https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/ Daily reporting on the public open-source work moving the Open Home Foundation world forward. en Sun, 06 Sep 2026 04:02:36 GMT https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-06/article/siri-home-assistant-actions/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-06/article/siri-home-assistant-actions/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 04:02:36 GMT Built-in voice phrases run scripts, trigger automations and read device states through the iOS app, with spoken replies and result cards. On iOS 17 and later, Home Assistant’s app gives Siri a direct way to run scripts, activate scenes and trigger automations without first building a shortcut. The built-in phrases also ask Assist questions, request camera snapshots and read the current state of a device or sensor. Home Assistant Voice iOS https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-06/article/esphome-automation-editor-hidden-controls/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-06/article/esphome-automation-editor-hidden-controls/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 04:02:36 GMT The Device Builder stops creating thousands of invisible controls, while search makes actions easier to find by device entity name. Editing a large ESPHome configuration could leave the Device Builder sluggish even after an automation finished opening. Its action picker was building complete lists while hidden, repeating that work for every action. The editor now creates the contents only when the picker opens and removes them when it closes. ESPHome Device Builder Performance https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-06/article/apple-health-sleep-sensors/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-06/article/apple-health-sleep-sensors/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 04:02:36 GMT The iOS app reports sleep duration and stages, keeps the latest night visible, and avoids counting overlapping records twice. Home Assistant’s iOS app adds six Apple Health measurements: total sleep, time in bed, awake time, and core, deep and REM sleep. Each reports minutes for the most recent night, placing sleep records alongside the app’s other health sensors. Home Assistant iOS Apple Health https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-06/article/esphome-p4-display-startup-fix/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-06/article/esphome-p4-display-startup-fix/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 04:02:36 GMT A display-clock correction lets affected screens start instead of sending the device through repeated restarts and into safe mode. Makers using a display connected through MIPI DSI on newer ESP32-P4 boards could face a misleading failure: a black screen and repeated restarts, followed by a device that answered on the network but never started its normal control connection. ESPHome fixes the display initialization that caused the crash on revision 3.0 and later chips. ESPHome Displays Reliability https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-06/article/matter-alarm-mode-switches/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-06/article/matter-alarm-mode-switches/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 04:02:36 GMT Compatible devices, including IKEA’s KLIPPBOK leak sensor, gain separate settings for audible and visual alarms. Home Assistant adds separate configuration switches for the audible and visual alarm modes exposed by compatible Matter devices, including IKEA’s KLIPPBOK water-leak sensor. Changing one mode preserves the other setting, so turning a sound on or off does not also overwrite the light’s configuration. Home Assistant Matter Device controls https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-06/article/malayalam-voice-checks-off-todo-items/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-06/article/malayalam-voice-checks-off-todo-items/ Sun, 06 Sep 2026 04:02:36 GMT Home Assistant recognizes requests to complete a named task, building on Malayalam commands for adding items to a list. Home Assistant’s Malayalam sentence rules recognize requests to check off a named item on a named to-do list. The response repeats the completed item’s name, confirming which task was handled. Voice Malayalam To-do lists https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-05/article/powerwall-commands-local-route/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-05/article/powerwall-commands-local-route/ Sat, 05 Sep 2026 05:02:34 GMT Teslemetry sends supported charge, discharge and reserve commands over the LAN first, while status data still depends on the cloud. Powerwall owners using Teslemetry are a step closer to lower-latency control. The new code pairs Home Assistant’s RSA key with the gateway, then sends supported energy-site commands over the local network before falling back to Tesla’s cloud when the gateway cannot be reached. Home Assistant Teslemetry Tesla Powerwall local control energy https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-05/article/thai-local-voice-training-path/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-05/article/thai-local-voice-training-path/ Sat, 05 Sep 2026 05:02:34 GMT OHF Voice’s Piper training code gains a Thai phonemizer that preserves word boundaries, vowel order and five tones, replacing output that could not reliably distinguish Thai words. People building private, local Thai voices now have a phonemization path designed for the language. The existing espeak-ng route did not segment unspaced Thai, placed leading vowels in writing order and omitted tones; measured against the TSync2 corpus, about 11% of its returned tokens contained no vowel. OHF Voice Piper Thai local voice language support