Collin de Witt

automation

Rebuilding My 4×4 Keypad Project with ESP32 + ESPHome

Goodbye glitchy Arduino sketch, hello modern home-automation workflow. For the longest time, my back garage keypad setup was… let’s call it “functional-ish.” It ran on custom Arduino code tucked inside an old iPod enclosure, complete with a piezo buzzer hanging awkwardly inside the box. It worked—but only if

Switching From OpenHAB --> HomeAssistant

Why I Finally Switched from openHAB to Home Assistant (And I’m Not Looking Back) For years, I’ve been knee-deep in home automation, tweaking, testing, and refining setups. If you’ve followed my journey, you’ll know that openHAB was my go-to platform for a long time. It’s

Daughter

You’ve Got a Friend Who Is 3 — Celebrating Ava-Maree’s Toy Story Birthday

On the 1st of June 2025, our little girl, Ava-Maree, turned three years old — and just like the theme of her big day, Toy Story, she reminded us once again that growing up doesn’t mean losing the magic. This year, her celebration was held at her Montessori school, the

automation

📣 Self-Hosted ntfy Server with Docker for Smart Notifications

Staying informed about what’s happening across my home lab and systems is critical. Rather than relying on a bunch of emails or third-party push services, I host my own lightweight notification service using ntfy. It's open-source, flexible, and dead-simple to set up with Docker. In this post,

Ava-Maree’s Big Leap: A New School, New Milestones, and a Whole New World

As parents, we often marvel at how quickly time passes. One moment, we’re cradling our tiny babies, and the next, they’re marching confidently into a new chapter of their lives. This past month has been one of those incredible turning points for us—Ava-Maree has started at her

Simplifying Dot File with GNU Stow

Managing dot files, or configuration files, on macOS and Linux can be a bit of a hassle. These files are essential for customizing and configuring your environment, but keeping them organized and in sync across multiple systems can be challenging. In the past, I tried the bare repository style of

Celebrating Ava-Maree's 2nd Birthday: A Wild Journey!

It's hard to believe that my little girl, Ava-Maree, is already two years old! Time truly flies, and these past two years have been a whirlwind of joy, laughter, challenges, and countless unforgettable moments. As I reflect on how much she has grown, I am filled with an

Daughter

Milestones and Moments

As I sit down to write this, I can't help but marvel at how swiftly time passes by. It feels like just yesterday when my daughter, Ava-Maree, came into this world, a tiny bundle of joy cradled in my arms. Now, she's on the brink of

automation

DIY Smart Doorbell with LCD

In the age of smart homes and DIY electronics, creating a personalized smart doorbell can be a rewarding project that combines functionality and creativity. In this blog post, I will show the process of building this smart doorbell using a 16x2 LCD, a 3D printed enclosure, and some nifty home

Celebrating Little Victories

Parenthood is a journey filled with unforgettable moments and milestones that mark the growth and development of our precious little one. Every smile, giggle, and new accomplishment becomes a cherished memory, reminding us of the incredible journey we're sharing with her. I am delighted to celebrate the remarkable

Daughter

One year, how time flies

"Ava-Maree: A Year of Pure Joy and Endless Love" Introduction: As I sit here, reminiscing about the past year, my heart swells with pride and love as I think of my precious daughter, Ava-Maree. It feels like just yesterday when we welcomed her into our lives, and now

Uptime Kuma Monitoring

As of this post I have about 28 or so self hosted services/containers running on my home server. I have considered monitoring, but had not looked into any services at any time before this. Being a supporter of open source this one hit the mark. My usual requirement for

6 Months and counting

It's hard to believe that our little girl is already 6 months old! Time really does fly by when you're a parent. As a new parent, watching our child grow and develop is a truly amazing experience. It's hard to believe that my daughter

DIY Macro Keypad

Why buy it when you can build it for double the price LOL. Not really. So firstly what is a Macro Pad. Well in short a macro pad is a series of buttons that allow you to trigger specific actions. Copy/paste is an excellent example of this type of

DIY Baby Room Nightlight

This was a small, but fun project. Using a string of LED's that look like clouds, originally running off of 2 AA batteries, I modified this the 'clouds' to work off power and also make them smart I guess, since the input voltage is 5v, this

automation

DIY Loadshedding Lights

Since loadshedding is here to stay, and installing solar and battery backups on the house is just way out of most people budgets.  I decided to make my own affordable diy system to have lights during power outages. Better than having rechargable laps to carry around the house, I opted

Family

DAD - It Is Official

Its official, I may now use Dad jokes. "Dad, can you put my shoes on?" "No, I don't think they'll fit me." via GIPHY Jokes aside, this is the most joyful event of our lives.  This bundle of joy arrived on Wednesday

Simplifying With Timers

Using timers in home automation rules, can really assist in simplifying tasks. Below I will explain how to use timers in OpenHAB rules to either create a type of scheduled task/automation, or to automate the flicking of a switch multiple times. A good use case of timers in my

DIY

Useful 3D Printing

3D Printing is great, you can print all types of gadgets, models, toys almost anything.  I prefer the useful or functional prints.  Most things you need to print can be found on Thingiverse but sometimes you just need to create something a little more custom to your needs. My tools

Multi-Sensor

Data logging is not for everyone, but it is fun to keep stats of things in the house.  Using a multi sensor can help with just that.  Not an original idea, but inspired from here.   Originally this was to be a copy paste project, but I had to tweak and

DIY

Baby Room Makeover

In eager anticipation, awaiting the arrival of royalty.   Fit for a queen, these living quarters will be. Some exciting stuff happening at home, A few weekends of painting and preparing a room for a little one. Some paint and some bedding, some furniture too Just a few of things we

Family

Dad To Be

This is an exciting year for us.  We are expecting a little girl in 2022. We should never wish the time away, but I long for the day she is finally here. "Before to long your life will change Becoming something new You'll hold so close and

automation

Keypad Controller

A problem I faced after moving into this house, was the back garage door that leads to the garden.  The door has a motor, but there is no remote, only a button inside the garage.  Everytime I needed something in the garage while I was in the garden, I would

DIY

Floating Display Shelf

As of now this is no a smart device, but as usual, I can not create a project without adding LED's to it.  In this case I have not added RGB LED's, but just plain white.  This is just a nice display shelf I made our

automation

More Presence Detection

Adding to my presence detection this is another way to somewhat advance the process of knowing who is home and who not.  Apart from monitoring GPS or smart devices connected to the home network. This is an additional way to increase the sources of data to determine who is home.