Workshop · Est. 2022

Gears, Code, and Fire

Build logs for things that move, think, or catch fire; usually all three. Every video here has a write-up: what it is, how it failed first, and the files to build your own.

  • Gears
  • Code
  • Fire

The Builds

2026

Shopcam 2000

Nine cameras and a lav mic watch the workshop all day and throw the footage away. One red button on the bench saves the last sixty seconds from every angle at once - so the clip contains its own trigger, and the moment you only recognised after it happened is on disk before you have finished swearing.

Recorder
Blue Iris on a decommissioned Dell OptiPlex · 60 s pre-roll buffer on every camera
Cameras
9 angles - PoE IP cameras, two USB OBSBOTs bridged to RTSP, a bench cam, the desktop
Button
Seeed XIAO ESP32S3 on battery → ESP-NOW → ESP32 master → UART → ESP32 WiFi bridge → Controller
Controller
Python (FastAPI) · phone-sized web UI · arms cameras, triggers the save, sorts nine clips into one folder

2025

Operation Pinocchio

My AI co-host was a skull on a shelf with a borrowed voice. This is the build where Little Timmy got a body, a locally-hosted brain, and a butane flame he can aim. No cloud, no API keys; everything runs in the shop.

brain
Locally-hosted LLM via Ollama, with persistent memory
hearing
faster-whisper STT, fine-tuned on my voice
voice
Piper TTS, fine-tuned on my own Skeletor impressions
jaw
ESP32 running an FFT, opening on phoneme formant peaks

2024

Ghost Rider FPV

A child's Power Wheels, a machined aluminium skull on a pan-tilt rig, an FPV camera, and a propane effect that I would not describe as OSHA-compliant. Driven entirely over a hobby RC link from the far end of the driveway.

  • 2nd Prize - Instructables Halloween Contest 2024
  • Featured on Hackaday
control
FlySky FS-i6X → iBus over UART → ESP32
drive
2× BTS7960 43A motor drivers
steering
35 kg·cm servo, GT2 belt and pulley (v3)
vision
FPV camera in the left eye socket, pan-tilt on two servos

2024

The Iguana Smart Home

Nacho's old enclosure was criminally small. This one is welded steel, glazed in polycarbonate, with sliding doors on printed nylon runners and a still suit on the roof that keeps the humidity in when the fresh air comes through.

frame
TIG-welded square steel tube, 5 ft × 4 ft × 23 in, on stilts
glazing
¼ in polycarbonate (Lexan) in aluminium channel
doors
3D-printed nylon runners, dry-lubed
joinery
¾ in red oak ply on printed brackets, tapped straight into the steel

2023

Bar-Shop Bat-Signals

Blasting a group text at people who might be asleep is rude. Projecting my logo onto their ceiling and playing a power chord is, I would argue, considerably more polite. A set of ESP32 beacons that summon the neighbourhood to the garage bar.

Boards
ESP32 · custom PCB (EasyEDA)
Optics
12 V LED gobo projector
Code
MicroPython, talking to Indigo home automation
Audio
DFPlayer Mini + micro SD

2023

The Wood-Fired Radiator

A 55-gallon drum inside another 55-gallon drum, plumbed to a hot-water radiator and supervised by a microcontroller that decides when the shop is warm enough. The most watched thing on the channel, and the only build with no write-up here.

Heat
Secondary-combustion drum stove
Control
ESP32 · async web server