https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-05/article/samsung-exlink-recovers-after-proxy-restart/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-05/article/samsung-exlink-recovers-after-proxy-restart/ Sat, 05 Sep 2026 05:02:34 GMT A Home Assistant library fix clears dead streams so EX-Link connections through an ESPHome proxy can reconnect instead of repeatedly writing to a broken transport. A restarted ESPHome serial proxy could leave Samsung EX-Link control stuck in a half-closed state. The library then tried the dead stream again on every five-second poll, producing repeated tracebacks and never reconnecting; the contributor reports that a separate serial-library bug made those tracebacks grow until Home Assistant became unusable. Home Assistant Home Assistant Libraries Samsung TV ESPHome reliability community https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-05/article/esphome-stops-stale-improv-advertising/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-05/article/esphome-stops-stale-improv-advertising/ Sat, 05 Sep 2026 05:02:34 GMT ESPHome ties Bluetooth advertising to active provisioning, so configured devices no longer look available for setup when Improv is off. ESP32 devices using only Bluetooth Improv could advertise from boot indefinitely, even after Wi-Fi was connected or the provisioning window ended. They remained visible in a phone’s Bluetooth list while the Improv website could not find an active setup service. ESPHome Improv Wi-Fi Bluetooth provisioning reliability https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-05/article/picture-cards-release-abandoned-streams/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-05/article/picture-cards-release-abandoned-streams/ Sat, 05 Sep 2026 05:02:34 GMT A frontend fix closes streaming-image connections when a picture card leaves the page, preventing them from freezing the interface. Moving between dashboards or otherwise removing picture cards could leave their streaming-image connections alive. Enough abandoned streams could choke Home Assistant’s websocket and freeze the interface. Home Assistant dashboards picture cards websocket reliability https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-05/article/jewish-calendar-follows-language/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-05/article/jewish-calendar-follows-language/ Sat, 05 Sep 2026 05:02:34 GMT Jewish Calendar event text follows the calendar library’s English, French and Hebrew translations. People using Home Assistant’s Jewish Calendar integration can have event summaries and descriptions follow their configured language. The calendar platform previously assembled that text from English strings even though the underlying library already translated Hebrew dates, holidays, the weekly Torah portion, the Omer count, Daf Yomi and prayer times. Home Assistant Jewish Calendar localization accessibility https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-04/article/ohf-first-ifa-living-room/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-04/article/ohf-first-ifa-living-room/ Fri, 04 Sep 2026 05:04:20 GMT The public stand is built for conversations rather than sales, giving the open-home community somewhere to sit, talk and connect. Open Home Foundation is at IFA Berlin for the first time, but its debut stand is designed less as a showroom than as a place to take a breath. The living-room setup gives visitors somewhere to sit, talk and meet people from the communities around Home Assistant, ESPHome, Music Assistant and the foundation’s other projects. The booth is staffed by full-time and volunteer Open Home Foundation staff. Open Home Foundation IFA Berlin community Home Assistant ESPHome Music Assistant https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-04/article/playlist-portability-across-providers/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-04/article/playlist-portability-across-providers/ Fri, 04 Sep 2026 05:04:20 GMT Three connected changes match tracks at the destination, preserve playlist order and report gaps. Three connected changes let people copy an eligible static playlist into Music Assistant itself or another connected provider that supports playlist creation and editing. Music Assistant playlists music providers portability https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-04/article/speech-to-phrase-home-assistant-app/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-04/article/speech-to-phrase-home-assistant-app/ Fri, 04 Sep 2026 05:04:20 GMT Speech-to-Phrase builds command grammars from a home’s entities, areas and custom commands, then connects through the Wyoming voice protocol. The app narrows recognition to phrases a home is expected to need. It builds its grammar from Home Assistant entities, areas, floors, intents, custom commands and sentence overrides rather than treating every utterance as open-ended dictation. OHF Voice Speech-to-Phrase local voice Home Assistant Wyoming https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-04/article/home-assistant-app-uninstall-warnings/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-04/article/home-assistant-app-uninstall-warnings/ Fri, 04 Sep 2026 05:04:20 GMT The app page and three repair prompts distinguish permanent app-data deletion from the separate public configuration folder. Home Assistant’s app-removal screens did not always explain what would disappear. The uninstall dialog mislabeled an optional public configuration folder as app data, while three repair prompts warned only that the app would be removed—even though uninstall always deletes its private data folder. The work cites a user who lost an InfluxDB database after uninstalling from one of those repair prompts. Home Assistant apps data loss backups reliability