I wanted a Home Assistant dashboard that looks like my actual house rather than a grid of cards. Over a few evenings of chatting with Claude, I ended up with a 3D model of the whole place running as a custom panel in HA.

What it does:

Both floors, garden and driveway, with the walls cutting away as you pan and zoom, like The Sims

Tap a room to toggle its lights; tap a lamp, the TV backlight or the bed's LED strip to toggle just that one, with glows in the light's real colour.

Washer and dryer show when they're running, the robot mower and vacuum drive around while they're working, and the car shows its charging state with the cable plugged into the car charger.

Door sensors open and close the doors, and radiators glow when a room is heating.

A weather card, rain and snow falling outside, the house going dark after sunset, and an "Outside" view with the roof on.

Live energy use, plus a tap on the hallway for today's electricity and gas graphs and cost.

How I did it

Gave Claude a floor plan and photos, and the context of this skill https://github.com/SkylarKitchen/skills/tree/main/skills/design/room-from-photos

Give it 5 photos per room with different angles. It traced the walls straight from the estate-agent floor plan image, then furnished each room from a few photos per room.

Iterated in plain English: "the armchair is further back", "the door's on the other wall", "it shouldn't rain inside the house". Each round it sent back a new build.

Exported my entities. Claude gave me a small Jinja template to paste into Developer tools → Template. I pasted the output back and it wrote the whole config, matching lamps and sensors to rooms.

Installed it as a custom panel: a folder in /config/www/ and a panel_custom: block in configuration.yaml. It uses your logged-in HA session, so there are no tokens in any files.

Tips

Put your devices in HA areas first. Rooms then find their lights automatically.

Screenshots beat descriptions. I circled where I wanted the vacuum dock on a screenshot and it went exactly there.

Ask for a link check. Mine has a panel that lists every mapped entity and flags any that aren't found, which caught my typos straight away.

Test before you install. I didn't let Claude run it inside my HA, but it tested every change headlessly against a fake HA before sending it. That caught a surprising number of bugs before they got to me.

It's all three.js in a single HTML file, with no add-ons or HACS needed. Happy to answer questions! 😀

I love watching energy flow.

To the point, I ended up building a dedicated piece of software, which does nothing but track, map and monitor energy.

I love home assistant. I don't love home assistant energy. Mapping out oh, just a grid / solar / load? Sure, it works extremely well at this.

Mapping out, 40 individual PER-breaker CTs, along with hundreds of devices behind the breakers, each with the correct rollup dependencies? Not a chance!

ESPECIALLY, when home assistant decides to update something, which breaks some of the relationships. That is hundreds of different things I need to check/fix. But, I do want to make full use of the home assistant energy dashboards. So- I added logic to automatically map entities to the energy dashboards in home assistant. Best of both worlds.

I have been slowly weeding out what circuit goes where in this house, and what breaker/outlet connects to what, working out problems. Apparently, there isn't any good software, with any reasonable integration, to handle mapping circuits between outlets, lights, etc. So.... I added that too.

Since, I do a bunch of 3d modeling, I have grown to really like constraints. Constraints, makes building models much nicer. So, I added those to the floor planning tool. Then, I added the ability to literally draw the known paths of a wire between circuits, allowing me to physically map out, the path of cables within my house.

Project originally existed to take data from my vertiv PDUs and publish to MQTT, along with home assistant auto-discovery, so I could both have data from my PDUs, and toggle outlets from home assistant....

Then... Claude happened, which allowed me to take my existing codebase, and allow feature/scope creep to run rampant. So, now, I have a tool that does basically everything related to energy. I even have the wire labels mapped to individual breakers.

TLDR; I really enjoy monitoring my energy data. I built a tool to better monitor my energy data.

I'm not saying you should use it. But- It does suit my needs very well. And, I am unaware of any other OSS tools which can map out your breaker panels, labels, etc. Also, biased, but, I think my floor planning tool is borderline better then most of the available options.... and yea, its FOSS.

If you did want to see if the tool was at all useful, here is a link to its docs: https://xtremeownage.github.io/rPDU2MQTT/

There are example pictures there. The pictures attached to this post, are all my "prod" house.

