Vending Machine: ESP32, Raspberry Pi Pico, NFC, n8n, Lovable & ElevenLabs
This is a submission for the MLH x DEV Writing Challenge
What I Built…..
I built an IoT-enabled physical vending and authentication machine that bridges local microcontrollers (ESP32 and Raspberry Pi Pico) with modern cloud automation, web interfaces, and AI voice responses.
What it does:
-
Local Interaction & NFC Capture:
- The Raspberry Pi Pico acts as the local controller managing the user interface (TFT display) and communicating locally via UART with the ESP32.
- The ESP32 hosts the PN532 NFC reader (configured in I2C mode) to capture the unique identifier (UID) of physical user cards.
Workflow Orchestration: n8n receives the hardware payload via webhook, orchestrating the backend logic between device events, web dashboards, and AI services.
Web Application & Dashboard: Built and deployed rapidly using Lovable, providing an intuitive frontend interface to monitor real-time machine states and user interactions.
Dynamic AI Voice Response: Upon successful processing, ElevenLabs dynamically synthesizes hyper-realistic human voice feedback to guide or thank the user.
Physical Dispensing Trigger: An approval signal is sent back through the network and serial communication to execute the physical vending or access action.
What Inspired It & Lessons Learned:
We wanted to transform a traditional, dull physical vending experience into an interactive, voice-driven smart appliance backed by decentralized or cloud-connected workflows. Working on this taught us how to efficiently coordinate dual microcontrollers (ESP32 + Raspberry Pi Pico over UART), bridge hardware securely with visual backend automation tools in n8n, deploy snappy web apps with Lovable, and add real-time emotional or voice feedback via ElevenLabs.
Demo
Here is a look at the system architecture and workflow execution:
[ Raspberry Pi Pico (TFT + Keypad) ]
│ (UART Serial)
▼
[ ESP32 + PN532 NFC Reader ] ──► [ n8n Webhook Endpoint ] ──► [ Lovable Web Dashboard ]
│ │
│ (Trigger Approval) ▼
└────────────────────────────────────────────────► [ ElevenLabs API (TTS Audio) ]
Partner Technologies
Our project makes heavy use of three core partner and ecosystem technologies:
- Lovable (Web Application & Deployment)
- How we used it: Lovable was used to build and deploy the frontend web dashboard, allowing administrators and users to monitor NFC transactions and machine channels in real time.
- Experience: Lovable allowed us to prototype and deploy a fully functional web app instantly through natural language workflows, saving hours of frontend boilerplate setup.
- n8n (Workflow Orchestration)
- How we used it: n8n serves as the central backend engine connecting our dual-microcontroller IoT setup, web data storage, and AI voice pipelines into a clean visual canvas.
- Experience: n8n eliminated complex custom server scripting by letting us visually link webhooks, data parsing, and external API requests seamlessly.
- ElevenLabs (AI Voice & Audio Generation)
- How we used it: ElevenLabs' text-to-speech engine synthesizes natural, immersive audio responses right when a user completes a successful action on the machine.
- Experience: Integrating ElevenLabs gave our hardware project a distinct, futuristic personality with remarkably low latency.
Hackathon Experience
We developed this project as part of Hacktoberfest México 2026 (organized by Mobil3 in association with Major League Hacking) during Mexico Tech Week in Mexico City.
The atmosphere across the event—from the kickoff at Dev House to building and live demos at Sandbox Hub in Polanco—was electric.
We loved meeting fellow developers and builders working with open-weight models and modern automation APIs. What we'll remember most is seeing local hardware commands, cloud webhooks, and AI voice engines synchronize live right in front of the judges!
Thanks for reading our submission! Feel free to drop comments about our dual-microcontroller setup or n8n workflow below!
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