I researched, designed, and implemented a smart home system for my house. The system, based on Home Assistant, is tailored to be as hands-off as possible. Instead of replacing physical switches, it augments them, providing multi-functionality. For example, light switches work with a simple on/off button. However, holding them increases or decreases brightness, and double-tapping will adjust the warmth.

Despite Matter/Thread looking promising, I chose to favor Zigbee for the time being. This consistent choice allows me to create a large scale mesh network in my house while impacting the Wi-Fi network as little as possible. This means the smart devices are not temperamental depending on their proximity to the router but instead will bridge through nearby devices if needed.

The system is multi-modal, with a web interface, a mobile app, and voice control, as well as traditional physical switches. This allows for a wide range of control depending on what's convenient. Guest accounts can be created for visitors, and an old mobile phone repurposed as a universal remote.

Although we have had no problems so far (🤞), the new smart switches are mounted on 3D-printed brackets allowing for easy access to the original light switch if needed.

Booze bot was a collaborative project with me and Matt. The idea was simple: make a robot that could pour the perfect drink. The execution was a little more complicated. combining software, hardware, and mechanical engineering meant the challenges were near endless. From broken tubes to erratic webpages we battled our way through the obstacles and the resulting pour tasted all the better for it.

Although just a fun project with a friend, Boozebot really taught me about the implications of a cross disciplinary project. Each additional part is an entirely new surface are to go wrong and so the approach needs to be more methodical and considered.