Wi-Fi is great indoors, but it often fails for: LoRa solves this problem: it’s long-range, low-power, and ideal for small sensor payloads. This architecture works extremely well with Home Assistant: LoRa sensor node (remote) → LoRa gateway (near Wi-Fi) →…
A huge amount of serious home energy hardware speaks Modbus RTU over RS-485: With one ESP32 and a cheap MAX485 (RS-485) transceiver, you can build a gateway that: This guide covers: 1. Modbus RTU & RS-485 in 2 minutes 2.…
If you’ve ever forgotten wet laundry in the washing machine for 3 hours, you already understand the value of this automation. Laundry machines and dryers have a very distinct power signature: By monitoring power, Home Assistant can reliably detect: This…
A classic doorbell can be upgraded into a smart doorbell with just: With Home Assistant you can: This guide covers: 1. Hardware Overview Base setup (no camera): Optional add-on: ⚠️ If your doorbell is powered by mains voltage, only work…
A lot of garage doors and sliding gates already have a simple “push-button” input that: With an ESP32, a small relay, and a reed switch you can turn that into a fully integrated Home Assistant device: This guide focuses on:…
The ESP32-P4-EYE is one of Espressif’s newest dev kits: a tiny “camera-in-a-box” based on the ESP32-P4 SoC, with a built-in LCD, 2 MP camera, microphone, MicroSD and dual USB-C ports. It’s designed as a ready-made platform for AI vision and…
12V LED strips (RGB or RGBW) are one of the easiest ways to add smart lighting to a room – behind the TV, under cabinets, around the bed, or as indirect ceiling lighting. With an ESP32, a few MOSFETs, and…
An ESP32 with an IR LED and a small IR receiver can replace multiple remotes: This guide shows how to: 1. Hardware Required Important: Don’t drive an IR LED directly from an ESP32 GPIO at full current – always use…
A simple boiler or electric heater can behave like a full smart thermostat using: This guide shows how to build a room or boiler thermostat with: Both DS18B20 (wired, accurate, great for pipes/tanks) and SHT45 (room temp/humidity) are covered. 1.…
A simple ESP32 + relay module can turn almost any boiler or electric water heater into a smart, automated device controlled by Home Assistant.With the right wiring and automations you can: This guide covers both ESPHome and MQTT (Arduino) approaches…
The ESP32-P4-Function-EV-Board v1.5.2 is Espressif’s flagship multimedia dev kit for the ESP32-P4: On top of that, the board carries an ESP32-C6-MINI-1 module that provides Wi-Fi 6 + Bluetooth LE connectivity. All ESP32-P4 GPIOs that Espressif exposes are routed to a…
(Safe Pins, ADC, I²C, SPI, USB, RGB LED) The ESP32-H2-DevKitM-1 is Espressif’s low-power Bluetooth LE + 802.15.4 (Zigbee/Thread/Matter) dev board based on the ESP32-H2-MINI-1/1U module. It’s basically an “ESP32 without Wi-Fi” but with full BLE + Zigbee/Matter support and 4…
(Safe pins, ADC, I²C, SPI, USB, RGB LED) The ESP32-C6-DevKitC-1 v1.2 is Espressif’s entry-level board for the ESP32-C6-WROOM-1/1U module – a Wi-Fi 6 + BLE 5 + 802.15.4 (Thread/Zigbee) SoC with RISC-V core and 8 MB flash. This guide is…
(LCD, encoder, RGB LED, audio, IR, “safe” pins) The ESP32-C3-LCDkit is a small all-in-one dev board with: It’s perfect for small GUI gadgets, knobs, thermostats, timers – but many GPIOs are already “spoken for” by the LCD and other peripherals.…
(Safe pins, ADC, I²C, SPI, UART, RGB LED) The ESP32-C3-DevKitM-1 is Espressif’s tiny RISC-V dev board based on the ESP32-C3-MINI-1 / MINI-1U module – a very compact Wi-Fi + BLE module with 4 MB flash. It’s designed to plug into…