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Local-first · self-hosted · made at home

The gear that runs your home — not someone's cloud.

A hand-picked kit for the overlapping worlds of the smart home, the homelab, the 3D-printing bench, running your own AI, and the tech you carry. Every pick is something worth owning, with an honest take on why. No scraped catalogs, no padded counts.

86 curated picks · 5 pillars · updated 2026‑09‑13

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🏠 Smart Home

Local automation

Home Assistant, Zigbee/Thread/Matter, and gear you own instead of rent.

  • Home Assistant Green$
    Plug in, power on, done. The default first hub. via Official / Amazon
  • Connect ZBT-1$
    USB Zigbee + Thread stick. Keeps your radio off the main board. via Official / Amazon
  • Aqara Presence FP2$$
    mmWave presence with room zoning. Knows you're there when you're still. via Amazon
  • Govee smart lights$

    Affordable bulbs, strips, and room kits. Check the exact model's integration first. Amazon

  • Tuya smart lights$

    A broad, low-cost ecosystem. Verify the specific device integration before buying. Amazon

See all smart-home picks →
🖥️ Homelab

Self-hosting

The boxes, drives, network and software to run your own services.

  • Beelink Mini PC$$
    Tiny, quiet x86 that runs Proxmox or Docker beautifully. via Amazon
  • UGREEN NASync$$
    The value NAS challenger — run TrueNAS on it if you outgrow the OS. via Amazon
  • ImmichFree
    Self-hosted Google Photos that's genuinely good now. free / open-source
See all homelab picks →
🧵 3D Printing

The bench

Printers, filament and the upgrades that actually earn their place.

  • Bambu Lab A1 mini$
    The best first printer, full stop. You print instead of tinker. via Bambu Affiliate
  • Bambu Lab P1S$$
    Enclosed CoreXY speed for ABS/ASA. The upgrade most land on. via Bambu Affiliate
  • Overture PETG$
    Reliable workhorse for functional parts that take heat and stress. via Amazon
See all 3D-printing picks →
🤖 AI & Local LLMs

Own your AI

Run models on your own hardware, and drive Claude & ChatGPT like a pro.

  • OllamaFree
    Run open LLMs locally with one command. Your own private AI. free / open-source
  • Claude CodeFree / Sub
    Drive Claude from the terminal — the power-user way to build. via Official
  • AI Engineering$$
    Chip Huyen's field guide to building real LLM products. via Amazon
See all AI picks →
🎒 Tech EDC

What you carry

Gadgets, power, audio, and organizers for the tech that lives in your bag.

  • Flipper Zero$$
    Pocket multi-tool for RF, NFC, IR, GPIO — mine runs Momentum firmware. via Amazon
  • LOCHBY Tool Roll$$
    Waxed-canvas roll that keeps bits, cables, and tools organized and rugged. via LOCHBY
  • Anker GaN Charger$
    One small brick to fast-charge phone, tablet, and laptop. via Amazon
See all Tech EDC picks →
New · curated watchlist

Watch less. Build next.

Twelve useful videos across smart homes, homelabs, functional 3D printing, and local AI—each paired with a concrete weekend project.

Open Watch & Build →
From the workbench

🖥️ Quadra homelab node

A silent, low-power ARM box on a Tailscale mesh running network-wide ad-blocking. Read the build →

🐬 Flipper Zero, unlocked

Running Momentum custom firmware for the full toolkit — and how to flash it safely. Read the build →

🤖 Managing Claude & ChatGPT

The practical guide to controlling the big models — system prompts, projects, context. Read the guide →

How this stays honest

01  Reader-supported, disclosed

Some links are affiliate links, at no extra cost to you. It's always disclosed, and it's the whole business model.

02  No pay-for-placement

A commission never buys a spot. Plenty of picks here (all the open-source software) pay nothing and are recommended anyway.

03  Curated, not scraped

86 picks chosen by hand — many bench-tested in my own projects — not 2,000 auto-scraped listings. If it's here, it earned the slot.

About the curator

I actually build this stuff — ESP firmware, a self-hosted homelab, 3D printing, board-level hardware mods, and custom apps — and I study where AI is taking business. Everything here is gear and knowledge I use, not a scraped catalog.

Credential
Artificial Intelligence: Implications for Business Strategy
MIT Sloan School of Management + CSAIL