Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Have you ever wondered what it goes into converting a standard garage door into a smart one, integrated with Home Assistant?
Nabeel Sulieman, Staff Software Engineer at GitHub, joins us for a makeitwork.club chat to talk about his 3‑month passion project that involves turning a very normal, very analog garage door into something that’s fully automated, observable, and Home Assistant–native.
In this video we cover:
* The initial plan and how the project evolved over 3 months
* The background context: why even bother upgrading a working garage door?
* Early ideas (including a few that didn’t make the cut) and what Nabeel learned from each
* Choosing “the brains” of the setup
* Microcontrollers, sensors, relays, and how everything talks to Home Assistant
* Figuring out the physics
* How do you safely and reliably sense door position, movement, and state?
* Dealing with power, wiring runs, and a not‑so‑forgiving physical environment
* What an optocoupler is, and why it matters for this build
* Installing ESPHome on a chip and getting it onto your Wi‑Fi + into Home Assistant
* Putting it all together into a reliable, testable system
* How to control two doors with a single microcontroller
* Mounting everything permanently so it’s safe, tidy, and spouse‑approved
* ESPHome tips, YAML gotchas, and debugging strategies
* The big question: was this actually worth it?
* Reflections on “shipping the scrappy v1” vs. endlessly polishing
* What surprised Nabeel the most during the build
* Where he wants to take the project next (including a GitHub Action that ties into the setup)
If you’re into Home Assistant, ESPHome, microcontrollers, or just love seeing a software engineer tackle a real‑world hardware problem, you’ll get a ton of practical ideas from this conversation—plus a realistic look at the tradeoffs, dead ends, and aha moments along the way.
If you enjoyed this and want to explore more:
- Small group discussions like this one in 🪩 makeitwork.club (the next one is on Nov. 21, 2025 where I cover my experience of KubeCon NA 2025)
- Become a member at 📺 makeitwork.tv for the full length content (includes Jellyfin media server access)
- Tune into 🎧 https://makeitwork.fm for the podcast
00:00 - The plan for today
00:51 - Intro
02:09 - The Background
04:19 - Idea 1: Replace the whole system
05:12 - Idea 2: Use a pre-made kit
05:47 - Idea 3: Build it yourself!
07:30 - The brains of the setup
09:17 - Figuring out the physics
13:18 - What is an optocoupler?
15:35 - Installing ESPHome on a chip
18:28 - Putting it all together
20:43 - How can you connect both doors with one microcontroller?
22:05 - How to mount everything permanently?
27:15 - ESPHome
29:25 - Was this worth it?
32:01 - I am wondering...
33:05 - Ship the scrappy v1
33:37 - I forgot to mention...
36:02 - What else surprised you during this build?
38:56 - How are you thinking of continuing this?
40:57 - A GitHub Action that...
What did you think of Nabeel's passion project? Let us know in the comments below!
Have you ever wondered what it goes into converting a standard garage door into a smart one, integrated with Home Assistant?
Nabeel Sulieman, Staff Software Engineer at GitHub, joins us for a makeitwork.club chat to talk about his 3‑month passion project that involves turning a very normal, very analog garage door into something that’s fully automated, observable, and Home Assistant–native.
In this video we cover:
* The initial plan and how the project evolved over 3 months
* The background context: why even bother upgrading a working garage door?
* Early ideas (including a few that didn’t make the cut) and what Nabeel learned from each
* Choosing “the brains” of the setup
* Microcontrollers, sensors, relays, and how everything talks to Home Assistant
* Figuring out the physics
* How do you safely and reliably sense door position, movement, and state?
* Dealing with power, wiring runs, and a not‑so‑forgiving physical environment
* What an optocoupler is, and why it matters for this build
* Installing ESPHome on a chip and getting it onto your Wi‑Fi + into Home Assistant
* Putting it all together into a reliable, testable system
* How to control two doors with a single microcontroller
* Mounting everything permanently so it’s safe, tidy, and spouse‑approved
* ESPHome tips, YAML gotchas, and debugging strategies
* The big question: was this actually worth it?
* Reflections on “shipping the scrappy v1” vs. endlessly polishing
* What surprised Nabeel the most during the build
* Where he wants to take the project next (including a GitHub Action that ties into the setup)
If you’re into Home Assistant, ESPHome, microcontrollers, or just love seeing a software engineer tackle a real‑world hardware problem, you’ll get a ton of practical ideas from this conversation—plus a realistic look at the tradeoffs, dead ends, and aha moments along the way.
If you enjoyed this and want to explore more:
- Small group discussions like this one in 🪩 makeitwork.club (the next one is on Nov. 21, 2025 where I cover my experience of KubeCon NA 2025)
- Become a member at 📺 makeitwork.tv for the full length content (includes Jellyfin media server access)
- Tune into 🎧 https://makeitwork.fm for the podcast
00:00 - The plan for today
00:51 - Intro
02:09 - The Background
04:19 - Idea 1: Replace the whole system
05:12 - Idea 2: Use a pre-made kit
05:47 - Idea 3: Build it yourself!
07:30 - The brains of the setup
09:17 - Figuring out the physics
13:18 - What is an optocoupler?
15:35 - Installing ESPHome on a chip
18:28 - Putting it all together
20:43 - How can you connect both doors with one microcontroller?
22:05 - How to mount everything permanently?
27:15 - ESPHome
29:25 - Was this worth it?
32:01 - I am wondering...
33:05 - Ship the scrappy v1
33:37 - I forgot to mention...
36:02 - What else surprised you during this build?
38:56 - How are you thinking of continuing this?
40:57 - A GitHub Action that...
What did you think of Nabeel's passion project? Let us know in the comments below!