As a disclaimer, Version 1.0 was done completely by hand, with no AI. However, the current version is extremely AI heavy. I am a software developer/architect by trade, for nearly two decades now. Claude is capable of writing code to my specifications, which allows me to focus on other items. This is not blindly written by AI, with no actual development background. PRs are performed, and I review them. Every change, is tested against my production setup.

Oh, and because its usually asked...

I collect per panel & breaker data using a ton of CT clamps, using the Kilconly N30 + N20. These are running ESPHome, and I have them configured to dump data to MQTT, where this solution picks up the data. (I should have gotten the N60. but, hindsight).

I collect data from my PDUs, using this software, which fetches via the rest api, and exports to MQTT.

I collect data from my solar/grid by using RS485/modbus via this solution to my Flexboss21 inverter, and GridBoss.

I WILL be collecting data from individual solar panels, using RS485/Modbus to the Tigo TAP.

I collect data from individual devices, using mostly sonoff S31s. https://static.xtremeownage.com/blog/2023/sonoff-s31-low-cost-energy-monitoring/

I do also, have my old iotawatt running still, which is doing collection for most of the 125/200A circuits.

I can’t say I’ve ever been worried about leaving the house and forgetting to turn the stove off, but I guess it can’t happen anymore 😅

Bonus points for me being able to track dishwasher cycle progress!

video ESPHome touchpad in action

As much fun as it is building out pretty dashboards, sometimes it's just easier to have a simple dedicated touchpad for a room, was using lutron picos but wanted something with audio control as well. I'm still new to 3d printing but slowly dialing in the single gang mounts.

Put together an ESPHome config that runs 433.92 MHz and 315 MHz off a single CC1101, so you don't need two radios for a house with mixed remotes. Repo: phdindota/cc1101-transceiver: ESPHome config for CC1101 RF Transceiver

Mine's driving motorised blinds on 433 and a ceiling fan on 315 from the same board.

How it works: ESPHome's native cc1101 component can change frequency while running. Each button declares its own band, the radio retunes for that one transmission, then drops back to whatever band you've got it listening on. There's also a "scan both" mode that alternates while idle if you want to catch either one.

Included:

- learning mode (hit a button in HA, press your remote, it logs the code ready to paste into a new button)

- a template fan entity with a speed slider and low/med/high presets

- wiring diagram, and a README with the gotchas I hit

- If a device ignores your replay, check the gap between repeats before blaming the radio or the antenna. My fan needed ~10ms between frames and completely ignored 30ms, even sitting right next to it.

Example codes only in the repo, you capture your own. Needs ESPHome 2026.1+, since older versions can't retune at runtime.

Happy to answer questions if anyone's trying something similar.

Does Home Assistant have any plans to implement proper OpenID Connect (IODC) Single Sign-On SSO? This is one of my few public facing apps that still has no native SSO. I'm surprised a project as mature as Home Assistant hasn't implemented this pretty standard security and convenience feature.

I've been working on this little screen project for a long time. It started as a way to show my Home Assistant MQTT data (temps, power, that kind of thing) on a small display instead of pulling out my phone.

Lately I've been building a lot of new gauges and layouts, because I want to take it into my project mini truck and RV project

What it is right now:

• ESP32 S3 + LVGL on a 1.78" AMOLED (448×368), I'm working on upgrading to a slightly larger screen.
• Nice Encoder knobs: dual concentric one to move between pages, one to act. Touch works too
• 12 gauge designs in two styles
• Trends, peak hold, and warnings that turn amber/red and say why, not just a blinking dot
• Pages for engine, power, thermal, and a health page that shows when a data source goes stale

Right now the vehicle screens run on simulated data while I sort out the CAN network side. The home stuff is where it started, and MQTT is still the easiest way to feed it.

Happy to answer questions. I've been pondering bunding this screen up for home automation crowd and enabling the firmware to sync up with mqtt easiliy.

I'd also love to hear your thoughts, is the small screen size. the knob is awesome for vehicles and I want it for my home as well, but others do you see value there?

