Mattia Vidoni

I build APIs by day, and firmware by night.

Backend developer who spends most of the time building APIs, automating things and arguing with databases. Outside work: ESP32 firmware, a home-built triaxial seismograph, ham radio and a homelab that has been running for over a decade.

See the projects GitHub profile ↗

Public repos: 50
Top repo stars: 105
Homelab running: 10+ yrs
Self-hosted containers: ~35

01 / About

Backend first, hardware always

By trade I work on backend software for industrial rolling-mill systems: C#, API design and database modeling. When the code drives heavy machinery, “it works on my machine” is not enough.

On my own time I follow the signal down to the hardware. I designed a triaxial seismograph around GD-4.5 geophones, wrote the acquisition daemon, the archive API and the live dashboard, and I keep recording local earthquakes with it. Around that: ESP32 and Arduino firmware, an antenna rotator for satellite passes, and tools for radiosonde hunters.

Due to my job, lately I am also learning PLC programming on Siemens TIA Portal V19 (the basics, in LAD and SCL). I also used to scan the sky for weather-satellite images: NOAA APT (RIP), Meteor LRPT on VHF, and on L-band Meteor HRPT, Metop AHRPT and Elektro-L LRIT.

Frontend is the part I am still learning to write “without emotional damage”, but Angular pages do ship, and they usually work.

Day jobC# backend · APIs · DB modeling
HobbiesSeismology · ham radio · SDR · photography · nature
LanguagesItalian, English
Open sourceAuthor of QBittorrentBot

02 / Projects

Things I built

Featured · open source · GPL-3.0

rpi-seism: an open-source 3-axis seismograph

Docs ↗ Stack ↗ Org ↗

A proof-of-concept seismograph for local monitoring in an earthquake-prone area. Three GD-4.5 geophones feed an ADS1256 ADC read by an Arduino; data travels over RS-485 to a Raspberry Pi, and comes out as MiniSEED archives and a live dashboard. One docker compose up deploys the software side.

3 x GD-4.5geophones, 4.5 Hz
ADCADS1256 24-bit
RS-485differential link over Cat5/6
Pi daemonPython · ObsPy · ZeroMQ
OutputsMiniSEED/SDS · WebSocket · SeedLink · alerts

Firmware

Arduino-class C++ with a 16-byte checksummed packet format, runtime-configurable sampling rate, gain and data rate, built with PlatformIO across AVR, RP2040, STM32, ESP32 and Teensy.

Daemon

Threaded acquisition: reader, MiniSEED writer, WebSocket sender, STA/LTA trigger, Apprise notifications and a ringserver feed, with health tracking of link quality.

API & web

FastAPI archive with server-side FFT and spectrograms; Angular + PrimeNG + Tailwind dashboard with live traces, bookmarks and waveform export.

Recorded so far without external amplification: the Verzegnis swarm, events near Moggio Udinese and Lusevera, and two events in Slovenia/Croatia.

QBittorrentBot

Python

Control qBittorrent from Telegram: add magnet links or torrent files, list active downloads, pause, resume and delete.

Community-maintained · PRs welcome

ACUDP

C++

Library for ESP32 that receives Assetto Corsa telemetry over UDP, for building sim-racing dashboards and gadgets.

ESP-Intervallometer

C++

DSLR trigger on an ESP32: a BLE GATT server with a web UI to fire the shutter, run bulb exposures and intervalometer sequences.

radiosonde_auto_rx_notifier

Python

Listens to radiosonde telemetry and sends real-time notifications when a weather balloon is near your location.

espnow-car

C++ · TypeScript

An RC car driven by another ESP over ESP-NOW, so no router is needed. Split into three repos: the car firmware, a hardware controller, and a web app.

esp-gear-indicator

C++

An ESP-based gear indicator for your car, reading its data from a Bluetooth OBD-II adapter.

Cisco-SG-200-port-leds

Python

A Selenium script that switches the port LEDs of a Cisco SG200 switch on and off, written for the switch in my home rack.

project-silos

Python

School project on managing silos with IoT protocols. The silos report temperature, humidity and level, and accept fill and empty commands, all over MQTT. I built a working prototype with an ESP32 talking to the app.

School project

Antenna rotator controller

C++

ESP32 azimuth/elevation controller for a Yagi, speaking EasyComm II so GPredict and Hamlib's rotctld can track satellites. PID motor control, encoder feedback, limit switches, USB and RS-485 variants, serial OTA.

ARISS SSTV submission platform

Angular

Web platform for submitting and managing slow-scan TV images received from the ISS. Chunked uploads, EXIF extraction, SSTV validation, planned ISS-pass correlation with satellite.js and OCR callsign detection.

03 / Homelab

Self-hosting as a lifestyle (and a budget strategy)

Self-hosting has been my hobby for over ten years, and these days it’s partly powered by the sun. About 35 containers in 20 Docker Compose stacks run on a small ThinkCentre (Ubuntu LTS), managed with Ansible through Semaphore UI and housed in a 12U rack. Traefik routes the traffic and Authentik handles sign-in, with AdGuard Home for DNS filtering. The services themselves range from Paperless-ngx and Jellyfin to Syncthing and code-server, with Backrest taking the backups and Beszel and WatchYourLAN doing the monitoring.

To reach it from outside, I use WireGuard in a hub-and-spoke setup from a VPS, with Tailscale alongside. Inside the house, Home Assistant connects Zigbee2MQTT, ESPHome, a Modbus solar inverter and the 3D printer into one dashboard, and a small container even turns off the switch LEDs at night.

Docker ComposeAnsibleSemaphore UITraefikAuthentikAdGuard HomeWireGuardTailscalePaperless-ngxJellyfinSyncthingBackrestcode-serverBeszelWatchYourLANHomepageHome AssistantZigbee2MQTTESPHomeKlipper

04 / Skills

Toolbox

Backend

Python
C++
C# / .NET
FastAPI
Django
asyncio · ZeroMQ

Data

PostgreSQL
SQL Server
SQLite
SQLAlchemy · SQLModel
ObsPy · MiniSEED

Embedded

Arduino · PlatformIO
FreeRTOS
RS-485 · CAN
PCB & ADC interfacing

Industrial

Siemens PLC · TIA Portal V19
LAD · SCL (learning)
OPC UA

Frontend

Angular · TypeScript
JavaScript
PrimeNG · Tailwind
Bootstrap

Ops & tools

Docker
Ansible
Git
JetBrains IDEs
Linux

RF

Ham radio · SDR
HF propagation
Satellite tracking
Weather-sat imagery: APT · LRPT · HRPT · AHRPT · LRIT
Hamlib · rotctld

05 / On the bench

What I am poking at right now

Fuel level over CAN. Reading the comfort bus of a 2011 Peugeot 207 with an ESP32.
Rack upgrades. Fan control with ESPHome and a tidier cable layout, with an OPNsense firewall and a JetKVM on the wish list.

06 / Contact

Say hi, or send a PR

The best way to reach me is through GitHub: open an issue, start a discussion or send a pull request.

github.com/ch3p4ll3 ↗ github.com/rpi-seism ↗