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Smart Home Edge Systems / Community support

Help build the home lab.

This project is building an affordable, private, in-home testbed for local AI, voice assistants, automation, media, storage, and resilient household infrastructure. Support makes it possible to test real products and publish the results for everyone.

01 / Why support matters

A personal project with a public purpose.

I am building this lab from a fixed income, one tested system at a time.

I am a United States Air Force veteran and retired from LM Human Space due to a disability. My income is fixed, but my commitment to this work is full-time. I am using the engineering discipline, technical experience, and practical focus I have developed over decades to build a community resource around private, local-first technology.

The lab is not intended to sell vague promises. It is intended to show what works in an ordinary home: which hardware is sufficient, which software integrates cleanly, what local AI costs to operate, where latency appears, and how a household can keep control of its own data.

02 / Current needs

Support can be practical.

New or used equipment is welcome when it can contribute to a documented test, comparison, or deployment guide.

01 / HARDWARE

Compute and networking

Mini PCs, GPUs, memory, storage, switches, access points, microphones, voice satellites, and networking equipment for local AI and infrastructure testing.

02 / SOFTWARE

Licenses and access

Software licenses, developer access, hosted services for comparison, test accounts, and tools that improve measurement, documentation, or accessibility.

03 / OPERATIONS

Lab expenses

Replacement parts, power protection, cabling, media production, data storage, test fixtures, and the recurring costs of maintaining a reliable testbed.

03 / The supporter promise

Recognition with transparency.

Supporters will be acknowledged in a clear, useful way that connects the contribution to the work it enabled.

01 / CREDIT

Supporter recognition

Supporters can be listed on the site with a description of their contribution and the project it helped advance.

02 / POINTERS

Direct product links

Where appropriate, listings can point viewers to the supporter's hardware, software, documentation, or product page.

03 / RESULTS

Evidence in context

Sponsored products will be identified in related test notes, with conditions and limitations kept visible alongside the results.

04 / Partnership invitation

Help make the next test possible.

New or used hardware is valuable here.

A working device, retired equipment, a software license, or a modest financial contribution can move a real project forward. I will document what is received, how it is used, and what the testing shows.

Discuss support

Contributions can help us:

  • Expand the Ollama and local AI testbed
  • Measure complete private voice pipelines
  • Compare storage, media, and backup platforms
  • Build weather, power, and home automation experiments
  • Publish open guides and benchmark results
05 / Explore the work

See where support goes.

The R&D hub tracks active projects and implementation requirements. The Home Lab hub shows the current Proxmox architecture, including the Ollama engine and the services around it.

Active R&D projectsCurrent Home LabMarketing guidesMarketing references