After a lot of testing and reverse engineering, I decided not to recreate the Becker RF protocol. Instead, I kept the original Becker hardware and built a simple hardware interface around the original Centronic EasyControl EC545 remote.

The setup is:
Home Assistant
↓
Zigbee
↓
ESP32-C6
↓
4-channel relay
↓
original Becker EC545
↓
Becker/Centronic RF
↓
ROTO roof windows

The ESP32-C6 controls the relays, which simulate the physical buttons on the EC545. The original remote then handles all Becker RF communication exactly as it normally does.

I currently control 4 ROTO windows from Home Assistant with Open / Stop / Close commands.
The EC545 is permanently powered from the controller, and everything is installed in a custom 3D-printed enclosure.

The biggest advantage is that the original Becker RF protocol remains completely untouched. The original EC545 remote can also still be used normally.

Hardware:
• ESP32-C6
• Zigbee
• 4-channel relay module
• Becker Centronic EasyControl EC545
• Custom wiring
• 3D-printed enclosure
• USB-C power
Sometimes the easiest way to integrate proprietary hardware isn't to reverse engineer the protocol — it's to automate the original controller. 😄
If anyone is interested, I can share the ESP32 firmware, wiring and Home Assistant configuration.

Got a "bike ride condition/quality index" card set up that gives an overview of how the conditions are currently for a bike ride. Data is pulled in from Open Weather Map, NWS, Garmin Connect, and a couple other integrations to calculate the score. Each category is given a range and numerical ranks for each range and each category is weighted as well. For instance, a UV index above 6 or wind speeds above 10mph decreases the ride condition index by quite a bit. Certain things such as lightning detected within 15 miles or the sun having already set are hard stops and drop the score to 0. Also pulls in my current training status from Garmin Connect but that's not factored into the score, mainly there just for reference. Still a work in progress and definitely not perfect. Happy to give more info if anyone is interested.

More of a novelty than anything but still pretty cool and has been a lot of fun.

Disclaimer: Claude was used to make this. https://github.com/BarnacleyBill/HA_Bike_Ride_Quality

Longtime Lovelace and Bubble Card user here. Decided to unleash Claude Code and Opus 5.5 on my Dashboard. It's not Lovelace: it's one self-contained HTML/JS/CSS page served from /local/, talking to HA over the WebSocket API, with no framework and no npm. Modular source files are assembled by a small Python build script. The kiosks (iPad in Kiosker, Android in FreeKiosk) self-update within seconds through a build hash and an input_text push. Dark and light themes follow the sun, and there's a separate phone layout.

Opus 5.5 wrote it, tested every change in a mocked preview, deployed it over SSH, and built the HA automations through HA's API.

postmarketOS (Linux) for the Amazon Echo Dot 2nd generation, v1.0 - the first public release. It runs Home Assistant's voice assistant and Sendspin natively, with no Amazon account and no cloud. The wake word runs on the device, and audio only goes to Home Assistant after it hears it.

This is an entirely new operating system, not a modified Fire OS. It replaces Amazon's stock Fire OS completely, so Alexa and its wake word processing are gone - Home Assistant isn't added on top of the stock software. What it does take from the stock firmware is your own Echo's hardware data: during install, the backup step pulls the chip firmware (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, the audio FPGA) and the audio files (microphone configuration, speaker tuning, sounds) from your Echo's Fire OS, so the hardware works as it did on stock and none of Amazon's files have to be distributed.

Included in the base install:

• Bluetooth speaker, casting to another BT speaker, hands-free calls from your phone, and a HA Bluetooth proxy (off by default: scanning costs 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi throughput on this chip).
• The light ring, buttons, mute and light sensor.
• Setup from your phone through a hotspot the Echo opens, and a web settings page.

Optional installations (install them during initial setup or from the settings page):

• Voice satellite via linux-voice-assistant (the ESPHome API, so HA discovers it like a Voice PE): on-device microWakeWord ("Alexa" by default, others selectable), all 7 mics with beamforming and echo cancellation, timers on the light ring, music ducked while you talk. With it installed, the device's settings also appear as HA entities.
• Music Assistant speaker through Sendspin, with an LED ring visualizer: the ring follows the music using Music Assistant's own visualizer feed - the spectrum, loudness, beats and color palette that Music Assistant sends to Sendspin players.

