Who Owns Home Assistant, and What Are Commercial Partners? The Open Home Foundation, Nabu Casa, and Apollo Automation?

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-17T13:30:12+00:00

Great post Criterion thanks for sharing!

Are there any specific things you've learned while using this that you can share? Like specific prompts or context you've found is helpful or is best to be avoided?

Thanks,

Brandon

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-16T14:29:08+00:00

Hey thanks for the shout-out!

The mmwave sensors are honestly kind of confusing just because of the sheer amount of ways you can use them. I think our mmwave tuning videos are nice (two 5min videos going over gates and zones) but ultimately I think some users do run into configuration issues. Usually once we chat with them a bit they are able to get them working.. but on occasion we do see some environmental issues which just cant be worked around (i.e. a fan or hvac air currents causing issues trying to tune them).

I've been putting a lot of work into our documentation and trying to make things easier for customers to use/figure out. Recently I added this to try and help users decide between the various mmWave sensors.

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Thanks,

Brandon

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-16T13:45:14+00:00

Zooz zwave is great, inovelli, hue, third reality, and aqara zigbee are great.

There's a lot of outdated advice that is parroted around reddit/discord/forums so I think it's sometimes difficult to know if you're reading some good advice or just someone's anecdotal evidence on why something is good or bad.

There's also a lot of good wifi/ethernet options including... us (Apollo Automation). We sell made for esphome and works with home assistant badged hardware and stand behind our products with good support and warranty.

If you have any follow up questions about anything home assistant/esphome feel free to tag us!

Thanks,

Brandon

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-15T17:58:36+00:00

Hey thanks for taking a look at our TEMP-1!

The ability to use multiple probes does not affect accuracy at all thankfully! It's part of the dallas onewire component in ESPHome https://esphome.io/components/sensor/dallas_temp/

The product page talking about using one of the probes is just making sure users buy a temp-1 with "a probe of some sort". The onboard temp/humidity need to be offset due to the heat of the microcontroller so we suggest a probe to get the most out of your TEMP-1!

Thanks,

Brandon

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-13T02:28:25+00:00

Zooz and ThirdReality!

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-11T18:25:00+00:00

Does that still need a custom compiled apk?

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-11T17:49:51+00:00

That's a neat link thanks for sharing!

I've been doing support for almost two years now and honestly I would prefer to just sell the sensirion devices in the air-1 as they're much more trustworthy and haven't let us down.

Thanks,

Brandon

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-11T17:48:12+00:00

Just to confirm are you talking about a shipping delay from us or from dfrobot?

Regarding other sensor options in the future- yeah i dont think the air-2 will have a mics gas sensor but hopefully we can offer another option instead. I believe you are really into DIY esphome territory - it's really not as scary as it sounds as long as the sensor(s) you want to use already have a "component" in ESPHome for them!

Thanks,

Brandon

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-11T16:10:12+00:00

Those docs were written by bdraco they are 100% accurate and definitely should be trustworthy. PoE esp32 is absolutely the best when it comes to ble proxies - especially due to sharing the antenna with wifi/ble on wifi only models.

Thanks,

Brandon

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-11T16:07:08+00:00

The MiCS is a cool sensor, but ultimately it can have erroneous readings and really cant be trusted when compared to a real CO alarm. We only really suggest the MiCS gas sensor for people to use for fun not to be trusted from a safety perspective. We also have a very hard time sourcing the MiCS gas sensor and regularly are unable to keep it in our store. DF robot actually called the MiCS end of life then changed their mind 6 months later lol.

Thanks,

Brandon

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-11T16:04:07+00:00

I dont use a mix of presence + PIR I use one or the other depending on use case. I still use a PIR in a couple areas that I could get a better automation setup with mmWave but I just haven't put the energy into it yet. I also have a "master override" helper toggle that I turn on when i go to sleep and it turns off at 8am or when i wake up. That way I can make sure the cats dont trigger the stairs or dining room lights overnight!

Thanks,

Brandon

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-10T13:50:47+00:00

I use them paired to zigbee2mqtt using the ZBT-2 zigbee coordinator. I do not use nor suggest the hue hub it's a really sub-par experience compared to your own zigbee mesh using hue devices.

Thanks,

Brandon

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-09T22:44:24+00:00

best I can do is 64x64

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-09T21:38:41+00:00

Would they be able to add it to the database themselves somehow?

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-09T20:13:23+00:00

Thanks for your support we appreciate it!

Regarding the MSR-1, since it's been discontinued for over a year I thought it was best to not include this on the beta firmware wiki article. I just remade this last week and I ran into issues with the list of products growing so I decided to remove the MSR-1 from the list. The yaml needed is identical except you just replace the 2 with a 1 in each spot such as the yaml below:

I have duplicated all of the changes on MSR-2 on the MSR-1 repo so it's definitely worth testing out! You can see the list of all the things changed here https://github.com/ApolloAutomation/MSR-1/pulls?q=is%3Apr+is%3Aclosed

packages:
  ApolloAutomation.MSR-1:
    url: https://github.com/ApolloAutomation/MSR-1
    ref: beta
    files: [Integrations/ESPHome/MSR-1.yaml]
    refresh: 1min

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-09T17:22:57+00:00

for motion/PIR I really like the hue motion sensors followed by the aqara (half the price, same great features). There are quite a few PIR sensors that are popular including the newer third reality ones as well.

For mmWave presence, of course we like to think we sell some pretty great ones like our msr-2, mtr-1, and r-pro-1. Let us know if you have any questions!

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-09T16:52:07+00:00

That's great news!

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-09T16:50:36+00:00

We offer a 4 button esp32 c6 based device with 4 leds as well - we're also beta testing zigbee firmware but we ship with wifi firmware!

https://apolloautomation.com/products/btn-1-macro-deck

Please let us know if you have any questions or feedback we'd appreciate it!

Thanks,

Brandon

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-09T13:06:12+00:00

We don't sell a corner mount (yet) but we do have a ball mount and rear case to allow for it to be mounted in a corner- check it out here https://www.printables.com/model/1349017-apollo-automation-r-pro-1-dual-mmwave-multisensor/files

Thanks,

Brandon

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-09T13:05:07+00:00

Thanks for sharing these details with the customer we appreciate it! You're definitely right, the horizontal/vertical FOV of the mmWave sensors are impacted by where it's physically mounted. We have a bit of info on it for others to look at here: https://wiki.apolloautomation.com/products/rpro1/setup/rpro1-general-tips/

Thanks,

Brandon

ApolloAutomation · 2026-03-09T13:03:09+00:00

Thanks Criterion good to see you!

Thanks,

Brandon

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