My Gear

This page is a tour of the hardware, apps, and smart home tech that power my day-to-day life. This includes what I use daily, the contents of my home lab, the infrastructure powering my house, and what I carry when I travel.

My Office

Daily Trappings

My office is set up with everything I use daily connected to a Thunderbolt dock. I can connect either my personal or work laptop to the dock with one cable, allowing me to swing my monitor, webcam, keyboard, mouse, etc. between laptops while minimizing change.

  • Chair: Herman Miller Mirra 2

  • Desk: UPLIFT V2 Standing Desk

  • Desk Automation: Upsy Desky (ESP32 Controller)
    An ESP32 board connected to the desk’s controller; lets Home Assistant raise/lower the desk.

  • Monitor: Apple Studio Display (27″ Retina 5K) 5120×2880 @ 60Hz, P3 color, True Tone, 12MP Center Stage potato camera.

  • Monitor Arm: Ergotron LX
    Full-motion desk arm; keeps the Studio Display at eye level while freeing desktop space.

  • Tablet Arm: Viozon Laptop / Tablet Arm
    A height-adjustable arm clamped to my desk to hold my iPad Pro.
    It fits 12–17″ devices and also includes a removable VESA 75×75 / 100×100 plate.

  • Dock: OWC Thunderbolt 4 Dock
    3× TB4 (up to 40 Gbps, 90W charging), 4× USB-A, USB-C 10 Gbps, 2.5 GbE, SD 4.0, audio in/out.

  • Webcam: Insta360 Link
    4K @ 30 fps (1080p @ 60 fps), gimbal AI auto-framing, HDR video, hand-gesture zoom.
    In other words, this camera keeps me in frame and physically follows me on a gimbal.

  • Keyboard: Keychron Q3 (QMK/VIA)
    Gasket-mount aluminum, hot-swappable switches, south-facing RGB.
    And heavy. Very heavy.

  • Trackpad: Apple Magic Trackpad

  • Printer: Brother HL-L2360D

  • Charger: Anker MagGo Magnetic Charging Station
    Qi2 15W MagSafe Wireless Charger with 3 AC and 4 USB ports.
    I use it to charge my phone and power other random things.

  • Mug: Ember Mug 2 (14oz)
    Keeps coffee at 140°F all day, especially on the charging coaster.

  • Speakers: Sonos Play:1 (stereo pair)
    I actually have an extensive Sonos system around the house.

  • Smart Button: Aqara Zigbee Wireless Mini Switch
    Single/double/long-press mapped in Home Assistant to control lights.

  • Stream Decks: Stream Deck (15 keys) & Stream Deck XL (32 keys)
    I have them mounted in a stacked bracket. The smaller one is an app/mode switcher, while the larger one changes buttons based on the current app context. For example, Zoom has buttons to mute and toggle video while Slack has buttons for key people and channels.

  • Key Light: Elgato Key Light
    2,500K – 7,000K edge-lit panel (2,200lm max), desk-mounted, Wi-Fi/app control.
    Tied into Home Assistant and can automatically turn on when my camera does. I also have it flash at both 29 and 59 minutes past the hour so I have a visual indicator to wrap up meetings.

  • Light Bulbs: Govee H600A RGBWW bulbs (3×)
    Light bulbs in the ceiling fan that can provide atmosphere.

  • Floor Lamps: Govee H607C RGBIC floor lamps (2×)
    Lamps that light the back wall behind me.

  • Projector: Govee H6093 Star/Aurora projector
    Ambient back wall lighting I use sometimes for fun.

The Compute

  • Laptop: MacBook Pro 16″ (M1 Max, 2021)
    10-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD.

  • Phone: iPhone 15 Pro Max
    1TB storage, A17 Pro, USB-C

  • Tablet: iPad Pro 11″ (M4, 2024)
    2TB, nano-texture OLED, 5G + Wi-Fi 6E, Magic Keyboard case

  • Watch: Apple Watch Ultra 2

Home Lab

My home lab lives in a rack in the corner of my office. I use it to power my smart home through Home Assistant, experiment with new technologies, learn new things, and generate ambient heat and white noise. The primary thing running here is Proxmox, with everything else running as LXC containers or VMs on top of it.