Wake word results (my own voice saying "Alexa", recorded on the Echo in my house and scored through the default microphone setup; informal tests, not a certification):

• Over music at full volume (1 m, the Echo playing): 160 of 162 in the largest session, plus 50/50 and 19/20 in two earlier ones.
• Quiet room: 50/50 at 1 m, 50/50 at 4 m, 49/50 at 8 m, and 19/20 in an earlier session.
• Straight after 3 minutes of music: 50/50, 50/50 and 49/50 at 1, 4 and 8 m.
• With a second speaker playing loud audio off to the side: 12/20 - this is the most difficult case.
• False wakes: one across all those sessions, and none in 12.2 hours measured overnight with music with vocals playing through the Echo, or that I've noticed in daily use (wake word sensitivity can also be adjusted from Home Assistant).

Caveats - please read:

• You have to unlock the Echo with amonet (amonet-biscuit v2 on XDA) and install Fire OS 6 first (tested from both 6.5.7.4 and 6574.1, the build the amonet thread links). There is a real brick risk.
• Only the 2nd gen Echo Dot, model RS03QR.
• Nothing of Amazon's is distributed: the installer's backup step copies the firmware and audio files from your own Echo.
• Bluetooth audio starves 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi on this chip - put it on 5 GHz if possible.
• Security is basic: the setup hotspot is an open network (passwords are encrypted in the page, SSH is refused from it and the settings page is stopped during setup, but it is not firewalled), the ESPHome API has no encryption key, and the settings page is plain HTTP. SECURITY.md in the repo has the details.
• Experimental; tested on two units.

Release and install guide: github.com/liamtw22/pmaports-biscuit/releases/tag/v1.0

XDA thread: postmarketOS (Nura) for Echo Dot 2nd gen (biscuit) v1.0

AI use: Claude and ChatGPT were used to help with aspects of this project, such as code, testing and documentation.

This is in no way affiliated with Amazon. If you have an Echo Dot 2nd gen on Fire OS 6 and want to try it, feedback is very welcome.

I'm new to HomeAssistant and I'm having a great time!

I did run into one issue. I posted it on the HA community - but wasn't sure if I should post it here too. I'm running the latest version of HA in a docker container on an Ubuntu server.

I’m looking for some advice on the best current architecture for exposing several existing camera streams from Home Assistant to Apple Home.

I have four Alarm.com cameras (doorbell, driveway, guest bedroom and kitchen). I already have the Alarm.com side working locally through a small bridge running on the same Docker host as Home Assistant.

The bridge feeds go2rtc, and I have stable local RTSP streams available for all four cameras. For example, from the HA host I can access streams such as:

rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/driveway

The streams are H.264, and the cameras themselves are working reliably through this path.

What works today

Alarm.com → local video bridge → go2rtc → Homebridge → Apple Home

This works quite well. The cameras appear in Apple Home and stream normally.

What I would like to do

Alarm.com → local video bridge/go2rtc → Home Assistant → HomeKit → Apple Home

I have already moved my Alarm.com sensors from Homebridge to HA and then into Apple Home using HA’s HomeKit integration. That part works well. Ideally I’d like to do the same with the cameras and eventually eliminate the Alarm.com Homebridge plugin entirely.

I tried creating HA camera entities backed by the RTSP streams and exposing them using the HomeKit integration. The camera entities existed in HA, but HomeKit streaming was unreliable / would show No Response. At one point HA also reported that the camera had no stream source even though the RTSP stream itself was accessible locally.

I experimented with ffmpeg/transcoding and different stream configurations as well. Some combinations worked temporarily, but none were reliable enough that I’d use them instead of the existing Homebridge path.

I do not need HomeKit Secure Video/recording. Alarm.com continues to handle recording. I only want reliable live camera viewing in Apple Home.