https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-04/article/recorder-zero-value-statistics-fix/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-04/article/recorder-zero-value-statistics-fix/ Fri, 04 Sep 2026 05:04:20 GMT A recorder fix keeps one zero-valued efficiency sensor from breaking graphs and repeatedly aborting the statistics job for every entity. A zero stored by an electric-vehicle efficiency sensor could affect far more than its own graph when Home Assistant converted between inverse units such as kilowatt-hours per 100 kilometres and kilometres per kilowatt-hour. One such value could stop the entire five-minute statistics job for every entity and fail again on the next run. A second path could break period-statistics queries and their graphs. Home Assistant recorder statistics electric vehicles reliability https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-03/article/haos-protects-new-images-from-power-cuts/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-03/article/haos-protects-new-images-from-power-cuts/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 05:04:44 GMT A storage safeguard keeps newly downloaded containers from being recorded as healthy before their files are safely on disk. Home Assistant OS has added a safeguard for systems that lose power shortly after downloading a container image. After each image layer is unpacked, the change forces its data to disk instead of allowing the container database to record the layer as complete while some files remain only in memory. Home Assistant OS reliability power loss storage https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-03/article/ios-entities-widget/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-03/article/ios-entities-widget/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 05:04:44 GMT A Home Screen widget shows current states, offers quick actions and opens any selected entity for more detail. A general-purpose Entities widget lets people choose a Home Assistant server and the entities they want to see, then presents them as tiles with their current states. Home Assistant Companion iOS widgets quick controls https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-03/article/music-assistant-smart-shuffle-fades/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-03/article/music-assistant-smart-shuffle-fades/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 05:04:44 GMT Track order can now account for tempo, key and energy, while difficult fades fall back to audible blends instead of abrupt cuts. Music Assistant gives Smart Shuffle and Smart Fades an optional way to work together. When both are enabled, upcoming tracks can be reordered using their tempo, key and change in energy, while the existing recency rules and candidate selection remain in charge. Music Assistant Smart Shuffle Smart Fades playback https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-03/article/zooz-800lr-firmware-wave/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-03/article/zooz-800lr-firmware-wave/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 05:04:44 GMT The coordinated 800LR update wave also gives the ZEN12 readable controls and adds new scene and relay settings across the range. The Z-Wave JS catalog now contains manufacturer-supplied firmware entries for eleven Zooz devices, covering switches, relays, sensors, a dimmer and a range extender. The entries allow compatible downstream software to identify the new versions when the connected device matches. Z-Wave JS Zooz firmware device support 800LR https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-03/article/select-tiles-gain-slider/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-03/article/select-tiles-gain-slider/ Thu, 03 Sep 2026 05:04:44 GMT Home Assistant dashboards gain a compact way to move through a list of choices without opening another control. A tile-card change lets people adjust a select or input-select entity with a slider directly on a Home Assistant dashboard. Matching documentation accompanies the frontend work. Home Assistant dashboards tile cards community https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-02/article/home-assistant-2026-9-due-today/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-02/article/home-assistant-2026-9-due-today/ Wed, 02 Sep 2026 05:04:24 GMT Arriving today, the release surfaces urgent security signals, traces why states changed and draws Wi-Fi and Thread connections inside Home Assistant. Home Assistant 2026.9 arrives today with a clearer account of what is happening across the home: important security alerts stand out, History and Activity share a more useful source picker, and Matter devices gain an in-app network map. Home Assistant 2026.9 Security dashboard History and Activity Matter https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-02/article/esphome-encrypted-wireless-updates/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-02/article/esphome-encrypted-wireless-updates/ Wed, 02 Sep 2026 05:04:24 GMT An opt-in encrypted transfer stops firmware images—and the secrets inside them—from crossing a local network in plaintext. J. Nick Koston’s ESPHome work addresses a gap in wireless updates: the existing password authenticated the uploader, but the firmware image itself still travelled in plaintext. Someone listening on the local network could capture the Wi-Fi credentials and API encryption key embedded in that image. ESPHome security firmware updates local networks https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-02/article/ios-wifi-handoffs-stop-reloads/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-02/article/ios-wifi-handoffs-stop-reloads/ Wed, 02 Sep 2026 05:04:24 GMT The app keeps the last known network route during an access-point handoff, avoiding a jump to the external URL and a second reload when Wi-Fi returns. An iPhone moving between