A 3 by 4 grid of buttons, lined up on protoboard to start prototyping the build

IMG 2188

ESP32 soldered to protoboard with some male headers to connect inputs to.

IMG 3049

GND wires wired up to each individual push button

IMG 3058

First try, connecting push buttons to the ESP32 via dupont wire and screw terminals

IMG 3064

The ESP32 controller all wired up, ready to be placed in its enclosure

IMG 3124

The first finished version of the controller in its enclosure

IMG 3118

ESPHome config for the ESP32 MQTT controller

Node-RED flows listening to MQTT topics and triggering actions like controlling lights, playing music or activating scenes

Screenshot 2021-08-16 at 6.15.07 PM

Finished controller with 3d printed keycaps and LED diffuser

64319704821 32A2E62B-BD8C-44AA-8AD7-A9B402DF56D0

Using an ESP32, ESPHome, Home Assistant and 3D printing I build this amazing MQTT button controller / macropad to automate my home

🎛 Building an ESP32 MQTT button box

View at [https://thibmaek.com/posts/overview/1]

3 meters (electricity, heating & water) created via EnergieID's webhook integration.

EnergieID webhooks

3 Home Assistant RESTful Command services which we can call to update our meters

EnergieID rest commands HA

Creating an input helper for the electricity meter with a unit of kWh

ha energieid helpers

A new "Run" script with a sequence to update all meters by sending the state from the inputs to the restful commands / webhook we created earlier

ha energie id script

A Lovelace (UI) card with our inputs and the button so submit them to EnergieID

ha lovelace energieid

Simple first steps toward integrating EnergieID into Home Assistant.

🔋 Consumption monitoring with EnergieID & Home Assistant

I came up with these really minimal Lovelace cards to represent who is home, based on person entities in Home Assistant.

![Screenshot 2020-08-20 at 14.48.04](//images.ctfassets.net/vzyw32ih2a4n/1MFZjBUhE74okfsymQ6o4g/b3efd0c1791ecd011fb375ed2550dd81/Screenshot_2020-08-20_at_14.48.04.png)

It's based on this excellent [button-card](https://github.com/custom-cards/button-card) for Lovelace. I find the config options for button-card to be a bit overwhelming though.

![Screenshot 2020-08-20 at 14.48.14](//images.ctfassets.net/vzyw32ih2a4n/4r5DivYGkqdWCZsOoGKL3k/6d559697f20fbcb5a3a75984e824abd1/Screenshot_2020-08-20_at_14.48.14.png)

The badge indicates how much battery there is left for an entity tracking the person entity. It will change to red if it drops below 20 percent.

Config for 1 person looks like this, I then stack them with vertical-stack to make it ✨ NICE ON MOBILE ✨:

```yaml
aspect_ratio: 3/1
custom_fields:
  battery: |
    [[[
      return `${
        states['sensor.thibaults_iphone_battery_level_2'].state
      }`
    ]]]
entity: person.thibault
layout: icon_name
show_entity_picture: true
show_name: true
state:
  - name: "🏡 Thibault (Home)"
    styles:
      name:
        - color: '#7DDA9F'
    value: home
  - name: "🏃‍♂️ Thibault (Away)"
    styles:
      name:
        - color: '#93ADCB'
    value: not_home
  - styles:
      name:
        - color: gray
    value: unknown
styles:
  custom_fields:
    battery:
      - position: absolute
      - left: 110px
      - border-radius: 50%
      - height: 30px
      - width: 30px
      - font-size: 14px
      - line-height: 30px
      - padding: 5px
      - color: |-
          [[[
            return states['sensor.thibaults_iphone_battery_level_2'].state > 20
            ? 'white'
            : 'black'
          ]]]
      - background-color: |-
          [[[
            return states['sensor.thibaults_iphone_battery_level_2'].state > 20
              ? '#7DDA9F'
              : 'red'
          ]]]
  icon:
    - width: 60%
type: 'custom:button-card'
```

Lovelace cards showing presence for me and my girlfriend

Screenshot 2020-08-20 at 14.48.04

button-card YAML config example for a presence card

Screenshot 2020-08-20 at 14.48.14

Minimal clean presence-cards for person entities using custom button-card

🃏 Simple Lovelace presence cards for Home Assistant

My holidays just started. Threw together this quick lunch to kickstart the upcoming two weeks of not doing much and enjoying time off.

It has everything you want right now. Spice, tanginess from the kumquat and cardamom and freshness from the squid and the mint. Get your ass to the kitchen for this ghetto recipe and make yourself an amazing lunch in 10 minutes.

![Holiday Squid](//images.ctfassets.net/vzyw32ih2a4n/x9FIe2EhCxKXL2w83ZiVx/456931739daa8e11ff0ab3f35abad85a/IMG_0300.jpeg)

## Ingredients

- Some kumquats (they're in season right now)
- Squid (a head or some calamares, anything goes really)
- Mint
- Cardamom pods
- Small chili
- Sumac (optional)
- Spring onion (optional)

## Making it

1. Rinse off a kumquat or 4
2. Set a grill pan to the highest temperature so it can get blazing hot.
3. Slice kumquat in rings, as thin as possible. You can use a mandoline but I prefer a _fucking sharp_ knife
4. Do the same for a small chili. You can deseed it if you want to.
5. Put the slices together in a small bowl
6. In a mortar & pestle bash/grind the seeds of a few cardamom pods, then add a pinch of coarse sea salt (or fleur de sel) and some sumac to the mortar.
7. Add the spices in the mortar to the kumquat & chili slices and then add a lug of your best olive oil. Combine everything with a spoon, fork or your fingers.
8. Rub some olive oil on your squid so it won't stick to the pan, season with a little bit of coarse salt.
9. Grill squid a few minutes each side. Two minutes each side works well, you want those lovely char marks. If it curls up, press it down with a plate or a cooking spatula a bit.
10. Dress squid on the plate, toss over kumquat & chili 'salad' and garnish with some fresh mint (or cilantro) and spring onion. A final mini-drizzle of good olive oil tops it off

Get a glass of white wine, a nice chilled dry vermouth and enjoy it babies. I think it's wonderful.

Enjoy the holidays, don't fuss too much and eat some good food.
Peace ✌🏻

Thibault Maekelbergh

Developer at In The Pocket at dawn & tech nerd extraordinaire at dusk 🦉

I can't stop learning new stuff

Latest articles

🎛 Building an ESP32 MQTT button box

🔋 Consumption monitoring with EnergieID & Home Assistant

🃏 Simple Lovelace presence cards for Home Assistant

🦑 Spicey / Tangy holiday squid

Top categories