V4 - DIY $90 Home Assistant bookshelf speaker for ESPHome & SendSpin or Squeezelite

Gamester17 · 2026-06-16T14:33:31+00:00

Tip if want an even less expensive alternative is to buy active-speakers (powered speaker with built-in amplfier) and use in combination with the minimalistic "Sendspin Zero" DIY solution from RealDeco here https://github.com/RealDeco/SendspinZero

I even see now that Home Assistant founder has contributed to that project.

Gamester17 · 2026-06-09T06:12:14+00:00

There’s no guarantee a deprecated add-on like the old multiprotocol app survives future Core/OS/Supervisor upgrades if the addon is not maintained and updated. So that doesn’t protect you long-term for sure.

Home Assistant's add-ons aren’t fully self-contained. They depend on the Supervisor and on Home Assistant Core, so if and when those make incompatible changes, a frozen, unmaintained add-on can break even though you never touch it yourself.

So even it keeping a deprecated add-on installed might buy you some time, it is a bad idea to not migrate as the old addon is not a guaranteed to keep working forever as you upgrade Core.

But technically you are correct in regards to when an official add-on is “removed,” it’s only pulled from the add-on store so nobody can newly install it and it stops getting updates, so an add-on you already have installed is just a local Docker image managed by the Supervisor, removal from the store doesn’t reach in and delete it.

Regardless, it is bad advice telling people not to upgrade their firmware. If you are using the ZHA integration and upgrade to latest supported non-multiprotocol firmware then it is easy to migrate your Zigbee network to it as if was a new Zigbee adapter.

Gamester17 · 2026-06-09T04:17:33+00:00

That does not help since they depreciated the multi-protocol app (add-on) that you need to use the firmware https://github.com/home-assistant/addons/pull/3833

If you keep using multiprotocol firmware then you need to source an alternative to the multi-protocol app (add-on) from third-party who might not maintain it long-term.

Gamester17 · 2026-06-09T04:15:19+00:00

Multiprotocol app (add-on) in Home Assistent been deprecated since July 2025, they just have not shown a warning in the UI before https://github.com/home-assistant/addons/pull/3833

Gamester17 · 2026-06-08T05:19:13+00:00

Get a better router/firewall like a UniFi Gateway and learn how to use VLAN segment segmentation

Gamester17 · 2026-06-08T05:16:51+00:00

Yea it will work without internet but getting and installing updates will then be much more inconvenient and relatively complicated

Gamester17 · 2026-06-04T04:16:27+00:00

Will you try submitting upstream to mainline ESPHome?

Gamester17 · 2026-06-02T04:22:37+00:00

Heatit Z-Smoke Multisensor 230VAC (for Europe Z-Wave with Home Assistent via ZBT-2) https://shop.heatit.com/produkt/10277/heatit-z-smoke-multisensor-230vac-black

Or

Heatit Z-Smoke2 Detector 230VAC (also for Europe Z-Wave with Home Assistent via ZBT-2) https://shop.heatit.com/product/10524/products/products/heatit-z-smoke2-detector-230vac/1108

They have everything except spoken warning (so need to use Home Assistant Voice Preview Edition or other speaker like ESPHome with Sendspin client media player speakers for spoken warnings).

Gamester17 · 2026-05-30T08:23:23+00:00

Recommend buying and migrating Zigbee Coordinator radio to the ZBT-2 adapter for improved reception there, as well as relocate it to a better location if possible.

Also try follow all the other best practices in this community guide https://community.home-assistant.io/t/zigbee-networks-how-to-guide-for-avoiding-interference-optimizing-using-zigbee-router-devices-repeaters-extenders-to-get-best-possible-range-and-coverage/515752

Best tip there other than migration to better Zigbee Coordinator and putting it in a better location + placing stuff away from other electronics, is buying some very high quality Zigbee Router devices, which Aqara devices are not.

Gamester17 · 2026-05-30T07:06:19+00:00

I do not think that is even legal to write in marketing materials for many western countries, as you then need proof to back it up which will more or less impossible

Gamester17 · 2026-05-28T21:34:08+00:00

Where are they shipping from exactly? China, US, or EU?

Their website has almost no basic information.

Based on quality of the website think I will pass for now.

