I built a distributed computer with three cheap ESP32 boards using a feature most people ignore
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ESP-NOW is a built-in ESP32 protocol that enables direct board-to-board communication over 2.4 GHz without a Wi-Fi network or IP stack. It operates at the data-link layer, sending vendor-specific action frames directly to MAC addresses, with payloads up to 1,470 bytes in v2.0 and support for up to 20 paired devices. To demonstrate its capabilities, the author split a three-body gravity simulation across three ESP32-CYD boards, each owning one planet and broadcasting its state every 33 ms. The project illustrates real distributed-systems challenges — clock drift, lossy packets, and state divergence — in a tangible, physical form. ESP-NOW also supports broadcast mode, sensor meshes, and robot swarms, and ESPHome added official ESP-NOW support in August 2025.
