HVAC controls retrofit and system troubleshooting
With Pentillion Construction, I helped audit, explain, and coordinate upgrades to an older HVAC control system. The building had existing controls and hardware that could not simply be replaced all at once, so the project needed a clear understanding of what was already there before the new work could be planned.
Understanding the old system before replacing parts of it
My role was to bridge the gap between the existing controls, the HVAC contractor, the controls contractor, and the practical needs of the building. I reviewed and documented how the system operated, helped explain the existing logic, and supported the retrofit so new equipment could be integrated without losing compatibility with parts of the older setup.
The upgrade included four new heat pumps. Because I had built much of the internal understanding of the existing controls, I became a practical reference point during the work. The value knowing what equipment was present and helping the contractors understand how the old controls, operating logic, and building requirements fit together.
Troubleshooting the shaking air handlers
That same system knowledge carried into troubleshooting. The building had two large air handlers that were shaking under certain operating conditions, and the cause had not been identified.
One proposed path was to bring in an engineering audit to measure resonant frequencies using specialized equipment. That may have been needed eventually, but before jumping to that step, I worked through a more direct inspection of the system.
Looking for the real field condition
I checked likely mechanical causes, including whether the air-handler shafts appeared to be off balance, the dampening system, and used a 360 camera and thermal imaging camera to inspect areas that were difficult to access directly.
That investigation pointed toward a loose sheet-metal wall dividing the large duct that supplied hot and cold air to the building. Under certain airflow and pressure conditions, the loose partition deflected until it relieved the pressure differential, then snapped back, allowing the pressure to rebuild and repeat the cycle. This created a low-frequency pulsation that transmitted vibration into the air-handler area and surrounding building structure.
A logical conclusion
I documented the old controls, identified what still had to work, coordinated the contractors around the real operating logic, and investigated the field condition before assuming the next step had to be expensive or abstract.
The result was a building system that became easier to explain, upgrade, maintain, and hand off.
Fire panel relocation and life-safety retrofit
With Pentillion Construction, I helped coordinate a fire alarm system retrofit in an occupied commercial building. The existing fire panel was outdated and located inside a secure tenant area, which created access and operational constraints for building management, contractors, and emergency-related service work.
The project involved more than simply replacing equipment. The panel needed to be upgraded and relocated to a more appropriate building service area, while related alarm devices such as bells and pull stations also needed to be reviewed and upgraded as part of the broader retrofit.
I engaged multiple contractors to understand the available paths forward and help shape a practical scope. The work required coordination between the fire alarm contractor, security contractor, electrician, tenants, and building operations. Because the existing panel location was inside a secure space, access had to be planned carefully and coordinated with the affected tenant and other building users.
The crossover-floor requirements added another important layer. Because crossover floors form part of the building’s life-safety strategy, the access and fire alarm work had to be considered in that context rather than treated as a simple equipment swap. The retrofit needed to improve serviceability and bring the equipment into a better location while preserving the required life-safety function of the building.
The result was a more serviceable fire alarm system with the panel relocated out of the secure tenant space and related devices upgraded as part of the work. The project shows the coordination behind a relatively contained building-system upgrade: understanding the operational problem, checking the code-related constraints, aligning the right contractors, and completing the work without exposing tenants or building users to unnecessary disruption.
3D printing filament calibration dashboard
As my 3D printing setup became more capable, the filament-management side became harder to trust. Bambu Studio stores filament presets, process profiles, printer settings, AMS material assignments, and K / Flow Dynamics calibration data in ways that are useful to the software but not always clear to the person trying to maintain a consistent setup.
The practical problem was simple: with multiple nozzle sizes, standard and high-flow hotends, left and right toolheads, and many filament presets, it became difficult to answer which values were actually calibrated and which ones were inherited defaults.
I started building a local calibration-management dashboard to make that information visible. The tool scans Bambu Studio filament preset files, pulls out the settings that matter most, and presents them in a searchable dashboard. It can compare profiles side by side, highlight meaningful differences, and help identify near-duplicate presets that should probably be cleaned up or consolidated.
A key part of the work was tracking K / Flow Dynamics values. Instead of relying only on Bambu Studio’s less visible printer-side calibration records, the tool stores calibration notes in a structured block inside the existing filament notes field. That keeps the information close to the filament profile, makes it human-readable, and preserves any notes that were already there.
The dashboard focuses on the settings that affect real printing decisions: flow ratio, maximum volumetric flow, temperatures, cooling, nozzle and hotend context, and calibration values. The goal is not to replace Bambu Studio, but to make its preset data easier to audit and maintain.
