home assistant News - CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 14, 2026 by Debashis Das - No Comments

DeskUp Pro smart standing desk controller integrates with Home Assistant and Homey Pro Smart Home hubs

Designed by SmartHomeGuys in the UK, the DeskUp Pro is an ESP32-based standing desk controller compatible with Home Assistant, Homey Pro, and other Smart Home hubs, using the desk’s standard RJ11/RJ12 connection. Many modern standing desks come with a controller from Jiecang or another company featuring an RJ12 port. The DeskUp Pro plugs directly into this port, draws power without an external USB supply, and bridges the desk’s controls to your 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network. This allows you to automate your desk height, set health-focused standing reminders, or use voice assistants like Google Home and Alexa, all while keeping the desk’s original physical keypad fully functional. DeskUp Pro specifications: MCU – Espressif Systems ESP32-C6 or ESP32-S3 microcontroller with 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE Desk connectivity – Built-in RJ11/RJ12 cable for data and power USB – USB Type-C port for initial setup and firmware flashing Misc Supported Jiecang control boxes JCB36NE2 (used […]

April 12, 2026April 12, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

UmbrelOS – A Debian-based personal home cloud OS with a slick user interface

UmbrelOS is a Debian-based home cloud OS with a neat web-based interface that works on devices like Raspberry Pi SBCs, mini PCs, old computers, and more. Having been first released in 2020, the OS is not exactly new, but I only discovered it today after noticing it was one of the supported operating systems for the Pironman 5 Pro Max enclosure for the Raspberry Pi 5. It initially launched as a tool for running a Bitcoin full node on a Raspberry Pi easily, but eventually turned into a home cloud OS that competes against other open-source solutions such as OpenMediaVault or CasaOS/ZimaOS. UmbrelOS highlights: Intuitive web dashboard at umbrel.local or your device’s IP. Umbrel App Store — Over 300 apps, including Nextcloud or Immich for media and document storage, Jellyfin for media streaming, Home Assistant automation framework, Vaultwarden password manager, Bitcoin and Lightning nodes, AdGuard Home adblocker, and AI-related tools […]

April 7, 2026 by Debashis Das - 6 Comments

SN1 Solar Node – An ESP32-C3-based board with IP67 enclosure, solar charging, ESPHome firmware

Designed by Granz Scientific LLC, the SN1 Solar Node is an ESP32-C3-based IoT node/development board designed specifically for off-grid IoT projects. Development boards like Seeed Studio Wio Tracker, or industrial controllers like DFRobot LoRaWAN Control Terminal, allow you to handle your own battery management and weatherproofing, or on the other end, you have products like SenseCAP Solar Node P1 that come with everything integrated but do not allow adding custom hardware. This is where the SN1 Solar Node is different; it features an IP67-rated enclosure with an integrated solar panel on the lid, 18650 battery support, and prototyping strip-board areas for custom circuitry. It also includes a smart power switch that allows the battery to continue charging from the solar panel even when the board is powered off. Additionally, it provides battery voltage monitoring, breaks out most GPIOs for easy access, and includes optional jumpers for an onboard LED and […]

April 3, 2026April 3, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Sentinel Core – A Raspberry Pi CM5 mini-ITX carrier board with a PCIe x16 slot (Crowdfunding)

Sanctuary Systems’ Sentinel Core is a Raspberry Pi CM5 mini-ITX carrier board with a PCIe x16 slot to easily connect a graphics card to accelerate 3D graphics, video transcoding, or AI workloads. It’s basically a larger Raspberry Pi CM5 IO board with a prototyping area, a PCIe slot, and a 24-pin ATX power connector. The Sentinel Core also comes with two HDMI ports, a Gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 3.0 ports, MIPI DSI/CSI connectors, and the usual 40-pin GPIO header. Sentinel Core specifications: Supported module – Raspberry Pi Compute Module 5 via 2x 100-pin B2B connectors Video Output – 2x HDMI 2.0 ports Networking Gigabit Ethernet RJ45 port Optional WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.x on Raspberry Pi CM5 USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 1x USB 2.0 Type-C port PCIe – High-speed, full-length PCIe x16 slot with PCIe 2.0 x1 signal (PCIe 3.0 unofficially supported) Expansion 40-pin Raspberry Pi GPIO […]

