Jobatronic https://jobatronic.com/ Recent content on Jobatronic Hugo en-us Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Self-Hosted Homelab https://jobatronic.com/projects/homelab/ Tue, 01 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://jobatronic.com/projects/homelab/ A compact Docker homelab running media, monitoring, productivity, and local AI services. This is my 36-container Docker server: a small home lab built to run the services I actually use while giving me a place to experiment.

What it runs

  • Jellyfin for media
  • Sonarr and Radarr for automation
  • Navidrome for music
  • Grafana for monitoring
  • Vikunja for task management
  • Local AI services

The hardware is intentionally modest: a ThinkCentre, an RTX 1060, and a lot of stubbornness.

What I learned

The interesting part isn’t getting a container running. It’s making the whole stack reliable: backups, networking, updates, monitoring, and knowing what to do when something inevitably breaks.

More documentation will be added as the homelab evolves.

]]> ESP32 Greenhouse Controller https://jobatronic.com/projects/esp32-greenhouse/ Thu, 20 Aug 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://jobatronic.com/projects/esp32-greenhouse/ A small ESP32-based controller for monitoring temperature, humidity, and greenhouse ventilation. A compact automation controller built around an ESP32.

Goals

  • Monitor temperature and humidity
  • Automatically control ventilation
  • Keep a manual override available
  • Log readings for later analysis

The project is deliberately simple: inexpensive sensors, straightforward control logic, and hardware that can be repaired instead of thrown away.

Next steps

The next revision will add better enclosure design, longer-term data logging, and a cleaner terminal block layout.

]]> Smart Garage Lighting https://jobatronic.com/projects/garage-lighting/ Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://jobatronic.com/projects/garage-lighting/ Motion-aware garage lighting with manual controls and an automatic timeout. A practical home-automation project: make the garage lights turn on when somebody walks in without making the system annoying.

The controller combines motion detection with a manual switch and an automatic timeout. The important design decision was keeping a physical control path available even if the network or home-automation server is offline.

Result

The system is simple enough to forget about, which is usually my definition of a successful automation project.

]]> PCB Test Fixture https://jobatronic.com/projects/pcb-test-fixture/ Wed, 10 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 https://jobatronic.com/projects/pcb-test-fixture/ A reusable fixture for quickly testing assembled boards before they go into a finished enclosure. A small production-style test fixture for assembled PCBs.

The fixture provides a repeatable way to power a board, expose test points, and verify the important signals before final assembly.

Why build one?

Testing one board by hand is fine. Testing the same board repeatedly gets tedious quickly.

A fixture turns a collection of probes and improvised wires into a repeatable process—and makes debugging much easier when a board doesn’t behave as expected.

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