I built the first version in Python with a Streamlit interface so it could be tested quickly on macOS and Windows. Because the tool edits local preset files, I treated safety and reversibility as part of the design. Before writing changes, it creates backups, validates the JSON files, and logs what changed so the workflow is easier to trust.
This is a personal tooling project, but it reflects a broader process-improvement pattern: when a system becomes too complex to manage reliably by memory, make the important information visible, comparable, backed up, and easier to maintain.
Restaurant shell conversion in an existing building
With Pentillion Construction, I represented the building owner through the conversion of a former single-tenant ground-floor commercial space into a demised shell for an incoming restaurant tenant. What began as a landlord-side turnover scope became a broader technical coordination project involving lease obligations, existing building systems, consultant drawings, trade scopes, tenant requirements, landlord requirements, field conditions, older infrastructure, code review, and schedule pressure.
My role was project engineering support and owner-side coordination. I was not the engineer of record, but I investigated existing conditions, developed practical options, coordinated consultant review, and translated technical issues between trades, suppliers, consultants, ownership, and property management. Much of the work was about finding a buildable path through existing-building constraints without overstepping the professional roles of the design consultants.
Electrical capacity without replacing obsolete switchgear
One of the major constraints was electrical capacity. The incoming tenant required a significant electrical service, but the existing switchgear was older and difficult to modify. The expected path had been to remove existing chiller equipment to free up a 600 amp switch for the new tenant service.
Through field review, I identified that some base-building air-handling equipment was connected to oversized switches from an earlier arrangement. I proposed relocating one of the air handlers onto an existing oversized switch already serving chiller equipment, which freed a 600 amp switch for the tenant service.
After review by the electrical engineer, that approach was accepted and implemented. It avoided removing chiller equipment, avoided modification of obsolete switchgear, reduced feeder complexity, preserved future flexibility, and helped keep the turnover moving.
Fault-current and series-rating coordination
The electrical scope also required coordination around available fault current and series-rating requirements. This was not the kind of issue that could be left vague until ordering. If the panel requirements were misunderstood, the result could have been a purchasing mistake or a schedule delay.
I researched the requirements and coordinated between the electrical engineer, contractor, supplier, and manufacturer so the panel selection could be checked against the actual project conditions. My role was to help keep the technical question moving between the right people so the final decision was properly reviewed and documented.
Separating HVAC systems
The ground-floor space had previously functioned as one larger single-tenant area. The turnover required the incoming tenant to be separated from the remaining area so both spaces could operate independently.
I reviewed the proposed HVAC approach and flagged concerns with continuing to rely on shared base-building air-handling equipment. Working with the mechanical team, I helped coordinate a revised approach that redirected supply and return ducting so the incoming tenant could be isolated from the shared air system.
This was a practical example of looking beyond the drawing and asking how the system would actually operate after demising. The issue was not only whether ductwork could be installed, but whether the resulting system would give the landlord and tenants the separation they needed.
Underground plumbing through an existing slab
The restaurant shell also required new underground plumbing through the existing slab. I reviewed historical drawings and consultant drawings to understand likely service locations, then coordinated scanning, slab cutting, excavation, tie-ins, backfill, and concrete reinstatement.
The work had to move carefully because existing drawings can only tell part of the story in an older building. The field work needed enough planning to reduce surprises, but also enough flexibility to respond once the slab was opened and the real conditions were visible.
Hazardous-material sequencing
As the work progressed, hazardous-material concerns had to be identified, isolated, and sequenced without derailing adjacent work. I arranged testing, marked affected areas, brought in remediation specialists, and coordinated the work so the issue could be resolved safely and in the right sequence.
I was not performing the abatement, but I helped keep the issue from becoming an unmanaged project risk. The practical value was recognizing the constraint, getting the right specialists involved, and keeping the surrounding work coordinated.
A practical code path for the equipment platform
One of the more complicated issues involved an internal platform that had been designed and built based on an earlier building assumption. Later review confirmed that non-combustible construction was required. By that point, mechanical equipment had already been installed above the platform, so replacing the supporting structure with steel would have created major cost and schedule impact.
I worked with the architect and code consultant to investigate a practical compliance path. That included researching rated assembly options, identifying a listed rated ceiling and grid assembly for review, checking what had already been installed, determining required changes, and coordinating the accepted solution.
The final path used protected assemblies, Type X drywall, rated ceiling components, firestopping, and revised sprinkler protection. The value was not in bypassing the requirement; it was in helping the team find a compliant way forward that fit the real project condition.
