Dev Log: May 16 Wrap-up

Overview

Today was all about tightening the screws on the project. I spent most of my time cleaning up how the firmware handles secrets and prepping the mobile app to handle biometric security. It feels good to move away from 'it just works' toward 'it works and isn't a security nightmare.'

What I Worked On

Hardening the Firmware and Managing Secrets

I realized my secret management was a bit of a mess. I was risking committing sensitive credentials every time I touched the code, so I finally set up a dedicated header file system for things like API keys and tokens.

I implemented a build-time validation check that's actually pretty satisfying. Now, if I try to compile the firmware without my local secrets file configured, the compiler throws a custom error and stops the build. It’s a simple safety net, but it saves me from accidentally flashing a 'broken' device that can't connect to the backend. I also ended up renaming the config file to something more standard to keep the project structure clean.

Tweaking the Hardware Logic

The door relock timing was feeling a bit sluggish. I moved the delay into a defined constant and dialed it back. It’s one of those minor quality-of-life things—you don't realize how much a two-second wait annoys you until you change it to one. It makes the physical interaction feel much snappier.

Mobile App and Biometrics

On the Android side, I did the heavy lifting to get biometric authentication ready. This involved a fair bit of wrestling with Capacitor dependencies and updating the AndroidManifest.

Integrating biometrics always feels like a chore because of the permissions dance, but it's a non-negotiable for a home security app.

I’ve now got the core plugins for biometrics and hardware communication linked up. I also added some better app-lifecycle management so the app stays aware of its state when the user switches away. It’s not fully wired to the UI yet, but the plumbing is finally in place.

Wrapping Up

It wasn't a 'new features' kind of day, but the project feels much more professional now that the secrets aren't hardcoded and the mobile permissions are sorted. Tomorrow, I’m hoping to actually test the biometric flow end-to-end with the hardware.