Projects

Welcome to the Projects section of PHP Systems Blog. This is where ideas turn into reality - whether it’s building custom electronics, setting up automation systems, crafting 3D-printed prototypes, or self-hosting entire services. Every project here is something I’ve built, tested, and documented so you can learn from both my successes and mistakes.

Smart doorbell failure #2?

Following on from my failure to detect my doorbell button being pushed, I considered a few different alternatives solutions. The first solution to spring to mind was to use a zigbee button.

Monitoring DMARC with Docker

In this post, I deploy a docker container via docker compose and ansible to read my dmarc reports.

Using ansible to deploy a gitlab runner.

After deploying watchtower to one of my docker instances, I noticed that it was having issues with restarting the container. The actual fault turned out to be the networking with portainer, but in the meantime, I wrote an ansible playbook to redeploy / restart the container.

Deploying Plex with docker and ansible

After deploying watchtower to one of my docker instances, I noticed that it was having issues with restarting the container. The actual fault turned out to be the networking with portainer, but in the meantime, I wrote an ansible playbook to redeploy / restart the container.

Wireless doorbell hacking

I bought a wireless doorbell from B&M and the doorbell works great. I have always been interested in decoding radio, so this gave me a chance to try this out. My end goal here is to be able to press the doorbell and have home assistant act on the button press.

Gitlab pipelines

As a later post will show, I've been using gitlab pipelines to validate some of my code for me. As a security conscious person, I've been interested in building security in to pipelines.

eMotion and Modbus

As I write this, Paul Hibbert released this video on youtube 3 days ago. The video features a very smart sensor doing presence detection. The company linknlink were new to me and following the recommendation from Paul, I bought a couple of eMotion sensors.

My Ender 5

I have been 3D printing since COVID. Like many others, I decided I needed a new hobby to spend my time at home on. Shame it was still tied to computers, but it was sufficiently different to distract me. The printer I chose was an Ender 5 pro.

Returning to FDM printing

This week I've returned to printing with Plastic using my Ender 5.

Epaper Displays and waste management

So, if you have read any of my other posts you may have already setup your waste management reminders and your epaper display access point(s) and tags. So if we have both of these things, why not combine them?

About the author

Tim Wilkes is a UK-based security architect with over 15 years of experience in electronics, Linux, and Unix systems administration. Since 2021, he's been designing secure systems for a telecom company while indulging his passions for programming, automation, and 3D printing. Tim shares his projects, tinkering adventures, and tech insights here - partly as a personal log, and partly in the hopes that others will find them useful.

Want to connect or follow along?

LinkedIn: [phpsytems]
Twitter / X: [@timmehwimmy]
Mastodon: [@timmehwimmy@infosec.exchange]


If you've found a post helpful, consider supporting the blog - it's a part-time passion that your support helps keep alive.