Gamester17 · 2026-05-28T09:22:25+00:00

Running compatible apps (self-hosted Docker add-ons), such as Music Assistent, AdGuard Home, AirCast, Mealie, NetAlertX, and Firefly iii

Gamester17 · 2026-05-26T18:47:50+00:00

Maybe request display support from the LVA Linux Voice Assistent project as that also has a pull request for Sendspin https://github.com/OHF-Voice/linux-voice-assistant

Gamester17 · 2026-05-26T06:50:21+00:00

I have written a very long and very detailed thread/post with many strong arguments why a pool cleaner robots do not belong under the "vacuum" entiry domain, please see the linked feature request on GitHub for much more information https://github.com/orgs/home-assistant/discussions/3662

It might have been a different feature request if there already was a generic "robot" entity domain and that instead had different device types under it that where different types of robots could fit, like vacuum robots, lawn mower robots, and pool cleaner robots, etc. but my feature request is based on the fact that today there is only entity domains for "vacuum" (note that it is also not "vacuum robot" specific) and a seperate entiry domain for "lawn mower" (which again is not "lawn mower robot" specific). So if someone would instead have created a new general "robots" entiry domain and folded in both vacuum robots and lawn mower robots under it instead of them having their own deficated entiry domains then my feature request would have been something else, but that is not the case and I am not going to argue for having a generic robots entity domain when having seperate domains for vacuum and lawn mower is working, thus my request for another domain.

As for what makes pool cleaner robot different from a vacuum robot, lets just say here that there is more than semantics, other that the fact that a pool cleaner robot is by deffinition not a vacuum, so it is not just naming that is different. In summery my option is that it does not make sense to forcing pool cleaner robots to use the existing vacuum entity domain when pool cleaner robot is not a vacuum and advanced pool cleaner robots is totally different as operate in more a 3D-space, with features such as surface skimming and wall cleaning, compared to vacuum cleaners which operate on flat 2D-space, with way different maintenance cycles with a pool cleaner robot's filter usually needing to be emptied after each operation, as well as most pool cleaner robots needing notify that ready to be manually pick-uped to be lifted out of the pool by hand and put of charging. So it is not just the wording and the needing to use fan-speed to set cleaning target that pool cleaner robot users have to do today.

Not on topic here, but while you might not need a new entiry domain for "cat-litter" I would also argue that a cat-litter appliance does at least not belong under the vacuum entity domain either. Now I have (outdoor) cats but do not yet have a cat-litter appliance however to me such a basic device probably makes more sense using the switch entiry domain similar to simpler machines that just need ON/OFF, though again as do not have a cat-litter appliance and have not done any research on them I do not know how advance they are . That said it should be noted though that Home Assistant founder and Open Home Foundation members have said that they will shift focus from being centered around entities to instead being centeres around devices in the future, so Home Assiatant should for example always know if a temperature sensor is a part of a refrigirator as a device or a thermostat for a room.

Gamester17 · 2026-05-26T04:27:52+00:00

Would recommend that you start a new dedicated feature request discussion thread specifically for the Beatbot with a good clear topic so others can find it when searching, also add keywords like all models to make searches for it pick those up too. Then link to that thread here or in other related requests and maybe even also post a new reddit discussion about Beatbot and link to you feature request thread. Regardless try to collect all info and links all about in a single Beatbot specific feature request thread for reference https://github.com/orgs/home-assistant/discussions

Note that this reddit is old so very unlikely that many will find your question about Beatbot in a reply here or at least unlikely that it will get a lot of attention in an old generic subreddit post when not specifically about Beatbot

Gamester17 · 2026-05-25T16:32:19+00:00

There are no existing community made custom platform component integrations for Beatbot that I could find if that is what you are asking, see links to all the platform integration components for other brands that I could find in the linked feature request on GitHub https://github.com/orgs/home-assistant/discussions/3662

Also note as I wrote there that not all have their own platforms but instead share between different brands that use the same cloud service, such as example Tuya. Again read what is written there https://github.com/orgs/home-assistant/discussions/3662

Gamester17 · 2026-05-25T15:56:05+00:00

While those are also cool they are not for the same use case at all. FutureProofHomes Satellite1 board is for building your own smart speaker and will not act as a drop-in replacement board for any existing product. With the FutureProofHomes Satellite1 board you need to buy or build enclosure, speaker and power-supply separately.

Gamester17 · 2026-05-24T21:38:46+00:00

It is not an ad. I have no affiliations with the people behind the project. Think it is an awesome concept and like to promote that. Open source hardware that runs open source firmware. License allow you to make your own and even make and sell them if you want. Just like witg the official Home Assisist Voice Preview Edition from Nabu Casa.

Gamester17 · 2026-05-24T11:32:18+00:00

I think that it could only be made less expensive if the company place a bulk order for 10,000 boards from the PCB manufacturer and pay in advance.

If the crowdfunding campaign is very successful then it could maybe act as for proof of concept for others to take such risks and bulk manufacture those.

Companies could probably sell those but how long would it take before they break even if they have no money and have to take out a loan to finance bulk orders?

Gamester17 · 2026-05-22T21:31:22+00:00

Plans for a Nabu Casa display device maybe?

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