Maker Faire Bay Area 2024
VDBX.io - Open Source Off-Grid Automation Hardware
Home: California, United States
Voidbox Industries (VDBX.io) designs and makes open hardware for interfacing off-grid and DC systems with Home Assistant. Our first flagship product the PwrTool 500 is a 500 amp DC power shunt meant to monitor batteries, inverters, and other high power 12-48v systems via ESPHome. It's based on our FLIP_C3 microcontroller platform which will be the basis of a whole host of automation and monitoring hardware. The PwrTool 500 has been accepted to do a crowdfunding campaign with Crowd Supply in 2024 with deliveries expected by early 2025. VDBX was created by Chloe Madison (@clomads) as the forward facing brand of her art & hardware. Having experienced housing instability for several years, she now lives in a converted school bus where she designs & tests her automation hardware.
https://www.vdbx.io
Maker
VDBX.io - Open Source Off-Grid Automation Hardware
Voidbox Industries (VDBX.io) designs and makes open hardware for interfacing off-grid and DC systems with Home Assistant. Founded by Bay Area artist/designer Chloe Madison (@clomads) who lives in a converted school bus.
https://www.vdbx.ioWhat Inspired You to Make This?
When I first lost my housing in 2019, I moved into my van and the most important thing was having refrigeration for my insulin. I learned how to DIY lithium battery packs that I could charge with my alternator and then eventually a solar panel. Within a year was able to get a bus and realized I had more opportunity to create accessibility around my physical and mental health. Automation with Home Assistant was one of those things, but there was a huge disconnect between solar hardware and any standard IOT devices. With ESPHome I was able to learn more about making my own hardware that improves the process of wiring DC systems and having access to the data and control in a way that works for me. I decided to open source all of my designs and hope that I can find some stability from manufacturing the final products.
