For three years the "Simple" option in ESPHome's LD2420 operating mode select did not do what it said. Change #21651 by J. Nick Koston (bdraco), merged into the development branch on 26 October 2026, makes it actually switch the HLK-LD2420 mmWave presence radar into simple reporting. The fix is expected in ESPHome 2026.11, unless it is backported t
The Xiaomi Mijia LYWSD03MMC is a small square thermometer and hygrometer with an LCD, powered by a CR2032 coin cell. Out of the box it talks to the Mi Home app and sends its readings encrypted. Home Assistant can read the stock firmware through the Xiaomi BLE integration, but only if you give it the device's encryption key.
A pulse reader on the electricity meter tells you how much the whole house uses. It does not tell you how much of that goes to the heat pump, the boiler, the workshop or the kitchen circuit. For that you need a meter on the circuit itself, and the Peacefair PZEM-004T V3 is a cheap way to get one: a small board that measures voltage, current, power,
ESPresense, the ESP32 firmware for room-level presence detection that tracks phones, watches and BLE beacons and reports them over MQTT, is heading for version 5. The first v5 beta appeared on 11 October 2026, and the latest, v5.0.0b4, was published on 24 October. The stable release has no date yet, but it matters now for one reason: according to t
The BleBox integration in Home Assistant now understands tankSensor, the tank level device from the Polish maker of Wi-Fi modules. The change, by contributor bkobus-bbx and reviewed by joostlek, was merged into the development branch on 24 October 2026, so it should arrive with Home Assistant 2026.11. Like the rest of the BleBox integration, it rea
Helty Flow Cloud is a new Home Assistant integration for Helty Flow decentralized heat-recovery ventilation units that use the recent control panel, the one set up through the Helty Home app. The integration was merged into the development branch on 19 October 2026, and its documentation names 2026.11 as the first release. On 24 October two more pu
A leak sensor under the washing machine is cheap. On its own it only beeps or sends a notification, and if nobody is home the water keeps running. Pair it with a motorised valve on the main water line and Home Assistant can close the supply within seconds of the first drop reaching the sensor.
ESPHome has a new duco component for Duco heat recovery ventilation units. It was merged into the development branch on 23 October 2026 together with its documentation, so it should ship in ESPHome 2026.11. Pieter Kokx opened the pull request in December 2024, and it took almost two years and a rewrite to current ESPHome conventions before it went
The DS18B20 is the sensor people reach for when they want to know the temperature of something rather than the air in a room: the flow and return pipes of a heating system, a hot water tank, a freezer, an aquarium, the space under the floor. It comes in waterproof probes on a cable, it talks over a single data line, and you can hang several of them
