Steamworks Studio Projects
Overview
This page is dedicated to documenting my various projects at Steamworks Studio. My time in steamworks starts in Summer of 2024. This is when basic soldering kits, the radio kit, headphones, speaker box and other non-IDE kits were developed. I call these the 'build-only' as kids will build a kit with wood and some electronics.
I was involved mainly in the production of PCBs and firmware. In 2025, I worked with a team and developed every kit that we use in classrooms. These kits are the console, rc-car, drone and smartwatch, all of which support STEAMBLOCKS and block coding, our custom IDE. We are planning to release our kits to the online market in early 2027.
Let’s start with the IDE that I developed for this, even though this is the most recent project I’m working on.
STEAMBLOCKS is where all the kits connect. It’s a block-coding interface similar toCircuitMess’s CircuitBlocks.
We are still working on making it live for our car, drone, and other kits, and below is the current UI. We plan to relate curriculum and coding concepts associated with our kits.
Build
Students can choose a STEAMBLOCKS kit and follow visual instructions for assembling, connecting, and preparing the hardware before programming it. The current Build area shows real kit entries including STEAM Car, Drone Kit, BitBot, STEAM console, Headphones, and STEAM watch.
Learn
The Learn section breaks a kit into individual parts so students can understand what each component does. The current component activities include motors and movement, a color ultrasonic sensor, and a line follower.
Build is for setup, Lessons is for guided activities, and Learn is for understanding the hardware parts inside a kit.
Display
BitBot display blocks let students create simple OLED expressions and timed patterns as part of a program.
Camera & Computer Vision
Camera blocks expose current vision behaviors such as color checks and ArUco marker detection, so programs can react to what the BitBot camera sees.
Console kit (2025)
One of my personal favorites that took a while to build. This is essentially a MakeCode Arcade console, programmable with MakeCode Arcade. Our IDE does not support this kit. The full version is planned to be acrylic, but we also designed a wooden enclosure. The PCB uses an STM32F411CEU6, speaker, pushbuttons, and other hardware for a complete console experience.
Wooden prototype running a block-coded version of Flappy Bird.
This version was hand-soldered and took 13 hours to make!
Designed PCB for console kit.
Current acrylic prototype in box.
RC CAR kit (2024/2025)
The RC car was one of the first kits we built around the STEAMBLOCKS ecosystem. It uses an ESP32-based controller with Bluetooth communication, letting students program movement and behavior through custom blocks instead of writing code directly. A huge advantage that my PCB made was a change from dupont wiring to JST. Kids found it much easier to hook up all necessary parts of the kit.
Wooden RC car kit and enclosure pieces.
Completed RC car prototype.
Designed PCB for the RC car kit.
Drone kit (2024/2025)
The drone kit was designed around the ESP32-S3 as a low-cost, classroom friendly drone platform, taking inspiration from LiteWing’s approach to making flight hardware more accessible and programmable. The goal was to keep the electronics simple enough for students to understand while still giving them a real flying system they could experiment with and modify. We are currently working on STEAMBLOCKS integration so students can eventually program flight behavior using the same block-based environment as the rest of our kits.
PCB preview in KiCad.
Black version.
POV wand (2026)
The POV wand was a fun mini project I worked on that uses persistence of vision, an effect where our eyes briefly retain an image even after the light source has moved. By rapidly turning LEDs on and off at specific moments while the PCB is moved through the air, the wand can make text or simple images appear to float in space. The project combines basic timing, motion, and embedded control in a simple visual effect.
POV wand PCB.
POV wand printing STEAM in red.
Radio Kit
This project is a build-it-yourself FM radio kit designed to introduce students to electronics through hands-on assembly. The custom PCB is built around the RDA5807FP FM receiver IC, combining radio reception, audio output, and simple controls into a compact learning platform.
Radio kit in box.
Radio kit PCB.
Other Projects
Constellation soldering kit — LEDs are constellations and stars themselves.
Speaker box — a build-only wooden enclosure project combining basic electronics with hands-on assembly.
Snowflake soldering kit — a minimal soldering project focused on accuracy, silkscreen guidance, and attention to detail.
Headphones kit — a build-only electronics project using a premade PCB and mechanical assembly.
Steamworks is where I found my call to serve students by making interactable kits and experiences, and paved the way for my research interest.
More of my work