Meter troubleshooting and handoff
After installation, the tenant power meter was not reading correctly. I contacted technical support, sourced a USB-RS485 adapter, connected directly to the meter, and found that the sensing breaker arrangement had changed during tenant-side work.
I updated the programming and confirmed corrected readings. It was a small part of the overall project, but it was a good example of the same pattern at a smaller scale: understand how the system is actually wired and operating, then make the practical correction needed for handoff.
The power of collaboration
The project brought together electrical capacity, obsolete infrastructure, HVAC separation, underground plumbing, hazardous materials, code review, consultant coordination, tenant requirements, landlord obligations, and schedule pressure.
My contribution was helping those issues stay connected instead of letting each one become a separate crisis. That meant looking ahead, asking sideways questions, involving the right specialists, and turning uncertain field conditions into reviewed, buildable paths.
The owner-side coordination value was making sure the right information reached the right people early enough that the project could keep moving.
Automated event photo upload and print station
This project supported The Big DV public installation by making one of the interactive pieces easier for guests and volunteers to use. The installation invited people to contribute photos and design responses to a public wall, so the workflow needed to move images from a guest’s phone to a volunteer-operated photo printer without creating a messy manual process during the event.
Keeping the public interaction simple
The visible workflow had to be simple: scan a QR code, upload a photo, and let the volunteers print it. I did not want guests handing over phones, emailing files, or relying on a volunteer to troubleshoot every submission. That meant the technical side could be more complicated, but the public side could not be. The system needed to feel like a normal event interaction, not a tech demo.
Making the hidden workflow do the work
I connected a Dropbox File Request, Dropbox webhook, Cloudflare Worker, Join, Tasker, Autosync, and a Samsung Tab A9+ into one operating workflow. Uploaded images triggered the automation chain, the tablet was notified that new files were available, and Autosync moved them into a local folder the SELPHY printing app could read. For volunteers, the result was straightforward. Open the printing app, find the submitted photos, and print. They did not need to download files, search folders, move images around, or understand the automation chain behind it.
Designing for a live event
The setup also had to survive the realities of a public event. I configured the tablet more like a kiosk than a personal device, with separate accounts, minimal installed apps, public-use restrictions, and no unnecessary personal data exposed. I also built in fallback sync behaviour and failure alerts so the workflow was not dependent on someone noticing a problem at the exact moment it happened. Theft and recovery risk, account separation, volunteer handoff, and privacy exposure were all part of the design.
The final snapshot
I recognized the friction in a live public interaction and connected available tools into a workflow people could use without thinking about it. The system reduced volunteer handling, protected guest privacy better than an improvised process, and made the interactive part of the installation feel simple from the outside
Enterphone data recovery and audio repair
A building’s Mircom TX3 enterphone failed, and the first risk was not just getting the hardware working again. The resident directory and system configuration also needed to be protected. Replacing the controller board without recovering the data could have turned a hardware failure into a larger setup and handoff problem.
I traced the failure through the power supply, transformer, door strike circuit, phone line, and controller board. The likely failure was in the board’s low-voltage power section, where a small surface-mount capacitor had burned.
Instead of immediately replacing the board and losing the configuration, I powered the damaged board with a current-limited DC bench supply. That let me bring the board up carefully, confirm that the internal 5V and 3.3V logic rails were stable enough to communicate, connect to the TX3 software, and recover the resident names and configuration before replacing the board.
After the new board was installed, I updated the configuration and verified the building functions tied to the panel. That included the postal lock input, door strike operation, grounding, phone-line settings, and relay behaviour. The goal was to leave the system in a known working state, not just swap the failed component.
There was also a call-audio issue where the caller’s voice became quiet after the call connected. I tested microphone gain, speaker level, DTMF sensitivity, and echo-reduction profiles. The issue appeared to be aggravated by sound reflecting inside the panel and around the speaker/microphone assembly, which could cause the echo reduction to clamp down unnecessarily.
I repaired and sealed the broken speaker enclosure and started working on a simple acoustic treatment around the microphone to reduce reflected traffic noise. It was a small repair, but it reflected the same troubleshooting approach as the board recovery: trace the system, protect the important data, verify the handoff, and keep looking when the first fix does not fully solve the user experience.
Internal project startup workflow
As Process Improvement Manager at Pentillion Construction, I built an internal project startup workflow to improve the handoff between a project being awarded and the information needed to manage, bill, and administer the work.
Before the workflow, project information could be scattered across conversations, emails, estimates, and individual memory. One person might know the billing arrangement, another might know the site contact, and accounting might not have enough context to set up the job or invoice correctly. That created avoidable friction at exactly the point where the project needed to start cleanly.
