Arduino Nano Tamagotchi

The Arduino Nano Tamagotchi operates as a self-contained, battery-powered microcontroller system that simulates a virtual pet. Because a standard rechargeable or single-cell battery typically provides lower voltage than what the Arduino Nano requires for stable operation, a boost converter steps up the battery voltage to the required level, controlled by a master power switch. When the circuit is powered on, the Arduino Nano executes the core virtual pet game loop stored in its flash memory. User inputs are captured via physical push buttons connected to digital pins, allowing the user to interact with the virtual pet by feeding, playing, or managing its status. The graphical user interface is rendered visually through an SSD1306 OLED display, communicating with the microcontroller over the I2C protocol using the Wire and U8g2 libraries. As the virtual pet's state changes over time—such as its hunger, happiness, or age—the microcontroller updates the real-time graphics on the screen accordingly. To ensure that the pet's progress is not lost when the device is powered down, the system periodically writes critical game variables directly into the Arduino Nano's internal non-volatile EEPROM memory. Upon subsequent power-ups, the software reads this EEPROM data to seamlessly restore the pet's exact state.