esphome News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

August 12, 2026August 12, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Apollo Automation launches $40 official ESPHome Starter Kit with ESP32-C6 board, four FPC modules

Apollo Automation’s ESPHome Starter Kit is the first official ESPHome starter kit designed and engineered by Apollo Automation in partnership with the Open Home Foundation. It features the ESPHome C6 board with the ESP32-C6-MINI-1 wireless module and two FPC expansion connectors for four modules part of the kit for PIR motion, temperature, and humidity sensing, as well as a button, a buzzer, and ten RGB LEDs. ESPHome Starter Kit highlights and specifications: Main board – ESPHome C6 Board Wireless Module – ESP32-C6-MINI-1 with 2.4GHz Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth LE, and Thread/Zigbee connectivity Expansion – 2x 14-pin FPC connectors Misc Reset and Boot buttons RGB LED Power Supply 5V via USB-C port Optional rechargeable LiPo battery Dimensions – TBD Modules MH-SR602 PIR motion module with 0 to 3.5 m range AHT20F temperature and humidity module with ±0.3 °C and ±2% RH accuracy 10x RGB LEDs and a piezo buzzer via ESPHome Casita […]

July 31, 2026July 31, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

reTerminal Sticky 3.97-inch touch ePaper display is supported by four open-source firmware projects (so far)

Seeed Studio’s reTerminal Sticky is a 3.97-inch “AI-powered” magnetic touch ePaper display powered by an ESP32-S3 microcontroller, which serves as a sticky-note alternative, an e-reader, a live dashboard, or a home automation controller. The 800 x 480 resolution display comes with 8MB PSRAM, 32MB Flash, a microSD card slot, and next/previous page buttons. It’s “AI-powered” through a microphone and an AI Voice button leveraging the ESP32-S3 Edge AI capabilities for a voice-to-note feature. It also features a temperature and humidity sensor and a 3-axis accelerometer, as well as a built-in magnet and a magnetic ring for easy mounting. reTerminal Sticky specifications: SoC – Espressif ESP32-S3R8 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 microcontroller up to 240 MHz with vector instructions for AI acceleration Memory – 8MB PSRAM Wireless – 2.4 GHz WiFi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0 LE Storage 32 MB flash MicroSD card slot (SanDisk recommended) Display 3.97-inch monochrome (B&W) ePaper 4-level […]

July 17, 2026July 21, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Olimex PICO-EVB automation board adds high-voltage terminals to Raspberry Pi Pico family

Olimex PICO-EVB board for the Raspberry Pi Pico and compatible boards is designed for high-voltage automation with four 3.3-30V DC or 110-220V AC inputs and four 15V DC/220V AC relays. It features two 20-pin headers enabling users to connect their preferred Pi Pico-compatible board, a USB-C port for power and programming, a UEXT connector for I2C, UART, and SPI expansion, and status LEDs for the high-voltage signals. Olimex PICO-EVB specifications: Compatible boards Raspberry Pi Pico, Pico 2, Pico W, Pico 2 W Olimex RP2040-PICO30 USB – 1x USB Type-C port I/Os 4x 15A 24V DC/240V AC relays 4x optoisolated inputs taking 3.3 – 30V DC or 110-220V AC UEXT connector with I2C, UART, and SPI signals Unpopulated 18-pin GPIO header Misc 4x status LEDs for the relays 4x status LEDs for the inputs Power Supply – 5V power supply via screw connector, USB-C port, or Pico’s micro USB connector Dimensions […]

July 14, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

IoTLabs wM-Bus gateway – An ESP32 device with Wireless M-Bus connectivity for Home Assistant

IoTLabs wM-Bus Gateway is an ESP32 device supporting the Wireless M-Bus (wM-Bus) standard for receiving data from compatible meters and sensors, designed for full integration with Home Assistant. Wireless M-Bus (Wireless Meter Bus) is a wireless protocol specifically designed for remote reading of smart meters, generally gas, water, or electricity meters, and typically used by utilities, but the wM-Bus gateway allows you to deploy the standard for your home automation solution, meters, and sensors. wM-Bus gateway specifications: Main controller – ESP32 dual-core microcontroller with Wi-Fi and BLE connectivity Display – 1.3-inch OLED for live measurements and status wM-Bus – 868 MHz radio receiver; Semtech SX1276-based RFM95/RFM96 according to the code Supports T1 and C1 frames, compatible with the wmbusmeters library Antennas Built-in 2.4 GHz antenna for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth External SMA antenna for wireless M-Bus; important: must be connected before powering the device to avoid damage Misc Top button to […]

