Iain Daddy is a UK technologist, publisher, and community organiser whose work sits at the junction of engineering discipline and DIY creativity. He is best known for “Eric the Robot,” a multi-year research project that treats a Raspberry Pi as the brain of a modular, sensor-rich robot. Eric’s architecture mirrors Iain’s philosophy: each subsystem (battery, sonar, gyro, compass, pressure, humidity, ToF, fan, drive) runs as its own C++ daemon, writing to shared memory with consistent interfaces, CSV logging, and careful process control. The result is a resilient platform that’s easy to test, reason about, and improve in the field.
Iain applies the same clarity to web and infrastructure work. He builds lightweight, maintainable PHP/MySQL applications—financial dashboards, scheduling tools, and booking systems—with a focus on clear schemas, explicit configuration, and print-ready outputs. His projects for arts organisations and small businesses favour readable code, incremental releases, and strong runbooks. He also maintains Linux servers, internal DNS and firewalls, and Git-based backups—because good operations are part of good software.
Alongside engineering, Iain is deeply involved in pulp-horror publishing and fandom. He helps coordinate the Guy N. Smith community: newsletters, fanzines, fan conventions, and new editions—championing the gloriously lurid end of British horror. Related projects, like the Great Scribbler Podcast, keep that spirit alive for new audiences.
If there’s a pattern in Iain’s work, it’s this: ship something useful, measure it, and iterate. Whether that’s tuning PID profiles over I²C, adding a CSV export to an accounts page, or organising a fan event, he prefers practical wins over perfection. He documents as he goes, so the next person—often future-Iain—can pick up the thread quickly. It’s engineering as stewardship: leave systems clearer, sturdier, and kinder for the people who depend on them.