homeThing is a collection of software and hardware for creating universal remotes that control smart home devices.
There are 3 components that belong to homeThing: the case and circuit board, the menu system code, and the code to control smart home devices
- Hardware specific for smart home remotes that's open source, customizable, and 3D printable.
- Menu system for ESP32 devices focused on controlling smart home devices similar to an iPod's menu.
- ESPHome Components for controlling Home Assistant devices.
- Get Started - Learn how to build your own remote
- Discord - support / chat with the community and the team
- Instagram - Follow us on Instagram for updates and new products
- Website - Check out our website for more information
We designed the two remotes below to be ideal for controlling smart home devices without a touch screen. They are both battery-powered but can also be plugged into USB and left in one place. The first remote was based on a Lilygo TDisplay. We moved on to building the homeThing S3 because the original device had slow performance, lacked buttons, and had challenges with assembly.
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| Not available for purchase | Buy fully assembled, ships within 3 business days from 🇨🇦 |
| Order Case from PCBWay | Order parts or fully assembled from PCBWay |
| Case 3D Files | Case 3D Files |
| ESPHome Config | ESPHome Config |
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We made a couple of custom devices for running homeThing, but it can also run on almost any ESP32 such as,
- M5Stack Fire
- M5Stick C
- Lilygo T-Display T4
- Lilygo T-Display TTGO
- Lilygo T-Display S3
| t-display demo | m5stack fire demo | lilygo T4 demo |
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- Scroll through list and press center to select
- With a scrollwheel the top button goes back
- On M5Stack going up past the top of the list will go back
- A scroll bar appears if list extends past the screen.
- Screen returns to now playing after display sleeps
- Display sleeps after 10s of idle. Device sleeps after 2h of idle 💤
- Font size and UI size is adjustable in yaml 🔨
- Simple yaml configuration. all of the complicated code is included in other files 🛠
- Header is always shown at the top with info about the current state
- Control media players using the scroll wheel buttons
- Scroll for volume using the scroll wheel
| Music | TV |
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- Custom UI and buttons to control infrared cat toys
- Snake
- Breakout
- Home Assistant Voice Contest - Best Starting Guide https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2024/03/16/voice-assistant-community-contest-winners-annoucement/
- Hackaday https://hackaday.com/2022/09/08/scroll-through-esphome-with-ipod-style-click-wheel/
- Hackster https://www.hackster.io/news/ipod-style-esphome-remote-3ca38edab2b4
- Reddit post https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/x59dcp/i_built_an_ipod_style_esphome_remote_for_home/
- Self Hosted - Episode 80 - Solving Whole Home Audio (around 30:00) https://selfhosted.show/80
PCBWay sponsors 3D Printing and PCB assembly costs on this project during the prototyping phase!
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