access points on the same Wi-Fi network can briefly report no current network. The Home Assistant app treated that gap as leaving the internal network, switched to its external address and reloaded the whole interface—then reloaded it again seconds later when Wi-Fi reappeared. Home Assistant Companion iOS Wi-Fi reliability https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-02/article/calendar-events-gain-status/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-02/article/calendar-events-gain-status/ Wed, 02 Sep 2026 05:04:24 GMT Home Assistant code now carries confirmed or tentative status from CalDAV, local calendars and Google Calendar into trigger data; cancelled-event filtering remains separate. Tom Mittelstädt’s first Home Assistant Core contribution adds an optional status to calendar events. CalDAV, Local Calendar and Google Calendar can mark an event as confirmed or tentative, and automations receive that value in the calendar trigger payload. Home Assistant calendars automations community https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-02/article/local-speech-prioritizes-likely-names/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-02/article/local-speech-prioritizes-likely-names/ Wed, 02 Sep 2026 05:04:24 GMT A new Faster Whisper ranking favors areas, floors and controllable devices, so likely spoken names are less easily crowded out in large homes. A large Home Assistant installation can have hundreds of names, while the local speech-recognition prompt fits roughly 50. The previous ordering spent space on every area before considering devices, allowing long lists of sensors to crowd out lights and scenes people were more likely to name aloud. OHF Voice local speech recognition Home Assistant usability https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-02/article/ariacast-artwork-fetch-security/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-02/article/ariacast-artwork-fetch-security/ Wed, 02 Sep 2026 05:04:24 GMT AriaCast blocks unauthenticated metadata requests from making Music Assistant contact arbitrary internal or localhost services. Two AriaCast metadata handlers accepted an artwork address from any host on the local network and passed it directly into an HTTP request. That meant a LAN client could make Music Assistant contact an internal-only service or even its own localhost API; the handlers also returned raw exception text. Music Assistant AriaCast security local networks https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-01/article/network-shares-recover-without-local-spillover/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-01/article/network-shares-recover-without-local-spillover/ Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:18:29 GMT A Supervisor redesign lets NFS and CIFS shares recover when servers return while keeping dead mounts from hanging the system or spilling writes onto local storage. People who keep media, shared files or backups on a network server face more than a missing folder when that server goes offline: a dead share could freeze low-level system services, trigger watchdog resets or leave a local directory accepting data meant for the server. Stefan Agner’s Supervisor redesign closes all three failure paths. Home Assistant Supervisor reliability network storage https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-01/article/spotify-crossfades-keep-their-momentum/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-01/article/spotify-crossfades-keep-their-momentum/ Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:18:29 GMT A Music Assistant fix carries spare playback time from one track to the next, so smart fades can grow instead of restarting from zero. Music Assistant’s smart crossfades could be barely audible on Spotify—and disappear entirely on short tracks—because each song had to build its playback cushion from zero. On a tested Sonos group, Spotify provided 8.4 seconds for a fade where the same speakers provided 44.5 seconds from a local file. Music Assistant Playback Spotify Reliability https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-01/article/music-libraries-stop-losing-and-mislabeling-tracks/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-01/article/music-libraries-stop-losing-and-mislabeling-tracks/ Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:18:29 GMT Four provider fixes prevent syncs from dropping or misfiling tracks and stop unavailable Apple Music songs from appearing playable. People syncing provider libraries into Music Assistant should see fewer missing or misleading entries. Spotify album sync now skips empty provider results instead of aborting the job, while YouTube Music collaboration tracks without a usable artist ID fall back to the album artist instead of silently disappearing. Music Assistant Libraries Apple Music Spotify Qobuz YouTube Music Reliability https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-01/article/yoto-cards-join-music-assistant/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-01/article/yoto-cards-join-music-assistant/ Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:18:29 GMT A new Music Assistant provider can stream purchased, free and make-your-own cards, with clear limits around radio and shared libraries. A new Music Assistant provider can stream purchased, free and make-your-own Yoto cards from a listener’s library alongside other sources; Yoto Radio is not part of the implementation. Music Assistant Yoto New providers Community https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-01/article/zonneplan-dynamic-prices-arrive/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-01/article/zonneplan-dynamic-prices-arrive/ Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:18:29 GMT The first version brings Zonneplan sensors and dynamic energy prices