About me

About Me

Hi! My name is Achim Pieters (from the Netherlands) and I’m the founder of StudioPieters^® .

I work full-time at Maastricht University, but back in 2015, I felt like something was missing— I wasn’t feeling challenged enough in my daily work. That’s when I decided to start this website. Now, 10 years and countless hours later, I’ve learned a lot.

When I first began, I knew almost nothing about programming, microcontrollers, or electronics. Like many others, I started with an Arduino and the typical beginner projects. It didn’t take long before I discovered the ESP8266 and the exciting possibility of creating my own HomeKit accessory.

To my surprise, I picked up the C programming language more easily than I expected, and I quickly grew passionate about building and learning. However, I often found the online documentation and support lacking. So I thought—why not share everything I’m doing and learning on a blog? That way, others searching for similar solutions might find it helpful too.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, I suddenly had a lot of free time. I decided to enroll in Harvard’s Introduction to Computer Science (CS50) online course, which I completed quickly and successfully.

Today, my website features not only Arduino-based projects but also builds using the ATTINY and ESP32 modules. I regularly post about hardware, pinouts, and other tech-related topics I find interesting. It’s a mix of everything I enjoy.

My biggest project at the moment is the ESP32 HomeKit repository, which is also available as a component in The ESP Component Registry. Alongside that, I’ve created an ESP32 HomeKit Demo repository, which contains example projects to help you get started. With these tools, anyone can create their own HomeKit accessories — and maybe even more importantly, without any third-party collecting or accessing your personal data.

Thanks for visiting my site. I hope it inspires you to learn, build, and share too!