July 9, 2026July 9, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

Makerfabs MaUWB for Home Assistant – An ESP32-S3 UWB module with PoE and enclosure

Makerfabs MaUWB for Home Assistant is an ESP32-S3-based Ultra-Wideband (UWB) module designed for indoor positioning and Real-Time Location Systems (RTLS). It runs ESPHome for Home Assistant integration, enabling it to be used as part of a UWB-based positioning system to track tagged devices in homes, offices, and other indoor environments. The module combines an ESP32-S3 with a MaUWB UWB module based on the Qorvo DW3000, featuring a PA/LNA for long-range ranging. Compared to the earlier ESP32-S3 version, it drops the OLED and adds a WIZnet W5500 Ethernet controller that supports PoE. The module also supports Wi-Fi 4 and Bluetooth 5.0, and comes in an enclosure for fixed installations. Makerfabs MaUWB for Home Assistant specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-S3-WROOM-1 SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with vector extension for AI/ML workloads RAM – 512KB SRAM; 8MB PSRAM Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5 […]

June 25, 2026June 25, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Louder ESP32 Mini board adds WiFi and Bluetooth to old speakers for SqueezeLite, Snapclient, or ESPHome support

Sonocotta’s Louder-ESP32-Mini is a compact version of the Louder ESP32 board that converts old speakers into WiFi (and Bluetooth) connected speakers for your Smart Home. The board aims to replace the speaker terminals on your old speakers, and comes in two sizes: 42x42mm for small speakers, and 52x52mm for larger models. It’s powered by an ESP32-S3 wireless SoC with 8MB PSRAM and equipped with a high-quality TAS5805M DAC with DSP features. Louder-ESP32-Mini specifications: Wireless Module – ESP32-S3-WROOM-N8R8 SoC – Espressif Systems ESP32-S3 CPU – Dual-core Tensilica LX7 up to 240 MHz with vector extension for AI/ML workloads RAM – 512KB SRAM, 8MB PSRAM Storage – 8MB flash Wireless – WiFi 4 and Bluetooth LE 5 Antenna – PCB antenna Audio DAC – Stereo TAS5805M I2S DAC with built-in DSP and D-Class amp DSP Features – EQ, FIR, DRC, AGL, etc… Speaker output via two WAGO connectors 4Ω, 1% THD+N 42×42 […]

June 5, 2026June 5, 2026 by Debashis Das - 2 Comments

EKOS – An ESP32-S3 ePaper dashboard housed in an oak-aluminum enclosure (Crowdfunding)

EKOS A Programmable Open Source ePaper Hub in Solid Oak

Designed by StillFixing in Normandy (France), the EKOS is a local-first, low-power ePaper dashboard built around an ESP32-S3 SoC. It operates without any cloud dependency, subscriptions, or external accounts, offering full privacy, faster response times, and direct local control. The device comes in two variants: the EKOS Pure is a minimalist, non-touch version with two physical buttons for basic control, and the EKOS Sense adds a capacitive touch layer for smart home control, such as toggling devices, triggering scenes, or managing tasks. Both models feature a repair-friendly design with no adhesives, using four screws for assembly and a user-replaceable lithium-polymer battery. Additionally, the dashboard can be updated entirely over your home network without needing the internet. You can push data to the screen using a local API from a phone or PC, link it straight to Home Assistant, or use it to control other ESPHome devices around your house. EKOS […]

May 26, 2026May 27, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

ESPHome 2026.5.0 released with new ESPHome Device Builder (beta), performance/memory optimizations

ESPHome 2026.5.0 has just been released with the beta version of the new ESPHome Device Builder web app that replaces the legacy in-tree dashboard with a real configuration editor, a firmware job queue, multi-select bulk actions, labels and areas, out-of-sync detection, cross-config search, distributed builds, and a proper settings UI. The firmware itself gains optimizations of the main loop, scheduler, and task watchdog to lower CPU and power usage on supported platforms, and a range of other memory/performance optimizations across the API, audio, and helper hot paths. The audio decoder pipeline has been improved and features new microMP3, microWAV, and microFLAC streaming libraries. OTA has also been enhanced with partition-table and bootloader updates, web-server OTA, and soft-brick recovery, and ESP32 MCUs are now handled by up to the ESP-IDF v6.0.1 framework natively, while Zigbee support has been expanded to ESP32 H2 and ESP32-C6, among other features. Key features of the […]