{"slug": "from-zero-coding-background-to-hardware-hacker-how-cursor-a-raspberry-pi-makes", "title": "From zero coding background to hardware hacker: How Cursor + a Raspberry Pi makes AI fun", "summary": "Vibe coder and hardware tinkerer Maddie Reese builds projects at the intersection of software and hardware, including a thermal receipt printer that accepts messages from anywhere in the world using a Raspberry Pi and Bluetooth, a fully functional Twitter pager, and a personal API that exposes her coffee order. Reese uses Cursor's agent view to brainstorm hardware projects, reading just enough code to build without needing to understand all of it, and advocates building for fun as the fastest path to shipping physical projects.", "body_md": "**Maddie Reese** is a vibe coder, hardware tinkerer, and builder. She builds things at the intersection of software and hardware, including a thermal receipt printer that people around the world can message directly, a fully functional Twitter pager running on a Raspberry Pi, and a personal API that tells you her coffee order so you don’t have to ask. Maddie approaches hardware the same way she approaches software: dump the idea into Cursor, let it interview her, get a shopping list, triple-check the parts before buying, and build. She got her start after her dad introduced her to Lovable, and she locked herself in her room and didn’t come up for air.\n\n**Listen or watch on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts**\n\n### What you’ll learn:\n\nHow Maddie built a thermal receipt printer that accepts messages from anywhere in the world using a Raspberry Pi and Bluetooth\n\nHow to use Cursor’s agent view to brainstorm a hardware project\n\nWhat belongs in a personal API and why agents, not just humans, will be the ones using it\n\nHow to read just enough code to do some damage, without needing to understand all of it\n\nWhy building for fun, not practicality, is the fastest path to actually shipping physical projects\n\n### Brought to you by:\n\n[Firecrawl](https://firecrawl.dev/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=partner&utm_campaign=how_i_ai)—Power AI agents with clean web data\n\n[Customer.io](https://www.customer.io/howiai)—Build customer engagement campaigns from a single prompt\n\n### In this episode, we cover:\n\n([00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY)) Intro\n\n([02:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY&t=120s)) Maddie’s AI pill moment\n\n([03:53](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY&t=233s)) The thermal receipt printer: live demo and how it works\n\n([11:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY&t=670s)) The pager project\n\n([17:23](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY&t=1043s)) Why she uses Cursor’s clean agent view instead of terminals and browsers\n\n([19:05](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY&t=1145s)) The personal API: coffee order, pets, favorite snacks, and more\n\n([22:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY&t=1377s)) Lightning round and final thoughts\n\n### Tools referenced:\n\n• Cursor: [https://www.cursor.com/](https://www.cursor.com/)\n\n• Lovable: [https://lovable.dev/](https://lovable.dev/)\n\n• Raspberry Pi: [https://www.raspberrypi.com/](https://www.raspberrypi.com/)\n\n• Resend: [https://resend.com/](https://resend.com/)\n\n• Cloudflare Workers: [https://workers.cloudflare.com/](https://workers.cloudflare.com/)\n\n• Supabase (Conduct database referenced): [https://supabase.com/](https://supabase.com/)\n\n• Twitter/X API: [https://developer.x.com/](https://developer.x.com/)\n\n• Spoke pager network: [https://www.spoke.com/](https://www.spoke.com/)\n\n• OpenClaw: [https://openclaw.ai/](https://openclaw.ai/)\n\n### Where to find Maddie Reese:\n\nWebsite: [https://maddiedreese.com](https://maddiedreese.com)\n\nMessage her directly: [https://maddiedreese.com/message](https://maddiedreese.com/message)\n\n### Where to find Claire Vo:\n\nChatPRD: [https://www.chatprd.ai/](https://www.chatprd.ai/)\n\nWebsite: [https://clairevo.com/](https://clairevo.com/)\n\nLinkedIn: [https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/)\n\nProduction and marketing by [https://penname.co/](https://penname.co/). For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email [[email protected]](/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/from-zero-coding-background-to-hardware-hacker-how-cursor-a-raspberry-pi-makes", "canonical_source": "https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/from-zero-coding-background-to-hardware", "published_at": "2026-07-27 12:04:34+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-28 04:15:16.910103+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-tools", "ai-agents", "developer-tools"], "entities": ["Maddie Reese", "Cursor", "Raspberry Pi", "Lovable", "Resend", "Cloudflare Workers", "Supabase", "Claire Vo"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/from-zero-coding-background-to-hardware-hacker-how-cursor-a-raspberry-pi-makes", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/from-zero-coding-background-to-hardware-hacker-how-cursor-a-raspberry-pi-makes.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/from-zero-coding-background-to-hardware-hacker-how-cursor-a-raspberry-pi-makes.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/from-zero-coding-background-to-hardware-hacker-how-cursor-a-raspberry-pi-makes.jsonld"}}