The startup workflow was designed to make that information explicit. It captured project status, project lead, client and site contacts, expected costs, billing responsibilities, important dates, scope notes, permit requirements, file uploads, and trade-specific details. It also helped handle more complicated billing situations where costs might be split between property managers, tenants, landlords, or other clients.
I built the form with auto-populated dropdowns and conditional logic so it was easier to complete and did not ask every user every possible question. The form changed based on the project information being entered, which made it more practical for real use and reduced the chance that people would skip it because it felt too cumbersome.
I also configured the workflow so submissions were automatically emailed to the people who needed the information. That helped project managers, office administration, and accounting see new work earlier and with more consistent context.
The result was a clearer startup process for awarded work. The workflow reduced reliance on informal handoff, helped accounting understand billing requirements earlier, reduced the chance of missed invoices, and made complex project setup easier to coordinate. It was a small internal system, but it addressed a real operational problem: getting the right information to the right people before gaps turned into project or billing issues.
Date-night fitness challenge automation
My wife and I wanted a fun way to stay accountable with our fitness goals, so I built a shared challenge that turns Garmin activity data into a weekly scoreboard, a date-night fund, and a small amount of competitive pressure.
The rules are simple. Each week, the person with the fewest Garmin intensity minutes contributes $50 to the date-night fund. Zone 5 training minutes count double, so harder training gets extra credit. Each person is also expected to complete two weight-training sessions per week, and missing one adds another $25 penalty. After four weeks, the winner chooses the date night and can delegate the planning and organizing to the other person.
That structure made the challenge playful instead of purely punitive. The “penalty” still goes toward something shared, and the four-week cycle gives the challenge a clear finish line before it starts again.
The system only works if the tracking does not become a chore, so I automated the boring parts. Scripts pull activity data from Garmin, sync it into Google Sheets, backfill historical activity, calculate weekly standings, apply the contribution rules, and send a daily email showing who is ahead, who is behind, and what needs to happen before the week ends.
Google Sheets became the visible scoreboard and rule engine. It keeps the calculations transparent enough that the challenge does not feel like a black box, while the automation removes the need to manually copy workouts, compare activity minutes, or remember to send updates.
The daily email is a key part of the design. It makes the challenge visible without requiring either of us to open a dashboard every day. That small reporting loop keeps the system present in normal life and makes it easier to adjust before the end of the week.
This is a personal project, but the pattern is transferable: define the behaviour you want, make the rules visible, automate the tedious parts, and turn feedback into something people actually pay attention to. In this case, the result is a fitness challenge that supports consistency, competition, and date nights without creating another manual tracking task.
Trello-based maintenance management system
At Pentillion Construction, I implemented a Trello-based maintenance management and documentation system for recurring work across a dozen commercial properties. The work involved routine inspections, seasonal tasks, urgent repairs, subcontractor follow-up, site-specific knowledge, safe work practices, and a lot of small details that needed to be available when someone was actually on site.
I had previously worked in the maintenance technician role myself, so I understood how quickly the work could become difficult to track when the system depended on phone calls, personal notes, memory, and individual site knowledge. A technician might visit several properties in a day, deal with routine checks, unexpected issues, tenant concerns, small repairs, and subcontractor coordination, then still need to remember what should happen next week, next month, or next season.
The problem was not that people were not trying. The problem was that too much important information lived in separate places. If a task, photo, decision, manual, contact, or site detail only lived in one person’s memory or text messages, it was too easy for context to be lost, the same questions to be asked repeatedly, or follow-up work to become invisible.
Building the boards around the real maintenance workflow
I structured the system with dedicated Trello boards for each site and a general knowledge board for shared procedures, sourcing information, contacts, safe work practices, and recurring references. Each site board was organized to track active tasks, completed work, projects, recurring templates, and site information.
Cards became the working record for each issue or task. They could hold checklists, photos, comments, links to manuals, storage locations, water shutoff information, sourcing notes, and other details that are easy to lose but important when someone is standing in the building trying to solve the problem.
The system was designed around how maintenance actually happens. Weekly, monthly, and seasonal template cards could be copied into the active task list with due dates, keeping recurring work visible before it became urgent. The recurring work included items such as filter changes, bird checks, vacancy checks, janitorial reviews, fire and generator tests, exterior lighting checks, pest inspections, equipment servicing, salting preparation, annual fire and pump checks, anchor inspections, painting reviews, and pressure washing reviews.
