{"slug": "diviner-occult-synth-firmware-for-the-cardputer", "title": "DIVINER: Occult Synth Firmware for the Cardputer", "summary": "Developer voidrane Splicer released DIVINER, an open-source firmware for the M5 Cardputer — an ESP32-S3 handheld with a small screen, keyboard, GPIO, I2C and I2S audio output — that combines a standalone synthesizer and sequencer, a visualization engine, a WiFi and Bluetooth scanner, an LLM interface, an IR blaster and Channel-State-Information presence detection into apps the developer calls \"rites.\" The project page on Hackaday.io documents the underlying system layer first and includes a simulator hosted on the project's GitHub repository so users can try the firmware before their Cardputer ships.", "body_md": "We see some strange software around these parts, but this is probably the strangest. [DIVINER](https://hackaday.io/project/207156-diviner-occult-firmware-for-cardputer-adv) is a firmware for the M5 Cardputer, which is an interesting device in its own right, being essentially a tiny ESP32-S3 dev kit with an even tinier screen, keyboard, some GPIOs, I2C, and an audio jack for output. It is essentially a blank canvas that can do anything if you write the firmware for it.\n\nAnd that’s what DIVINER does: a little of everything. It’s part standalone synthesizer and sequencer, taking advantage of the I2S audio out, part visualization engine, part WiFi and Bluetooth scanner and monitor (what?), with an LLM interface and an IR blaster thrown in for good measure. [voidrane Splicer] even explores the Channel-State Information to do presence detection, like [we’ve seen recently elsewhere](https://hackaday.com/2026/01/28/make-your-own-esp32-based-person-sensor-no-special-hardware-needed/). Byte-beat player anyone?\n\nThe Hackaday.io page talks about the underlying system layer before it even gets to the applications, and we get the feeling that all of the different apps, called “rites”, were crammed in to exercise it and show off the “blood and ember”, Diablo-esque visual style. But that doesn’t stop us from enjoying the audio engine, demonstrated in the video below, or the awesome graphics.\n\nDo these apps hang together more than visually? Do they need to? Is the sum of the parts so large that you don’t even worry about the whole? We don’t know, but it’s also [got a simulator](https://github.com/numbpill3d/cardputer-adv-diviner/#build) so you can try that out while your Cardputer is shipping.", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/diviner-occult-synth-firmware-for-the-cardputer", "canonical_source": "https://hackaday.com/2026/11/14/diviner-occult-synth-firmware-for-the-cardputer/", "published_at": "2026-11-15 00:00:11+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-11-15 00:23:13.764109+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["artificial-intelligence", "ai-products", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["DIVINER", "M5 Cardputer", "voidrane Splicer", "Hackaday.io", "ESP32-S3", "GitHub"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/diviner-occult-synth-firmware-for-the-cardputer", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/diviner-occult-synth-firmware-for-the-cardputer.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/diviner-occult-synth-firmware-for-the-cardputer.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/diviner-occult-synth-firmware-for-the-cardputer.jsonld"}}