We are an independent development group based in Buffalo, NY. We work together to help each other out in our fields and open source projects. We live by the name Silo City Labs and work towards a better future for each other.

Native Apple Home Firmware for the AC Infinity AirTap ESP32 Upgrade Kit with HomeSpan and PlatformIO

A practical developer guide for bringing AirTap T4/T6 vents directly into Apple Home without Home Assistant

The SiloCityLabs ESP32 Module for the AC Infinity AirTap T4/T6 already gives Home Assistant users a clean way to upgrade an AirTap vent into a connected smart-home device. The current ESPHome firmware path supports the important hardware pieces: PWM fan control, onboard temperature sensing, OLED display output, physical buttons, panel lockout, and newer IR receiver support on supported builds.

But there is another smart-home audience that could benefit from this hardware: Apple Home users.

If you’re in the Apple ecosystem, using HomePod, Siri on iPhone, Apple TV, scenes, automations, and the Apple Home app, the natural question is: Could the AirTap ESP32 upgrade kit run native Apple Home firmware instead of ESPHome?

Yes it can! HomeSpan provides developers with libraries to create an ESP32 firmware that pairs the AirTap directly with Apple Home over Wi-Fi. That’s native Apple support without Home Assistant, without a Home Assistant HomeKit Bridge, and without a separate server translating ESPHome entities into HomeKit accessories.

This post is not a finished firmware release. It is a technical roadmap for developers, makers, and advanced AirTap owners who want to understand what it would take to build one. It’s enough architecture to start the project, enough code structure to see the direction, and enough caution to avoid the obvious traps.

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Local Failover for DigitalOcean Functions

How a local dev tool became a resilient, cost-aware backend

What started as a simple local development tool for DigitalOcean Functions quietly turned into something much more serious: a production-grade failover system that now runs across home TrueNAS servers owned by the operators of FilaMeter. Internally, we call it DOrunner. The original goal was mundane—test Go-based serverless functions locally without burning through API calls or waiting on cloud deploys. But as usage grew and traffic patterns became less predictable, that local runner evolved into a core part of our production architecture. [Read More]

OpenSCAD trick - negative rounding

OpenSCAD pins with positive and negative chamfer

Somehow, OpenSCAD has become my main 3D modeling program. It’s incredibly powerful for parametric models but it’s also brain-intensive. I speed up development with the BOSL2 library. Many BOSL2 objects have built-in rounding features so I don’t need to invoke minkowski().

A trick with BOSL2 is negative rounding. Instead of cutting a corner, it makes the corner stick out. This is very useful for smoothing sharp edges, tapering pin holes, and generally filleting odd shapes. Make an object with negative rounding/chamfer, then use it to cut another object with subtract().

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How to Upgrade a Gen2 AC Infinity AirTap T4 or T6 ESP32 Module to Work in a Gen3 Vent

Owners of the AC Infinity AirTap T4/T6 may be looking for a way to retrofit their older Gen2 ESP32 module so it can operate inside the newer Gen3 AirTap vent. The Gen3 design uses a different mounting layout and sensor position, which means the original Gen2 hardware does not fit or function without modification. To solve this, we created a simple upgrade path that lets you reuse your Gen2 module with full Gen3 compatibility. [Read More]

Callbacks suck, async is easy

I’m using PouchDB lately, a JavaScript database that works in the browser. PouchDB for Javascript requires callbacks and I found myself stacking quite a bit of JS-specific syntax together. I haven’t written JS in quite a while so this was daunting. Lets go through all the pieces that add up to easy async database calls.

Synchronous PHP example

Here is a PHP sample of accessing a database.

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ESP32 Module for AC Infinity AirTap T4/T6.

What’s New in 2025

At SiloCityLabs, we’re always working to improve our products, and 2025 has brought a number of exciting updates to our ESP32 Module for AC Infinity Airtap T4/T6! With new features and design enhancements, this latest version offers better smart home integration, improved usability, and customization options.

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