into Home Assistant, while delivered-energy readings remain follow-up work. Zonneplan’s new Home Assistant integration brings provider sensors and dynamic energy prices into dashboards and automations. Home Assistant Zonneplan energy new integration https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-01/article/reterminal-e1001-epaper/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-09-01/article/reterminal-e1001-epaper/ Tue, 01 Sep 2026 05:18:29 GMT A new driver lets makers target its 800×480 monochrome e-paper panel, with full, fast and partial refresh modes. ESPHome is adding support for the Seeed reTerminal E1001’s e-paper display, including the board’s default wiring. The same driver covers Waveshare’s 7.5-inch V2 panel and a bare-controller option for custom hardware. ESPHome New devices Displays https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-31/article/ios-energy-widget-gas-and-batteries/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-31/article/ios-energy-widget-gas-and-batteries/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:06:40 GMT The next iOS energy widget expands its glanceable view from grid and solar to four parts of a household’s energy picture. Bruno Pantaleão Gonçalves expanded the Home Assistant iOS energy widget beyond grid and solar. The design stacks battery discharge above the chart axis and charging below it; gas appears as a separate figure because homes may measure it by volume rather than energy. Energy Home Assistant https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-31/article/timer-controls-and-presets/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-31/article/timer-controls-and-presets/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:06:40 GMT The redesigned timer dialog puts start, pause, cancel and finish actions beside configurable duration presets. Maarten Lakerveld redesigned Home Assistant’s timer dialog around the actions people use most. Start, pause and cancel controls are joined by an optional finish button, so routine timer changes no longer depend on a separate action call. User interface Home Assistant https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-31/article/vrt-max-arrives-in-music-assistant/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-31/article/vrt-max-arrives-in-music-assistant/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:06:40 GMT A first contribution adds Flemish public radio, podcasts, favourites and listening progress to the server. Bram Goolaerts’ new provider connects Music Assistant with VRT MAX, the streaming service of the Flemish public broadcaster. It covers live stations including Radio 1, Radio 2, Studio Brussel, MNM and Klara, alongside listen-back programmes, podcasts and search. Live radio does not require an account. New capabilities Music Assistant https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-31/article/weekly-local-energy-voice-listening-cloud/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-31/article/weekly-local-energy-voice-listening-cloud/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:06:40 GMT From inverter data to seven more voice languages, long-form playback and a smoother Cloud signup path, the week moved several parts of the open home forward. From Monday, August 24 through Sunday, August 30, four substantial threads stood above the maintenance stream: local energy hardware, multilingual voice, long-form listening and the path into Home Assistant Cloud. Week in review Energy Voice Music Assistant Home Assistant Cloud https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-31/article/icloud-calendars-in-home-assistant/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-31/article/icloud-calendars-in-home-assistant/ Mon, 31 Aug 2026 12:06:40 GMT Apple calendars become read-only Home Assistant entities without another login or configuration step. Federico Zivolo added a calendar platform to Home Assistant’s existing Apple iCloud integration. Each iCloud calendar becomes a read-only calendar entity that shows the event in progress or the next one due, using the account and session already configured in Home Assistant. Calendars Home Assistant https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-30/article/sofar-control-support-and-recovery/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-30/article/sofar-control-support-and-recovery/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Four connected changes make the solar integration easier to manage without sacrificing its recorded energy history. Home Assistant’s Sofar integration is gaining an inverter remote on/off control, privacy-redacted diagnostics and a way to change its network address without deleting it. The reconfigure flow preserves entity customizations and history, then verifies the inverter serial number so an entry cannot silently move to a different device. Energy Reliability Home Assistant https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-30/article/solaredge-controls-and-live-hardware/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-30/article/solaredge-controls-and-live-hardware/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT The local Modbus integration adds storage and export choices, protects simultaneous writes, and notices meters or batteries wired in later. Franck Nijhof followed the new local SolarEdge integration with its choice and toggle controls. Six new selections cover storage behavior and export policy; two disabled-by-default installer switches describe external production and allow an export limit to become a minimum-import target. Energy Local control Home Assistant https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-30/article/esphome-actions-explain-themselves/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-30/article/esphome-actions-explain-themselves/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT