Near-Field Communication (NFC) has rapidly evolved from a niche technology to a cornerstone of modern IoT and interactive designs. From contactless payments to digital ID badges and beyond, NFC is everywhere—and for good reason. In our ETHereal Crystals project and throughout our makerspace, we’ve adopted the PN532 NFC RFID V3 module as our go-to choice for all things NFC.

When it comes to rapidly prototyping interactive devices, few microcontroller modules offer the sheer flexibility and performance of the ESP32-WROOM-32D. We selected this powerhouse microcontroller for two major projects: the ETHereal Crystals and as our primary board for workshops and prototyping.