This super sleek ESP32 weather station looks good on any desk

Summary

ESPTimeCast: stylish ESP32 LED-matrix clock showing time, weather, countdown, and glucose.
Web UI, NTP sync, OpenWeatherMap updates, and many display/toggle settings for customization.
3D-printable case and full GitHub assets make it DIY-friendly; perfect for ESP32 projects.

Just because you built a project yourself doesn't mean it has to look rough. There are plenty of kits available that create a handy gadget while also looking incredible, and those are always my favorite. Such is the case of the ESPTimeCast, which comes with a ton of features and looks good doing so.

The ESPTimeCast adds a stylish weather forecast to your desk

On a post on the ESP32 subreddit, tinkerer mfactory_osaka posted what they're working on right now. They call it the ESPTimeCast, and it really has to be seen to be believed. Take a peek:

Looks pretty amazing, doesn't it? You can see some of the features packed within the ESPTimeCast in the video. There's a clock, a weather tracker, a countdown to a preset date, and even glucose tracking. In fact, the list of features is pretty huge, so here's the full run-down if you want to see everything this thing can do:

LED Matrix Display (8x32) powered by MAX7219, with custom font support
Simple Web Interface for all configuration (WiFi, weather, time zone, display durations, and more)
Automatic NTP Sync with robust status feedback and retries
Weather Fetching from OpenWeatherMap (every 5 minutes, temp/humidity/description)
Fallback AP Mode for easy first-time setup or configuration
Timezone Selection from IANA names (DST integrated on backend)
Get My Location button to get your approximate Lat/Long.
Week Day and Weather Description display in multiple languages
Persistent Config stored in LittleFS, with backup/restore system
Status Animations for WiFi connection, AP mode, time syncing.
Advanced Settings panel with:
- Custom Primary/Secondary NTP server input
- Display Day of the Week toggle (default is on)
- Display Blinking Colon toggle (default is on)
- Show Date toggle (default is off)
- 24/12h clock mode toggle (24-hour default)
- Imperial Units (°F) toggle (metric °C defaults)
- Show Humidity toggle (display Humidity besides Temperature)
- Weather description toggle (displays: heavy rain, scattered clouds, thunderstorm etc.)
- Flip display (180 degrees)
- Adjustable display brightness
- Dimming Hours Scheduling
- Countdown function (Scroll / Dramatic)
- Optional glucose + trend display (Nightscout-compatible, set via ntpserver2)

If you're interested in giving this project a shot yourself (and I don't blame you), you can check out all the assets and code used on the project's GitHub page. The 3D printable files for the case aren't hosted on the GitHub page itself, but you can pop over to the Printables page for it and grab it there instead. In fact, you could probably mix and match both the hardware and the 3D printable case with your other projects if you so desire.

Are you new to the ESP32 scene? If so, you may be curious as to how ESP32 projects differ from Raspberry Pi projects. There are some significant differences between the two due to the ESP32 being a microcontroller, and some projects are even cheaper to build on an ESP32 than on a Raspberry Pi.