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Home Assistant + esphome integration

We are going to use ESP32 to extend the pool Raspberry Pi's home assistant poor Bluetooth range.

Initial setup (update firmware and connect to wifi)​

  1. access esphone.io

  2. click on Bluetooth Proxy installer

  3. select Generic ESP32

  4. chrome browser popup connection section

  5. install Bluetooth proxy (follow the on-screen instruction, it would take ~2 minutes)

  6. connect wifi (follow the on-screen instruction)

After connecting to wifi, we will need an interface to configure the ESP32 device. We can either use ESPHome container or Home Assistant add-on to configure the ESP32 device.

ESPHome UI interface and configuration​

ESPHome add-on in Home Assistant is needed to integrate the ESP32 with Home Assistant if you are using Home Assistant OS.

Alternatively, for those who use docker home assistant container, we need to install the ESPHome docker container using the following docker-compose file:

docker-compose.yml
## ...
esphome:
  container_name: esphome
  image: ghcr.io/esphome/esphome:latest
  volumes:
    - <your-local-path-to-store-config>/esphome/config:/config:rw
    # Use local time for logging timestamps
    - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
  network_mode: host
  restart: always

Run docker-compose up -d to start the ESPHome container. Then we can access the ESPHome web interface by visiting http://<your-home-assistant-ip>:6052 in the browser. We can see the new ESP32 proxy device in the ESPHome web interface as a discovered device like below:

Click on ADOPT then follow the on-screen instruction, during the process, we will be able to get the encryption key for the ESP32 device. Copy it and paste it somewhere. (if you miss it, we can still get it later).

This will take fairly long time to complete, so be patient. It will looks something like this:

After the the process done, we will see the device change from discovered to online as below:

Now we can unplug it and power it whereever the connected wifi can cover. Then, we are ready integrate the ESP32 device with Home Assistant.

Home Assistant integration​

Go to home assistant, click on Settings -> Devices & Services, then we will see the ESP32 device in the Discovered section. Click on the CONFIGURE button and SUBMIT to add the device to Home Assistant.

Then we are ready to go. If you are asked to input the encryption key, you can find it in the ESPHome web interface by clicking on EDIT of the ESP32 device. You will find the encryption key under the api.encryption.key section.

# others...
api:
  encryption:
    key: <your-Base64-encrypted-key>

Great! Now we have very good BLE range now, congratulations! 🎉