This is the official website of Kevin McAleer daily 1 https://www.kevsrobots.com Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 I used an Arduino UNO Q, a cheap webcam and a printed chess board to build a chess opponent that watches my moves, plays back with Stockfish and tells me when I've blundered. Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/uno-q-chess-camera.html https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/uno-q-chess-camera.html Block coding usually stops at the simulator. This one drives a real robot around a real book — and the code underneath is MicroPython you can open, read and keep editing by hand. Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/my-robot-dodges-obstacles-and-i-never-coded-it.html https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/my-robot-dodges-obstacles-and-i-never-coded-it.html Smaller files, faster imports, less peak memory at the exact moment your board is most likely to crash — .mpy does all three, and it's one right-click away in Snakie. Sun, 06 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/mpy-files-explained.html https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/mpy-files-explained.html No C toolchain, no MicroPython fork, no agent to babysit — a pure-Python ROS 2 client, the wrong firmware build that cost a week, and the fix that's now shipped in Snakie for everyone else. Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/they-all-gave-up-on-ros-and-micropython.html https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/they-all-gave-up-on-ros-and-micropython.html Five Arduino sensor modules, a brain Arduino didn't make, and about €55 in parts I already owned — here's how a six-year-old robot chassis just clicked its way to five brand new senses. Fri, 21 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/my-first-robot-just-got-five-new-senses.html https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/my-first-robot-just-got-five-new-senses.html My phone had no signal, no wifi, and no SIM card in it — and it still sent a message. Here's how I built a MeshCore LoRa mesh network with two cheap Heltec V3 boards and a repeater in my loft. Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/meshcore.html https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/meshcore.html The Seeed Studio XIAO is a tiny microcontroller that packs a punch. In this post, I'll share my experiences and some cool things you can do with it. Sun, 02 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/xiao.html https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/xiao.html What would a code editor look like if it was actually designed around building robots, instead of just editing text? I built the answer, and Adafruit noticed too. Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/what-if-building-robots-with-code-was-actually-easy.html https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/what-if-building-robots-with-code-was-actually-easy.html The ClawBox is a compact, 3D-printed box positioned as a dedicated local-AI appliance. It promises a turnkey experience for running local LLMs and bridging to cloud AI providers. Sun, 07 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/clawbox-review.html https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/clawbox-review.html One board. One agent. Always on. Here's how I moved from OpenClaw to Hermes Agent, why I picked the Arduino Uno Q to run it on, and what it actually costs compared to a VPS. Thu, 28 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/hermes-agent-on-arduino-uno-q.html https://www.kevsrobots.com/blog/hermes-agent-on-arduino-uno-q.html