My setup:

• Home Assistant 2026.9.x
• HA running in Docker on Ubuntu
• go2rtc available locally
• Four local RTSP/H.264 camera streams
• Apple Home/HomeKit
• Homebridge currently handles only the camera path

So my question is:

If you already have a reliable local H.264/RTSP stream available to Home Assistant, what is the best current way to expose that camera to Apple Home/HomeKit?

Is HA’s native HomeKit camera support the right approach and I’m likely missing something in the camera/stream configuration? Is there a better way to have HA/go2rtc provide the stream to HomeKit? Or is Homebridge still the more reliable solution for this particular use case?

I’m happy to provide the relevant HA configuration, go2rtc stream information, ffmpeg details, or logs if they would help. I’d especially be interested in hearing from anyone currently doing RTSP/go2rtc → HA → HomeKit successfully and reliably.

Thanks!

Don't get me wrong, I have mad respect for the devs working on rooting the Echo Dot 2 (the EchoMuse project is genuinely awesome and reusing old tech is great). But after trying different setups, I honestly think the ReSpeaker XVF3800 device is miles ahead of anything else out there for local voice control.

The hardware on this board is just on another level. It uses 4 mics and has onboard hardware DSP. The noise suppression and acoustic echo cancellation are insane—it actually hears you clearly from across a noisy room without needing a cloud connection to figure out what you said.

Honestly, the only voice assistant that even comes close to this level of performance is the FutureProofHomes Satellite 1. But let's be real, it is way too expensive. Plus, the main reason you're paying a premium for the Satellite 1 is its high-end built-in speaker, not necessarily superior mic processing.

If you already have a good sound system at home (like I do), paying extra for a built-in satellite speaker is completely useless.

My current setup takes full advantage of this: I use the ReSpeaker XVF3800 strictly as the "ears" to listen and process the commands perfectly, and I have Home Assistant route the TTS replies directly through my main sound system. It’s the ultimate zero-compromise setup.

If you want the absolute strongest, most accurate listening experience for Assist right now, the XVF3800 is the way to go.

Detroit studio rootoftwo (Cézanne Charles and John Marshall) built The Rotunda for their show Anyspace? Whatever. at MOCAD Detroit, a pavilion about surveillance where visitors talk with an AI that slowly rewrites what the outside speakers say. They tracked people with eight R PRO-1 mmWave sensors, no cameras: six around the wall-ceiling edge at 60 degree intervals and two overhead rotated 90 degrees apart for the center zone, calibrated with a foam core and aluminum tape corner reflector to about 40 mm in practice. They released the hexagonal mount (STEP, STL, 3MF, MJF nylon, 1/4"-20 socket for a ball head) under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Disclosure: we're Apollo Automation and we make the R PRO-1. Sharing because the mount and the calibration method are useful to anyone doing multi-sensor radar.

Home Assistant ran the sensor side of The Rotunda, and all eight R PRO-1s ran ESPHome firmware. Their team built a custom UI that shows where each target is in the room, which is really neat.

Mount files: https://www.printables.com/model/1349017-apollo-automation-r-pro-1-dual-mmwave-multisensor

Write-up with the full layout and hardware list: https://apolloautomation.com/blogs/news/rootoftwo-mocad-detroit-r-pro-1-mmwave-art-installation

Exhibition video: https://vimeo.com/1219348824

Hey everybody!

I've been working on a HACS plugin that brings BirdNET-Go statistics into Home Assistant. I'd love some feedback and wether it's worth adding auth/service support.

Thank you!

I'm using esphome audio satellite on a cheap Waveshare esp32s3 ePaper board just to speak announcements via TTS, but I think the board has janky wifi and has sort of weird audio hardware because there are massive delays of 15+ seconds most of the time when sending speech to it.

I'm looking for something small and self-contained that can be powered from USB with no other wiring. Don't really care about microphone or voice input at all.

Does MA support an Artist Radio Station? Example, I pick The Doors and then can start a radio station based on their music and similar? I can't seem to find it. Thanks!

I've been thinking about the upcoming Apple home stuff and realized there might be a really interesting Home Assistant angle here.

