Physical vs Software Button
I'm looking at whether physical buttons are still worth using in 2026. I compare a standard LED circuit with a physical button against a software-controlled version that replaces the hardware entirely. It's a simple look at how we can simplify our builds using code instead of extra components.
View Code on GitHub1. The Hardware Drop
Instead of wiring a physical push-button to the breadboard, I set up an ESP32 microcontroller to broadcast its own local Wi-Fi Access Point (ESP32_Button). No internet required.
2. The Seamless UI (JavaScript Fetch)
The standard way to build a web button on an ESP32 involves reloading the entire page every time you click. To make it feel like a native iOS app, I injected a hidden JavaScript fetch() function into the HTML. It sends a signal to the ESP32 silently in the background.
html += "&