VID_20260421_215441134.mp4

KAOS — Dual-Board Portal (Pi Pico + ESP32)

Bassed off: https://github.com/NicoAICP/KAOS

I got this slopped together with the help of Claude.

Each chip does what it's best at:

Board	Job
Pi Pico	USB HID portal — appears as a real Skylander Portal of Power to any console or emulator
ESP32 DevKit v1	WiFi Access Point + Web UI + SD card management

No PC. No Python. No proxy. Fully self-contained.

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System Diagram

Wii / PS3 / Xbox 360 / Dolphin / RPCS3
            ↕  USB HID  (VID 0x1430 / PID 0x0150)
         Pi Pico
            ↕  UART  (3 wires, 921600 baud)
         ESP32 DevKit v1
            ├── Spiffs (.bin / .sky Skylander dumps)
            └── LCD1602  (shows WiFi AP name + IP)

Your phone or browser
            ↕  WiFi → 192.168.4.1
         Web UI
            (pick files, load P1/P2 slots, swap Skylanders live)

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Wiring

ESP32 ↔ Pi Pico (UART, 3 wires)

ESP32	Pico	Signal
GPIO17	GPIO5	TX → RX
GPIO16	GPIO4	RX ← TX
GND	GND	Ground

Both boards run at 3.3V — no level shifting needed.

LCD1602 → ESP32 (I2C, PCF8574 backpack)

Signal	ESP32 GPIO
SDA	21
SCL	22

Default I2C address: 0x27 (try 0x3F if blank — change LCD_I2C_ADDR in esp32/main/main.c).

Building — Pi Pico

Requires the Pico SDK.

cd pico
export PICO_SDK_PATH=/path/to/pico-sdk
mkdir build && cd build
cmake ..
make -j4

Copy kaos_pico.uf2 to the Pico (hold BOOTSEL while plugging in).

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Building — ESP32

Requires ESP-IDF v5.1+.

cd esp32
idf.py set-target esp32
idf.py build
idf.py -p /dev/ttyUSB0 flash    # Windows: COM3 etc.

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Using the Web UI

1. Power both boards (the Pico via USB to the console/PC, the ESP32 via its USB-C)
2. LCD shows KAOS-Portal / 192.168.4.1
3. Connect your phone or PC to WiFi KAOS-Portal (password is skylands1)
4. Open http://192.168.4.1 in a browser
5. Two cards appear — P1 and P2
6. Select a file from the dropdown → Load
7. The card shows the Skylander's name, element, and emoji
8. The ESP32 instantly pushes the dump to the Pico over UART
9. The game detects the Skylander on the portal

Force Re-Sense: if the game doesn't detect a newly loaded Skylander, hit the re-sense button — it briefly unloads and reloads on the Pico to trigger detection.

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How Write-Back Works

When the game saves progress to a Skylander (XP, gold, abilities), it writes blocks back through the HID protocol to the Pico. The Pico re-encrypts the updated dump and sends it back to the ESP32 over UART (MSG_WRITE_BACK). The ESP32 saves it back to the original file on spiffs protocal for internal storage on the esp32 — so your Skylander's progress is preserved.

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Protocol (kaos_protocol.h)

Three messages over UART at 921600 baud. Framed with SOF byte, length, type, payload, XOR checksum.

Message	Direction	Payload
MSG_LOAD	ESP32 → Pico	slot(1) + raw dump (1024)
MSG_UNLOAD	ESP32 → Pico	slot(1)
MSG_WRITE_BACK	Pico → ESP32	slot(1) + updated dump (1024)
MSG_PICO_READY	Pico → ESP32	(none — boot signal)

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Customising

All pin assignments and the AP name/password are at the top of each main.c:

ESP32 (esp32/main/main.c):

#define WIFI_AP_SSID     "KAOS-Portal"
#define WIFI_AP_PASSWORD ""    // set a password to lock the AP
#define PIN_SD_MOSI      13
#define PIN_SD_CLK       14
// ...

Pico (pico/main.c):

#define KAOS_UART_TX  4   // to ESP32 RX
#define KAOS_UART_RX  5   // from ESP32 TX

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File Map

kaos-dual/
├── kaos_protocol.h          Shared UART protocol (copied into both projects)
├── pico/
│   ├── main.c               USB HID portal + UART RX (core 1)
│   ├── skylander_slots.c/h  Slot state, block read/write
│   ├── usb_descriptors.c/h  TinyUSB descriptors (VID/PID, HID report)
│   ├── SkylanderCrypt.c/h   AES sector key derivation
│   ├── rijndael.c/h         AES-128, pure C
│   ├── kaos_protocol.h      Protocol (local copy)
│   ├── tusb_config.h        TinyUSB config
│   └── CMakeLists.txt
└── esp32/
    ├── main/
    │   ├── main.c           WiFi AP, SD, LCD, glue
    │   ├── web_ui.c/h       HTTP server + single-page web app
    │   ├── pico_bridge.c/h  UART2 link to Pico
    │   ├── Skylander.c/h    Slot metadata + file loading
    │   ├── SkylanderCrypt.c/h
    │   ├── rijndael.c/h
    │   ├── skylander_ids.h  Character ID → name/element table
    │   └── kaos_protocol.h  Protocol (local copy)
    ├── CMakeLists.txt
    └── sdkconfig.defaults