Proxmox VE Cluster

I’m not doing anything fancy like Ceph or NAS here. I have all nodes using local storage with scheduled sync jobs between each host for “backup” or migration purposes.

  • 2× GMKtec EVO-X1
    Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H, 32GB RAM

  • Intel NUC Skull Canyon
    i7-6770HQ, 32GB RAM, dual NVMe

Peripherals / Gear

  • KVM: PiKVM V4 Plus
    This is super handy for long debugging sessions. Along with KVM, it can also attach virtual media and serial ports to attached devices.

  • Monitor: UPERFECT 18.5″ 120Hz IPS Monitor
    A portable monitor I use in emergencies.

  • Keyboard: Keychron K2
    A previous mechanical keyboard that I use in emergencies.

Storage & Power

  • NAS: UGREEN NASync DXP6800 Pro
    i5-1235U, 8GB DDR5, 6×12TB Seagate IronWolf (RAID-Z2)
    SSD Log (500GB), SSD L2ARC (1TB), dual 10GbE

  • UPS: CyberPower CP1500PFCRM2U
    1,500VA / 1,000W pure-sine UPS, automatic voltage regulation.

  • Rack: Tecmojo 22U Open Frame Rack
    23½–41½″ depth range, casters + leveling feet.

Home Infrastructure

  • Router: CWWK N100 Router running OPNsense
    2× 10GbE SFP+, 4× 2.5GbE i226-V, 16GB DDR5 / 512GB SSD.
    Connected to my AT&T Gigabit fiber RG.

  • WiFi: ASUS ZenWiFi Pro ET12 (mesh x 3)
    Tri-band Wi-Fi 6E with 2.5GbE ports.

  • Weather Station: Tempest Weather Station
    Real-time wind, rain, UV, lightning; feeds Home Assistant

  • Dashboard: TRMNL 7.5″ E-Ink Dashboard
    Shows family calendar, live weather, Houston Astros schedule, dad jokes

  • TV Tuner: HDHomeRun FLEX 4K
    4-tuner ATSC 1.0/3.0 network TV; DVR via Channels DVR.

Entertainment

  • TV: LG C3 65″ OLED TV

  • Gaming Console: Nintendo Switch 2
    Docked to the LG TV.

  • Streaming Device: Apple TV 4K (3rd Gen)

  • Soundbar: Sonos Arc (Gen 1)

  • Surround Speakers: 2× Sonos Era 300
    Provides the rear/height surround audio.

  • Subwoofer: Sonos Sub (Gen 2)
    Wireless force-canceling subwoofer.

  • TV Lighting: Govee H605A TV Backlight 3 Lite
    11.8ft RGBICW strip + 2 light bars + fisheye cam for DreamView 4-side bias lighting.

Audio Gear

  • Earbuds: AirPods Pro (2nd Gen)
    ANC, Adaptive Audio, Lightning case.

  • Headphones: Sony WH-1000XM6
    Over-ear ANC, LDAC, multipoint.

  • Studio Headphones: AKG K550
    Closed-back studio reference cans.

  • Monitor Headphones: AKG K240 MK II
    Semi-open classics with mini-XLR cable.

Travel Gear

  • Backpack: TOM BIHN Synapse 25
    25L backpack, 400d Halcyon nylon, modular pockets.

  • Travel Router: GL.iNet Beryl AX (GL-MT3000)
    Wi-Fi 6 travel router, dual GbE, OpenWRT, WireGuard/OpenVPN/Tailscale.

Apps & Services

  • Task Manager: Todoist

  • Notes: Obsidian

  • Package Tracking: Parcel

  • E-mail: Fastmail
    A wonderful e-mail provider that costs money, so you’re not the product.

  • Browser: Safari

  • Podcasts: Overcast

  • Music Service: Apple Music, also with the Marvis iOS app

  • VPS: Hetzner Cloud

Last updated: July 2025