Akmal // IoT Hacker & Builder

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AKMAL

IoT HACKER · BUILDER · SELF-HOSTER

I build things that shouldn't exist — truck button boards, DIY energy monitors, home automation systems running 24/7 on my own hardware. I don't just use technology. I bend it.

~/akmal $ cat identity.txt
> Coder. Tinkerer. IoT Enthusiast. Gamer.

Story

My Timeline

EARLY DAYS

The Spark

Started tinkering with electronics and computers. Realized I didn't just want to use devices — I wanted to understand, modify, and build them from scratch.

HOME AUTOMATION ERA

Building the Smart Home

Discovered Home Assistant and never looked back. Set up a full self-hosted smart home ecosystem — Jellyfin for media, Immich for photos, Minecraft server for friends, all running on my own hardware. No cloud dependency. Full control.

HARDWARE HACKING

Getting Physical

Built a custom truck button board with a real key ignition system. Designed and assembled my own PZEM-004T energy sensor to monitor individual circuits in the home — real-time power data flowing into Home Assistant dashboards.

NOW

Always Building

Running a full self-hosted server stack: Docker, Home Assistant, Caddy reverse proxy, Immich, Jellyfin, and more. Alexa integrated. Matter protocol enabled. The homelab never sleeps.

Work

Built Projects

PRJ_001

Truck Button Board

Custom-built physical control panel for a truck, featuring a real key ignition system, toggle switches, and indicator lights. Fully wired from scratch — no off-the-shelf components.

Hardware Electronics DIY

PRJ_002

PZEM-004T Energy Monitor

Built a custom energy monitoring system using PZEM-004T sensors to measure individual circuit power consumption across the home. Data streams live into Home Assistant dashboards.

IoT Home Assistant PZEM-004T Energy

PRJ_003

Self-Hosted Home Server

Full homelab running on bare metal — Docker containers for Jellyfin, Immich, Home Assistant, Minecraft, WordPress, Portainer, Caddy reverse proxy. Zero cloud dependency. 100% self-hosted.

Docker Linux Self-hosting Caddy

PRJ_004

Smart Home Ecosystem

Integrated Home Assistant with Alexa voice control, Matter protocol, MQTT, and custom automations. Controls lights, energy monitoring, media, and more — all from one unified dashboard.

Home Assistant Alexa Matter MQTT

Interests

My Hobbies

🔌

IoT & Automation

Building smart home systems, custom sensors, and automation flows that make life easier.

🖥️

Self-Hosting

Running my own cloud — media, photos, gaming servers. No big tech, full control.

🔧

Hardware Hacking

Soldering, wiring, building physical devices from scratch. Truck boards to sensor arrays.

🎮

Gaming

From tactical shooters to survival games. Gaming is how I unwind after breaking prod.

⚡

Energy Monitoring

Obsessed with measuring and optimizing home energy consumption circuit by circuit.