MQTT
MQTT
Build a Room Occupancy Tracker with ESP32 and Ultrasonic Sensors
I’ve been tinkering with smart home automation for years, always looking for clever ways to make my home more responsive. Commercial room occupancy sensors work fine, but they’re expensive and often limited in functionality. After one too many instances of my smart lights turning off while I was still reading in my favorite armchair, I decided to build my own room occupancy tracker using an ESP32 and ultrasonic sensors. The beauty of this approach?
Build a Smart Light Dimmer with ESP32 and a Rotary Encoder in Home Assistant
I’ve always loved the tactile feel of a good knob. While voice commands and smartphone apps are convenient, there’s something deeply satisfying about physically turning a dial to dim the lights. I wanted to bridge that gap between the digital smarts of Home Assistant and the physical world. So, I set out to build a custom smart light dimmer with ESP32 and a rotary encoder. The goal was simple: a knob that not only controls my smart lights locally but also stays perfectly in sync with their state in Home Assistant.