yet.
The enclosure was printed on Prusa printers at my public library. Since this was my first 3D-printing project, there was plenty of trial and error getting everything to actually fit.
What’s Inside
The box contains an ESP32 running ESPHome along with:
- 128×64 SH1106 OLED display
- 8-pixel WS2812 LED ring
- External I²S audio hardware
- Sendspin network audio support
- Home Assistant integration
- Three inputs reserved for touch buttons
The translucent enclosure lets the LED ring illuminate the entire box from the inside.
Making the Connection
The contest theme fits the project because Spoon Box is really a collection of signals being passed from one place to another.
Music can travel from Home Assistant over the network using Sendspin, into the ESP32, through a 48 kHz audio pipeline, and finally out through an external I²S DAC.
At the same time, Sendspin provides the song title and artist. The ESP32 takes that information and sends it over I²C to the OLED display.
The LED ring is controlled separately by the ESP32 and currently supports effects including a warm twinkle, rainbow, and several solid colors.
Even startup involves another connection: once Home Assistant connects to Spoon Box through the ESPHome API, the device can play its own startup sound.
Adding Physical Controls
I also left three GPIO inputs available for physical touch buttons.
The next addition is hiding those controls around the spoon so the front of the enclosure becomes part of the interface. The idea is that touching different areas will eventually provide direct playback controls without needing to open Home Assistant.
Does It Work?
Yep.
Spoon Box currently:
- Connects to Home Assistant through ESPHome
- Receives Sendspin network audio
- Plays HTTP and local audio
- Outputs stereo audio through I²S
- Displays title and artist information
- Controls internal addressable LEDs
- Plays a startup sound
The inside is definitely more “maker project” than commercial electronics, but that’s part of what I enjoyed about it.
What Makes It Mine
I didn’t design every piece from scratch. I started with other makers’ work, credited them, and modified those ideas into something completely different.
I combined the enclosure pieces, added my own design elements, built and soldered the electronics, created the ESPHome configuration, and turned the result into a working network media player.
For a challenge about making connections, Spoon Box ended up having quite a few of them.
Credits
Universal Project Box — zx82net, Thingiverse #4801005
OLED / Rotary Encoder Enclosure — John Bradnam, Hackster.io
I write about the rest of my smart home experiments at Thing Too Tech:
https://thingtootech.blogspot.com/