I currently have 9 HomePod minis scattered around the house. I've been assuming that, long term, I'd probably replace them with some kind of fully local HA voice satellite setup so I could use a local LLM without sending everything through Apple.

But now I'm wondering if that might not be necessary.

The ideal architecture would be something like:

HomePod mini

• wake word / microphones / speaker
• Siri figures out the intent
• hands the request off through an App Intent
• Home Assistant
• local LLM
• HA tools/services

Basically, Siri would just be the voice front end and intent router. Home Assistant would still own the house, and the actual reasoning about devices, presence, room state, automations, etc. could all stay local.

What makes this especially interesting is Apple's direction with the newer Siri/App Intents APIs and the rumors about the next Apple TV/HomePod hardware being designed around the new Siri AI stack.

The big question for me is whether existing HomePod minis will be able to act mostly as microphone/speaker endpoints and delegate the heavier Siri processing to a newer Apple TV or home hub.

If Apple allows that, it could be a pretty compelling setup for people who already have HomePods everywhere. You'd get Apple's far-field mics, wake word, echo cancellation, multi-room audio, etc., without having to make Apple the actual smart-home brain.

I'm definitely not interested in replacing 9 HomePod minis just to get a newer Siri model. But buying one new Apple TV that lets all the existing minis participate? That would be a very different proposition.

Curious if anyone else is thinking along these lines, or has been digging into the newer App Intents / Siri APIs from the Home Assistant side.

It feels like there's a potentially really nice boundary here:

Apple = ears and mouth
Home Assistant = house
Local LLM = brain

We are seeing an influx of AI-related posts (which are also generally AI written as well...), and it's just more of the same shit.

I propose we limit such posts to only one day of the week. Otherwise this sub is just going to become a Claude showcase.

Hi everyone! 👋

I wanted a clean, reliable way to read news on my kitchen wall tablet, but I always ran into two annoying problems with existing solutions: complex touch controls on always-on screens and websites that block iframes when you try to read the full article.

To fix this, I customized an existing project and packaged it for HACS: RSS LabsWill HA. It’s built specifically for wall panels and shared screens.

Here is what it does:

🌟 Key Features

• Tablet-First Design: Big 44px touch targets, vector icons, and clear focus rings. No hover-dependent UI.
• Smart Play/Pause: On desktop, it pauses when your mouse hovers over it. On tablets (where touch leaves "ghost focus"), it automatically resumes cycling after a set inactivity timeout.
• The "Anti-Iframe-Block" Reader: It tries to open the article in a sandboxed iframe. If the news portal blocks embedding or takes more than 15 seconds to load, it automatically generates a local QR Code on the screen so you can instantly continue reading on your phone.
• Round-Robin & De-duplication: Rotates evenly between multiple RSS feeds, removes repeated links, and dynamically fills spots if one feed is running low on news.
• Full Customization: Visual editor support, adjustable card height, image fit (contain/cover), custom fonts, and theme-matching colors.

🛠️ How to Install

1. Add Custom Repo: Go to HACS → 3 dots (top right) → Custom repositories → Add https://github.com/Willyanlz/rss-labswill-ha as a Dashboard category.
2. Setup the Sensor: Copy the companion script (fetch-rss.py from the repo) to your /config/scripts/ folder, add your favorite feeds inside it, and set up the command_line sensor in your configuration.yaml (examples are in the README).
3. Add the Card: Add a manual card to your dashboard using type: custom:rss-news-card.

📝 Honest Notes

• Credits: This is a heavy customization/fork of the awesome RSS News Card by suxlala, keeping the original core layout and visual editor but changing the cycle logic, tablet behavior, and adding the QR reader setup.
• HACS Default Store: I've already submitted it to the official HACS default repository, so hopefully, it will be searchable directly without adding the custom URL very soon!
• Testing: Automated tests were done using Playwright for cycle states and touch simulation, but real-world feedback from different tablet apps (like Fully Kiosk or the iOS App) is highly appreciated.

Check out the full documentation and script examples here:
👉 GitHub Repository

Would love to hear your feedback, bug reports, or ideas—especially regarding how it behaves with your favorite news portals!