So this all started right after Thanksgiving 2025 when it was time to put up the Christmas tree. Normally, we put the old Lionel train in a boring circle around the tree. That is about all the room I have for it. So I decided to get some N-scale trains so I could be more ambitious with a train layout. So what kind of scene do we build? Sleepy Christmas village? Nah, Godzilla smashing things up, of course. So I had the idea of taking an 8" Bandai Godzilla Minus 1 Ichibansho Figure

Godzilla and building a diorama around him. But then I had the idea of making his dorsal fins light up with a NeoPixel strip. This meant learning how to use a microcontroller and making the lights do the atomic breath pattern. And I was hooked. So the trains are now put away, and I have been working on a system for putting action figures on a stepper motor controlled turntable. That system has a dedicated esp32-s3 with a tmc2209 stepper driver and a basic NEMA 17 stepper motor that is accurately positioned using an AS5600 magnetic encoder. Using WiFi, I control the turntable with a built-in web app or via Python software running on my Mac or Raspberry Pi 5. The software can choreograph mock battles, or silly dance routines. It also allows me to use a PS4 Dual Shock controller to manually control the turntable. 

I thought I could use my Mac or RPI 5 to do audio effects, but I thought it would be cool to have a standalone system with all the controllers inside the box. I didn't want to "cheat" by just using an RPI, so I built another module for lighting and sound effects. This has an esp32-s3 with an Adafruit PCM 5122 breakout board, 

and a micro sd card. I wanted to use CircuitPython for everything, but in the end I really needed some efficient code using FreeRTOS tasks to decode and stream data to the PCM5122. I added support for NeoPixel strips and NeoMatrix using separate GPIO pins.

The light and sfx controller is working nicely. With this all together I have a cool system allowing me bring my Godzilla, Ghidorah or kind of whatever I want to life. I just need to put audio files on the SD card, code up lighting effects (hint, AI tools are doing a great job cranking these out). And I can create combined lighting and sound effects using some JSON config on the sd card. I am very proud of this system. It is still a work in progress. I need to make a better clean wooden enclosure, and make a larger and sturdier turntable.