If you run Zigbee or Thread in Home Assistant, the obvious question is whether the new Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 is a genuine upgrade over Connect ZBT-1 or just a nicer-looking replacement. The answer is fairly simple: ZBT-2 is clearly…
Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 is the official USB radio adapter for adding Zigbee or Thread to Home Assistant. This guide explains what it does, how it differs from ZBT-1, whether it works with Matter, when to choose Zigbee instead of…
A lot of old-school timer setups are too predictable. The same lamp comes on at the same time, stays on for the same length, and switches off the same way every night. That is fine if your goal is only…
Espressif has announced the ESP32-H21, a new low-power wireless SoC designed for Thread, Matter, Zigbee, and Bluetooth Low Energy devices. The company published the announcement on March 3, 2026, positioning the chip as an enhanced option for battery-sensitive IoT products.…
Espressif has announced the ESP32-H4, a new System-on-Chip aimed at advanced battery-powered wireless products, and the company says samples are now available on request. The announcement was published on March 27, 2026. The main selling point of the ESP32-H4 is…
Gas is one of the cleanest Home Assistant utility projects because it gives you something genuinely useful without needing cloud services or a paid device ecosystem. Home Assistant supports gas tracking directly in its energy tools, and ESPHome’s pulse_meter component…
ESP32-S31 – A Big Step Up for Smart Devices and Rich HMI Projects Espressif has announced the ESP32-S31, a new high-performance SoC aimed at advanced IoT products that need much more than basic Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The company published the…
Espressif has announced that the ESP32-C6 now supports Amazon’s Alexa Connect Kit (ACK) SDK for Matter, giving device makers a new qualified Espressif platform for building Matter-compatible, Alexa-enabled smart home products. The announcement was published by Espressif on April 10,…
ESPressif has officially released ESP-IDF 6.0, and this is one of the biggest framework updates in a while for ESP32 developers. The new version brings changes across setup, build tooling, security, Wi-Fi features, release management, and hardware support, but it…
Read your home electricity meter’s pulse LED with an ESP32 and ESPHome, then send real-time power and total kWh to Home Assistant. This guide covers optical sensor setup, pulse_meter configuration, conversion from imp/kWh to watts and kWh, Energy dashboard integration,…