Hi 👋

I’m VahaC — a developer, self-hosting addict and someone who can’t leave things “good enough” if there’s still a way to automate, optimize or hack them a bit more 😄

Who I am

By trade, I’m a backend / full-stack developer. I enjoy building systems where code meets the real world: hardware, sensors, servers, automation, integrations and everything in between.

In my free time you’ll usually find me:

  • tinkering with Home Assistant and ESPHome
  • experimenting with ESP32 boards, sensors, displays and power setups
  • self-hosting services on my own servers and Docker stacks
  • breaking things, fixing them, and then writing down what actually worked

I like understanding how things work under the hood, not just clicking magic buttons.

What this blog is about

This blog is my public notebook 🧰 — a place where I collect solutions that actually worked for me, so I don’t forget them and others can reuse them.

Here you’ll find:

  • Step-by-step guides
    How to deploy services in Docker, set up stacks on a home server, configure reverse proxies, SSL, storage, etc.
  • Home Assistant & ESPHome setups
    Sensors, dashboards, automations, displays, lights — with real YAML, examples and explanations.
  • Hardware experiments
    ESP32 projects, flow meters, TDS sensors, power/UPS ideas, wiring, and the “lessons learned” along the way.

I try to avoid “fluff” and focus on:

  1. exact configs and code
  2. why they’re written that way
  3. what can go wrong and how to fix it

Ideally, you should be able to copy, slightly adapt, run — and get a result.

Who this is for

  • People building a smart home and wanting more control and structure, not just random automations.
  • Developers and self-hosters who prefer running their own services instead of relying on black-box SaaS.
  • Anyone who likes practical, technical content with real examples rather than marketing slides.

Get in touch

If you spot a mistake, have a better approach, or want to share how you solved a similar problem — I’d be happy to hear from you. Good feedback, constructive criticism and weird edge cases are always welcome.

Thanks for visiting this page — I hope something here saves you time, nerves, and a few late-night debugging sessions 🔧🙂