Logbook // Engineering Manual
Documenting enterprise home lab architecture, local-first home automation, and custom 3D-printed hardware solutions.
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Local-first infrastructure, Proxmox VE hypervisors, TrueNAS storage pools, container orchestration, high-speed networking, and self-hosted services built for rock-solid reliability. |
Designing a 100% local, cloud-independent smart home using Home Assistant. Custom integrations, REST webhooks, and dashboard kiosks that work seamlessly even if the internet drops. |
Designing and printing utilitarian mounts, rugged electronics enclosures, smartwatch charging docks, and hardware adaptations tailored specifically for the homelab. |
Turn an unused Wear OS smartwatch (e.g. Fossil Gen 4) into a dedicated desk-docked smart display:
- Ambient Standby Clock: Pure black AMOLED display with active burn-in protection and automatic Day vs. Night color shift.
- Focus Timer Presets: Tap-to-wake quick timer blocks (
5m,10m,15m,25mPomodoro) with haptic vibration alarms. - Doorbell Priority Overrides: Live camera snapshot popups from Home Assistant over any active timer.
- Web Configuration Portal: Built-in responsive web interface on port 8080 to adjust schedules, colors, and timer durations from your browser.
- Dock-Friendly: Permanently silences the intrusive stock charging screen animation.
A custom Home Assistant integration that monitors live wait times, queue sizes, store hours, and barber schedules:
- Real-Time Wait Times: Live sensor updates from your local store.
- Favorite Stylists: Monitors when your preferred stylists are working and their active queue times.
- Smart Polling: Automatically sleeps when the store is closed to eliminate unnecessary network traffic.
- HACS Ready: Fully compatible with Home Assistant Community Store.
- Engineering Logbook & Blog: thebeardedadmin.com
- YouTube Channel: @TheBeardedAdmin
- Discussion & Issues: Feel free to open issues or feature requests on any of our repositories!