ESPHome firmware and Python-client changes carry descriptions and examples, ready for a future Home Assistant change to turn them into clearer forms. The ESPHome and Python-client pair creates the path for user-defined API actions to carry more than a name and typed inputs. Brandon Harvey added optional descriptions for actions and descriptions plus examples for each variable, while keeping the existing shorthand configuration available. ESPHome Developer tools Usability https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-30/article/bluetooth-discoveries-survive-mode-switches/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-30/article/bluetooth-discoveries-survive-mode-switches/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT A cross-library repair preserves discoveries during active/passive transitions and closes two failure paths that could make devices unreachable. A set of repairs in Home Assistant’s shared Bluetooth libraries restores known discoveries immediately after an adapter flips between active and passive mode. Bleak 3 clears its seen-device map on every start; the in-place mode switch had not restored it, leaving connection attempts blind until each device happened to advertise again. Bluetooth Reliability Discovery https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-30/article/elgato-controls-power-up-and-updates/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-30/article/elgato-controls-power-up-and-updates/ Sun, 30 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT New controls decide how lights return after an outage, expose signal health and install firmware without making local control depend on Elgato’s servers. Home Assistant is adding a choice between restoring an Elgato light’s last state or using configured defaults after power returns. Franck Nijhof added controls for default brightness and color temperature, using each device’s own range, plus diagnostic Wi-Fi signal sensors. Lighting Firmware Local control https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-29/article/solaredge-modbus-arrives/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-29/article/solaredge-modbus-arrives/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Home Assistant support reads inverters, meters, and batteries directly—and adds discovery, diagnostics, and controls without relying on the cloud API. The integration gives SolarEdge owners a local route to their energy data. It reads production, energy, voltage, current, temperature, and operating state from an inverter over Modbus TCP instead of waiting on a cloud service. Energy Local control Home Assistant https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-29/article/music-assistant-guest-speakers/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-29/article/music-assistant-guest-speakers/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Music Assistant now recognizes when a speaker already permits guest playback, so it can appear ready to use while optional pairing remains available. Listeners no longer have to click through a setup screen for a speaker that already advertises guest access. Music Assistant approves the device when it connects and makes it available for playback immediately. Music Assistant Player setup Playback https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-29/article/mcp-app-discovery/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-29/article/mcp-app-discovery/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Supervisor-managed apps will be able to announce Model Context Protocol servers, while an OAuth fix keeps Google-hosted connections signed in. The work gives Home Assistant app users a guided route to tools exposed through the Model Context Protocol. An app can announce its server URL; Home Assistant validates it and asks the user to confirm before connecting, continuing through OAuth when authentication is required. Apps Model Context Protocol Reliability https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-29/article/apple-quick-controls/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-29/article/apple-quick-controls/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Widgets and app-icon shortcuts gain more actions, Lock Screen circles render correctly, and Assist gets live listening feedback on Apple Watch. Home Assistant’s smaller Apple surfaces are becoming more capable. “Magic items” will be able to toggle an entity, open a URL, or perform a Home Assistant action, bringing widget and app-icon behavior in line with the web interface. Home Assistant Companion Apple Watch Widgets https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-29/article/hue-motionaware-zone-switches/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-29/article/hue-motionaware-zone-switches/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Home Assistant will be able to turn each MotionAware zone on or off, matching a control that previously lived only in the Hue app. Home Assistant previously exposed this toggle for physical Hue motion sensors but not MotionAware zones. A new switch for each zone can be placed on a dashboard or used in an automation. Home Assistant Hue Automations https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-29/article/crowpanel-advance-7/ https://paulusschoutsen.nl/ohf-daily/edition/2026-08-29/article/crowpanel-advance-7/ Sat, 29 Aug 2026 12:00:00 GMT Makers can target Elecrow’s CrowPanel Advance 7 through the MIPI RGB display component, with matching configuration documented alongside the code. Support was tested with the ESP32-IDF environment and includes a documented starting configuration, giving makers a practical path from the display component to a working device setup. ESPHome Displays New devices