Making responsibility and follow-up visible
I also built the workflow around accountability. Cards are assigned to the person responsible for seeing the task through. Priority labels help show what needs attention first, and subcontractor labels identify work that requires outside follow-up.
That structure matters because maintenance work often fails at the handoff. Someone notices an issue, someone else talks to a subcontractor, another person waits for a quote, and then the original context disappears. Keeping comments, photos, due dates, labels, and assignments on the same card makes the work easier to pick back up without needing a separate explanation.
The photo history became another important part of the system. Photos could document problems, site conditions, completed work, recurring issues, and past repairs. That created a practical historical record for planning, liability, trend review, and training.
Extending Trello with n8n reporting
Trello’s built-in automation handled some recurring task creation, but it had limits when the system had to scale across multiple users and sites. To extend it, I connected Trello to n8n and used API queries and filtering to build custom reporting.
The system can send HTML email reports with direct links back to the relevant Trello cards. Reports can summarize completed work, upcoming tasks, overdue items, assigned responsibilities, due dates, labels, subcontractor follow-up, and other filtered information across all sites.
A weekly report gives a snapshot of what was completed and what still needs attention. Upcoming-task emails help keep maintenance visible before it becomes urgent, making it easier for the technician to plan ahead, pick up materials, or coordinate subcontractors before arriving on site. Reports can also be tailored for different people depending on their role, including the maintenance technician, me acting as maintenance manager, and ownership.
Creating a company knowledge base
The maintenance system also became a knowledge base. It gave the company a practical place to store manuals, procedures, site-specific details, photos, sourcing notes, contacts, and institutional knowledge that would otherwise stay with whichever person happened to know it.
That made the system useful beyond daily task tracking. It helped new people learn the sites faster, gave management better visibility into maintenance activity, and created a stronger record of what was done, when it was done, and why.
Handoff and refinement
This project combined my experience in the maintenance role with process improvement, workflow design, documentation, automation, training, and hands-on implementation. I designed the board structure, templates, labels, due-date logic, automations, reporting, documentation, and training materials, then continued checking in with users to refine the system around how the work actually gets done.
Information needs a home
The result was a maintenance workflow that captured more site knowledge, made responsibilities clearer, improved follow-up, reduced reliance on individual memory, and helped recurring work stay visible.
This is one of the clearest examples of the kind of system I like building. The system is useful because it gives people an operating structure: less lost context, better handoff, clearer accountability, and enough automation that important work is harder to forget.
Veterinary clinic tenant improvement
With Pentillion Construction, I helped deliver the James Bay Veterinary Clinic tenant improvement: a conversion of a former bank into a veterinary clinic of roughly 3,800 square feet, or 353 square metres. The finished clinic included reception, six exam rooms, surgery, dental, storage and equipment space, washrooms, an office, and support areas.
Turning a former bank into a clinical space
The project was more than a standard interior refresh. A former bank and a veterinary clinic have very different operating needs.
The new space had to support public/client-facing reception, clinical workflow, treatment and procedure areas, equipment needs, staff support space, storage, durable finishes, and the building-system coordination required to make those spaces work.
Working through the existing shell
The existing bank condition added complexity, including the constraints created by the former vault and the need to adapt the commercial shell to a specialized tenant use.
That meant the work had to be coordinated carefully across layout, demolition, framing, plumbing, HVAC, electrical, finishes, millwork, equipment coordination, and permit requirements.
Keeping the construction information moving
My role was hands-on project coordination and field support. I helped define scopes, coordinate trades and labour, update drawings, create Gantt charts, support permit coordination, and work through day-to-day field issues as the project moved from drawings into construction.
I was not the architect or engineer of record, but I helped keep the project information moving between the people who needed it. That mattered because specialized tenant improvements depend on timely decisions, clear scopes, and practical coordination between drawings, permit requirements, site conditions, and field labour.
Managing schedule pressure and supply-chain constraints
The schedule also had to be managed through post-COVID supply-chain constraints. Materials, equipment, and trade availability could not always be treated as predictable, so the project needed active tracking, sequencing, and communication to keep the work moving despite delays and changing availability.
A key part of the work was translating the tenant improvement scope into a practical construction sequence. The clinical layout had to become a real space with the right trades in the right order and the right information available when decisions were needed.
Not just a pet project
The result was a completed tenant improvement that turned a former bank into a functioning veterinary clinic. It shows a full commercial conversion with specialized operating requirements, active field coordination, drawing updates, scheduling, permits, and trade sequencing. The drawing set, field conditions, tenant needs, trades, schedule, and supply-chain constraints all had to be kept connected until the space could actually operate as a clinic.
