VaporWare Labs

Engineering • Robotics • AI • Infrastructure

VaporWare Labs

An independent engineering lab for software, robotics, artificial intelligence, embedded systems, home automation, infrastructure, and experimental projects.

Experiment. Share Results. Enjoy the Process.
View Projects → GitHub Org Contact

About the Lab

Ideas. Built. Tested. Iterated.

VaporWare Labs is a growing collection of engineering projects, experiments, and shared knowledge.

Projects range from autonomous vehicles and smart-home systems to project-management software, local artificial intelligence, self-hosted infrastructure, and documented cooking experiments.

The lab is not limited to one technical field or product. It is a place to follow curiosity, build useful things, preserve what was learned, and make the results available to others.

Current Lab Status

What is active now

The website provides the overview. Detailed source code, roadmaps, design notes, issues, and experiment history remain in GitHub.

vaporCAM

Active Development

Production hardening, search fixes, release stabilization, and project-controls workflows.

vaporFUND

Active Development

Multi-account portfolio allocation, contribution planning, and account-aware investment workflows.

vaporEYES

Active Development

ESP32-C3 robotic eyes with pan/tilt motion, autonomous behavior, embedded control, and a camera-tracking roadmap.

vaporCORE

Operational

Self-hosted development, testing, deployment, and local-AI infrastructure.

vaporAI

Experimental

Local RAG, model evaluation, private engineering memory, and self-hosted inference.

Project Vapor

Operational

Local home automation, sensing, and smart spaces

Active Projects

What We’re Building

Each project begins as a useful experiment and grows through real-world testing, documentation, and iteration.

Active Development

Engineering Software

vaporCAM

An open-source engineering planning and control-account management application built with Django for real project execution.

  • Jira Feature and Story synchronization
  • Monthly ETC and labor actuals
  • Earned-value and CPI visibility
  • Multi-project CAM and PM workflows
  • Search, filtering, notes, audit history, and Excel workflows
  • Production deployment with Gunicorn and Nginx
  • Automated regression testing

Current focus: production hardening, search and usability fixes, and formal release stabilization.

View repository →
Active Development

Financial Software

vaporFUND

A Django-based portfolio allocation assistant designed to maintain a target investment allocation primarily through new contributions rather than forced rebalancing.

  • Multiple investment accounts
  • Account-specific target allocations
  • Contribution-driven purchase recommendations
  • Whole-share purchase planning
  • Multi-purchase recommendation workflows
  • Account-aware holdings and contribution history
  • Buy-only allocation strategy
  • Compliance-conscious trade planning
  • Automated test coverage

Current focus: expanding multi-account workflows, refining the dashboard and account-settings experience, and supporting real portfolio accounts with known cost basis.

Active Development

Robotics / Embedded Systems

vaporEYES

A 3D-printed robotic eye platform combining embedded control, mechanical design, electromechanical integration, and autonomous behavior.

  • ESP32-C3 control
  • Independent pan and tilt servos
  • External 5 V servo power system
  • Calibrated 50°–130° safe motion envelope
  • Smooth spline-based eye movement
  • Autonomous behavior state machine
  • Idle, scan, fixation, and glance behaviors
  • 3D-printed mechanical structure

Current focus: designing the power-supply substructure and clean mounting for the ESP32 and WAGO terminals, followed by camera-based person and face tracking.

Planned vision architecture: Raspberry Pi with Camera Module 3 Wide performing person/face detection and sending target coordinates to the ESP32.

Operational

Infrastructure

vaporCORE

The self-hosted platform supporting VaporWare Labs development, experimentation, deployment, and local AI.

  • Proxmox virtualization
  • Ubuntu virtual machines
  • Development and test environments
  • Self-hosted project services
  • Snapshots and infrastructure experiments
  • Cloudflare-based routing and remote access
Experimental

Artificial Intelligence

vaporAI

A private, self-hosted AI platform running local language models and Retrieval-Augmented Generation.

  • Ollama and Open WebUI
  • Local language models
  • RAG over approved documentation
  • Private engineering-memory assistant
Active Development

Knowledge System

vaporware-knowledge

A version-controlled knowledge repository designed for both humans and AI systems.

  • Project overviews and design documents
  • Roadmaps and feature descriptions
  • Infrastructure notes and lessons learned
  • Curated institutional memory for vaporAI
Active Development

Cooking Experiments

vaporCHEF

A Git-based collection of evolving recipes documented in Markdown and refined through experimentation.

  • Record the initial recipe
  • Test and evaluate the result
  • Revise the ingredients or method
  • Preserve photos, notes, and version history
Experimental

Flight Systems

Quad-001

An endurance-focused quadcopter platform based on CubePilot and ArduPilot, supported by smaller indoor-aircraft experiments.

  • S500 airframe and CubePilot controller
  • RFD900 telemetry
  • Mission planning and autonomous flight
  • Control tuning and system integration
Experimental

Robotics

Rover-001b

A modular Raspberry Pi and Arduino rover platform for RC control, autonomy, computer vision, and future docking concepts.

View project →
Operational

Smart Space

Project Vapor

A Home Assistant–based smart-home ecosystem built around local automation, practical sensing, and ESP32 devices.

  • Presence-aware lighting
  • Voice satellites and scene controllers
  • Environmental and occupancy sensing
  • Local automation wherever practical
View project →
Planned

Future Software

vaporTASK, vaporEXEC & Institutional Memory Engine

Planned projects for a focused Jira interface, a management-level portfolio dashboard, and an institutional memory engine. These are not current development priorities.

Technology Stack

One lab, many disciplines

Software

Python, C++, Django, FastAPI, JavaScript, Bootstrap, SQLite, Gitea

Artificial Intelligence

Ollama, Open WebUI, local LLMs, RAG, prompt engineering, local inference

Hardware

Raspberry Pi, ESP32 / ESP32-C3, Arduino, STM32, servos, sensors, RC systems

Infrastructure

Ubuntu, Linux, Proxmox, Docker, Gunicorn, Nginx, systemd, Cloudflare

Robotics & Control

ArduPilot, MAVLink, servo control, embedded state machines, computer vision, autonomous systems

Mechanical Design

SolidWorks, CAD prototyping, 3D printing, electromechanical integration, 2020 aluminum extrusion

Home Automation

Home Assistant, ESPHome, voice satellites, sensing, local control

Documentation

Markdown, version control, roadmaps, design history, experiment records

Design Philosophy

Build small. Test honestly. Preserve what matters.

Documentation is treated as a first-class engineering artifact. Whenever practical, projects preserve not only what was built, but why important decisions were made.

  1. 01Start with a useful experiment.
  2. 02Build the smallest workable version.
  3. 03Test it in the real world.
  4. 04Study the results.
  5. 05Improve the design.
  6. 06Document what was learned.
  7. 07Share the results.

Current Focus

Where the lab is spending its energy

  • Stabilizing vaporCAM toward v0.8
  • Expanding vaporFUND multi-account portfolio workflows
  • Building the VaporEYES power/electronics chassis
  • Developing autonomous VaporEYES behavior
  • Preparing VaporEYES for camera-based person tracking
  • Maintaining vaporCORE self-hosted infrastructure
  • Improving project documentation and release history
  • Keeping VaporWareLabs.org aligned with active lab work

Explore the Work

The website is the front door. GitHub is the workshop.

Source code, detailed documentation, roadmaps, issues, experiment notes, recipes, and project history are maintained in the VaporWare Labs GitHub organization.

Visit GitHub →