Independent maker Eric Nam from That Project recently completed a project called ESP32Tag, which functions similarly to the AirTag that Apple released on the market last year. Apple’s AirTag is an iPhone accessory that expands the “Find My” ecosystem, while also providing a private and secure way to easily locate lost items that matter a great deal to users. Thus, AirTag taps into the global “Find My” network and helps locate a lost item, while maintaining the user’s privacy with end-to-end encryption.

As Eric Nam says in the description of the relevant YouTube video he has posted: “It’s impossible to get the Ultra Wide Band chips made by Apple. The UWB product that can [actually] be purchased is the DW1000, with which I tried to make an ESP32Tag that works on ESP32. Two devices are working as a pair, whereby one functions as a tag and the other one as an anchor. The tag includes a display so you can see how far from the anchor it is”, as is demonstrated in the picture below.

ESP32Tag’s display showing the distance between anchor and tag

Hackster.io writer Vincent Kok highlights the main elements of this project:

Hardware

• ESP32 Wemos Lolin 32 Lite
• BU01 (DW1000)
• ILI9488

Software configurations

• ESP32 version 1.0.6
• LVGL 8 + LovyanGFX
• Arduino-dw1000

Click on the following link to check out the project's video and see the ESP32Tag in action! The project’s code is available on GitHub.