From zero coding background to hardware hacker: How Cursor + a Raspberry Pi makes AI fun

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.

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. Listen or watch on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts What you’ll learn: How Maddie built a thermal receipt printer that accepts messages from anywhere in the world using a Raspberry Pi and Bluetooth How to use Cursor’s agent view to brainstorm a hardware project What belongs in a personal API and why agents, not just humans, will be the ones using it How to read just enough code to do some damage, without needing to understand all of it Why building for fun, not practicality, is the fastest path to actually shipping physical projects Brought to you by: Firecrawl https://firecrawl.dev/?utm source=newsletter&utm medium=partner&utm campaign=how i ai —Power AI agents with clean web data Customer.io https://www.customer.io/howiai —Build customer engagement campaigns from a single prompt In this episode, we cover: 00:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY Intro 02:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY&t=120s Maddie’s AI pill moment 03:53 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY&t=233s The thermal receipt printer: live demo and how it works 11:10 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY&t=670s The pager project 17:23 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY&t=1043s Why she uses Cursor’s clean agent view instead of terminals and browsers 19:05 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY&t=1145s The personal API: coffee order, pets, favorite snacks, and more 22:57 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCGKb3huDsY&t=1377s Lightning round and final thoughts Tools referenced: • Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/ https://www.cursor.com/ • Lovable: https://lovable.dev/ https://lovable.dev/ • Raspberry Pi: https://www.raspberrypi.com/ https://www.raspberrypi.com/ • Resend: https://resend.com/ https://resend.com/ • Cloudflare Workers: https://workers.cloudflare.com/ https://workers.cloudflare.com/ • Supabase Conduct database referenced : https://supabase.com/ https://supabase.com/ • Twitter/X API: https://developer.x.com/ https://developer.x.com/ • Spoke pager network: https://www.spoke.com/ https://www.spoke.com/ • OpenClaw: https://openclaw.ai/ https://openclaw.ai/ Where to find Maddie Reese: Website: https://maddiedreese.com https://maddiedreese.com Message her directly: https://maddiedreese.com/message https://maddiedreese.com/message Where to find Claire Vo: ChatPRD: https://www.chatprd.ai/ https://www.chatprd.ai/ Website: https://clairevo.com/ https://clairevo.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/clairevo/ Production and marketing by https://penname.co/ https://penname.co/ . For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email email protected /cdn-cgi/l/email-protection .