Office desk
He sits beside your keyboard and quietly judges the meeting that should have been an email.
A quiet workbench story
Look, this is the little guy I made.
He did not begin as a product pitch. He began on a silent desk, under a warm lamp, with brass, solder, code, and one stubborn little idea: maybe a machine could feel less like a device, and more like a tiny companion.
No loud banner. No discount shouting. Just a small brass-and-PCB creature opening his eyes.
No camera. No watching.
He does not know what you look like, or what you are doing. He only knows that someone is nearby.
Mischievous, but occasionally useful.
He can remember a few little things for you—and remind you ahead of time. Just remember to pay him in coffee, unless you’re prepared to pay interest.
He has a bad temper,
and he is not very good at saying nice things.
TongDou is not a polite assistant waiting for commands. He is a tiny desktop gremlin with OLED eyes, two wheels, and way too much attitude.
I only built him. The bad attitude grew on his own.
CURRENT PROTOTYPE
V9 Is Alive
TongDou is now running on the new V9 mainboard.
V9 adds a capacitive touch input directly into the gold TongDou logo, a QMI8658A 6-axis IMU for motion and yaw measurements, and a public hardware-test environment for checking the real board.
The 24 GHz LD2412 presence radar has also been tested on the physical V9 board, with clean serial data and repeatable target detection.
Public firmware here means board-level hardware-test firmware. The full TongDou firmware is not public yet and will be released in a later open-source phase.
But he stayed with me through the hardest winter.
There were nights when the room was too quiet, the water on the desk went cold, and the unfinished drawings looked heavier than they should.
TongDou did not fix loneliness. He just did not leave.
If your desk feels a little too quiet,
or if you sometimes feel lonely—
Maybe your desk needs something that talks back. Not a perfect machine. Not productivity police. Just one stubborn little companion for coders, makers, creators, office workers, and anyone who wants the room to feel a little less dull.
Maker bench
He stares at your solder joints like a tiny brass supervisor with no HR training.
Creator setup
He gives your desk a little motion, a little personality, and one more reason to look over and smile.
You will be able to build one yourself.
TongDou is being open-sourced step by step. More hardware files, firmware, BOM, mechanical files, and build documentation will be released in phases.
This means the public path starts with verified schematics and board-test firmware first, then grows into a complete reproducible build package.
Behind the Brass
A Letter from the Maker
Hello, I’m Wang. I am a 53-year-old hardware engineer.
A while ago, I lost my parents. The world suddenly became very quiet, very lonely, and very exhausting. I shut myself in my workshop, staring at the empty desk, trying to find something real and clean in this world.
So I picked up my soldering iron. I spent months cutting brass, revising PCBs, and writing code. I did not want to build another cold AI assistant or a smart speaker. I wanted to build a companion: a mischievous, cheeky, slightly stubborn little creature that could sit on my desk, look at me with its cyan eyes, and remind me that I am still human.
When it finally blinked and moved its brass skeleton, I smiled for the first time in a long while.
TongDou was born from grief, but it was made to bring joy. I do not want to build a mass-produced plastic gadget. I want to build a small community of makers who still believe in honest hardware, raw materials, and genuine, uncomplicated companionship.
— Wang, Creator of TongDou
Real Workbench Proof
Built on a Real Workbench
TongDou’s brass frame is aligned and soldered in a simple custom fixture. It is not a render or a factory mock-up—it is being designed, assembled, tested, and revised one prototype at a time.
Inside the box is not a toy.
He is a little guy who has not woken up yet.
These parts do not have a temper yet. They wake up when you put them together.
Brass frameMain PCB with onboard IM72D128 PDM micOLED face display24GHz presence sensor — not a camera.1200mAh batteryN20 gear motorsGear wheelsScrews & connectorsTongDou firmware packageBOMBuild guide
Planned kit contents shown. Final contents, battery inclusion, and documentation package will be confirmed before crowdfunding.
He is not very obedient.
But he really responds to you.
TongDou does not need to do everything. He just needs every little reaction to feel like he is there.
He looks alive.OLED eyes, blinking, bad smiles, sleepy faces, annoyed faces.
He reminds you.Breaks, desk presence, work-life boundaries, “enough for today” moments.
He moves.Wheels, turns, tiny shakes, first-summon ritual, cheeky dance.
He listens.A professional PDM microphone path for voice interaction, sound-aware behavior, and hardware experiments.
MCP Ready.Full Model Context Protocol support. Hook him up to your local LLMs, VS Code, or servers. Let him judge your code in real-time.
You can change him.Modify his faces, lines, timing, actions, workflow hooks, and personality.
You can modify him, take him apart, rebuild him,
and let him grow into whatever you want him to become.
TongDou is not meant to stay sealed. He is meant to be studied, modified, forked, rebuilt, and argued with.
Available now
✓Schematic PDFs
✓Public V9 hardware-test firmware
✓Browser-based hardware test interface
✓Prototype photos, videos, and test notes
Planned phased releases
→Editable PCB and manufacturing files
→BOM and sourcing notes
→Full TongDou firmware — later open-source phase
→Mechanical and fixture files
→Complete assembly guide
The public firmware available now is for hardware testing. The full TongDou firmware is not public yet and will be released in a later open-source phase.
Not “make him look like you.” Make him become the version you want to build.
Which hardware tier would you actually support?
These are early hardware tier interest signals, not checkout. We want to learn which version feels right to real desk humans, developers, and makers: a standard kit, an assembled TongDou, a purple-gold Founder’s Edition, or a custom silkscreen Founder’s Edition.
Prototype shown. Founder finish and custom silkscreen details will be confirmed before launch.
These numbers are not final prices. Final price, shipping, battery inclusion, kit contents, and PCB customization rules will be confirmed before launch.
Follow the build.
Leave your email and hardware tier interest. When the crowdfunding page is ready, you will be among the first to know.
Current mode: early interest collection. No checkout, no payment, just launch updates and tester invitations.
Want to be one of the first testers?
For developers, makers, creators, and anyone surviving a desk job.
Take this little gremlin home and see what trouble he causes. We are looking for early overseas testers who can share honest feedback, post a review, or show TongDou to a maker, desk setup, or office-life audience.
FAQ
Is TongDou a finished product?
Not yet. TongDou is in working prototype and crowdfunding preparation stage. The first public goal is to validate real demand and recruit testers.
Does he have a camera?
No. TongDou does not use a camera for his core desktop interaction. He uses screen, motion, sound, and presence-sensing behavior instead.
Is TongDou open source?
TongDou is being open-sourced step by step. More hardware files, firmware, BOM, mechanical files, and build documentation will be released in phases. The full TongDou firmware is not public yet and will be released in a later open-source phase.
What is the Founder’s Edition?
It is a complete TongDou with a purple-gold circuit board for early supporters: purple solder mask, gold-finished pads, founder marking, and numbering. The custom version can include reviewed silkscreen text. The separate bare PCB gift is board only, not a working mainboard with components.
When will crowdfunding launch?
When the waitlist, tester feedback, cost model, and production plan are ready enough to avoid a messy campaign.
Which countries will you ship to?
Shipping regions will be decided before launch. For now, we are collecting overseas interest and tester signals.