I put this on the back burner because the Hardware side was really frustrating me.

Rusty Heliostat

An under construction dual-axis heliostat controller written in Rust, running on an Arduino Nano ESP32 (ESP32-S3) via ESP-IDF. Aiming to keep the project open source for hardware and software layers.

The heliostat will track the sun and angle a mirror to reflect sunlight at a fixed target point — useful for redirecting natural light indoors. Hoping I can set this up to rotate to a few fixed spots throughout the course of the day. I have some plants inside that sorely need the light.

Hardware

• MCU: Arduino Nano ESP32 (ESP32-S3, 8 MB flash, 8 MB PSRAM)
• Motor drivers: 2x TMC2209 V1.3 (STEP/DIR)
• Motors: 2x NEMA 17 with 49:1 worm gearboxes (azimuth + elevation)
• RTC: DS3231 (I2C)
• Power: 12V 5A supply

See docs/electric-equipment.md for full specs.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• espup toolchain (espup install)
• espflash, ldproxy (cargo install espflash ldproxy)
• WiFi credentials set as env vars: WIFI_SSID, WIFI_PASSWORD

First Flash (fresh Arduino Nano ESP32)

The board ships with an Arduino DFU bootloader that isn't compatible with espflash. A one-time software workaround is needed to switch to ESP-IDF.

Follow docs/first-flash-guide.md for the complete walkthrough.

Build & Flash (after first flash)

source ~/export-esp.sh && source ~/.cargo/env
cd firmware
WIFI_SSID=<ssid> WIFI_PASSWORD=<password> cargo run

cargo run flashes and opens the serial monitor automatically.

OTA Deploy

After the device is on your network:

cd firmware
WIFI_SSID=<ssid> WIFI_PASSWORD=<password> ./deploy.sh <device-ip>