March 14, 2026 by Debashis Das - 7 Comments

Esparagus Audio Brick ESP32-based DIN-rail 65W Hi-Fi amplifier supports Home Assistant and Squeezelite (Crowdfunding)

Sonocotta (Andriy Malyshenko), the developer of Esparagus “Media Center”, HiFi-Amped, Louder Raspberry Pi, and Louder Raspberry Hat Plus, has returned to Crowd Supply with the Esparagus Audio Brick, a compact ESP32 or ESP32-S3-powered Hi-Fi Class-D amplifier with Home Assistant support. With support for Music Assistant, Snapcast, and Logitech Media Server (LMS), the module can be used to build whole-home audio setups, retrofit vintage speakers with modern streaming features, or power custom speaker configurations such as subwoofers or bi-amp systems. The board is built around an ESP32 or ESP32-S3 dual-core microcontroller with 16 MB flash and 8 MB PSRAM, and features Wi-Fi with optional W5500 SPI Ethernet for connectivity. Audio is processed via a Texas Instruments TAS5825M stereo I²S DAC with an integrated 65 W Class-D amplifier, and includes a DSP for a 15-band equalizer and hardware fault management. Other features include a USB Type-C port with a CH340 chip for […]

March 8, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Pironman 5 Pro Max Raspberry Pi 5 case gains 4.3-inch touchscreen, camera mount, speakers, microphone, and more

Pironman 5 Pro Max is the latest Raspberry Pi 5 case by SunFounder. The new enclosure adds a 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen display, a 5MP camera module, a mount suitable for Raspberry Pi Camera Modules, stereo speakers, a USB microphone, and a 3.5mm audio jack. Besides the new features, its design is close to the Pironman 5 Max we reviewed with a Raspberry Pi 5, an NVMe SSD, and an Hailo-8 AI accelerator last June. That means it keeps black aluminum and semi-transparent black acrylic panels, offers two M.2 PCIe slots, an IR receiver, a power button, and the Tap-to-Wake feature for the OLED information display. Pironman 5 Pro Max specifications: Designed for the Raspberry Pi 5 and compatible SBCs Storage Pironman 5 Dual NVMe PiP supporting 2x M.2 2230, 2242, 2260, or 2280 NVMe SSDs at up to PCIe 2.0 x1 speeds due to switch used; RAID 0/1 support MicroSD […]

March 6, 2026March 8, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Echo Pyramid enables smart voice interaction applications on M5Stack Atom ESP32 IoT controllers

Designed for M5Stack Atom, AtomS3, and AtomS3R series IoT controllers based on ESP32 or ESP32-S3 wireless SoC, the Echo Pyramid base enables smart voice interaction applications such as far-field voice recognition, voice assistants, voice control, and more. The device features a built-in speaker, a MEMS microphone, an ES8311 HD audio codec for playback and capture, and an STM32 MCU for touch areas and RGB LED management. It’s powered via a USB Type-C port and can be expanded through a 4-pin connector for I2C modules. Echo Pyramid specifications: Supported IoT controllers – M5Stack Atom, AtomS3, and AtomS3R Microcontroller – STMicro STM32G030F6P6 32-bit Arm Cortex-M0+ CPU @ 64 MHz with 8KB SRAM, 64 KB flash Audio HD Codec – ES8311, handles playback and recording Microphone – LMA3729T381-0Y3S MEMS microphone ADC – ES7210 for microphone input Built-in speaker on the bottom of the pyramid Amplifier – AW87559 Class-D speaker driver for the speaker […]

February 6, 2026February 7, 2026 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Olimex HoT aims to be lightweight, easier-to-use alternative to Home Assistant

Olimex HoT (Home of Things) is a lightweight Smart Home solution designed to run on low-end hardware (128MB RAM, 128MB flash) and interface with nodes running ESPHome. It can serve as an easier-to-use alternative for people who don’t need all the bells and whistles provided by powerful home automation frameworks such as Home Assistant or OpenHAB. Home Assistant open-source home automation software is great, but it requires a system with at least 2GB of RAM, and 4GB of RAM is often recommended for most users. There’s also a steep learning curve. This is what Tsvetan Usunov, Olimex CEO, realized last year when he tried Home Assistant, and he decided to start working on a low-cost, easy-to-use solution for IoT and Smart Home applications. That’s why the Olimex HoT project was created. Tsvetan gave a talk about the project entitled “Designing EUR 20 Open Source Hardware running Free/Libre Open Source Software […]