Hands on with Home Assistant’s new ‘smart home multi-tool’

The Home Assistant Connect Aux-2, a multi-function box designed to help users integrate more devices into their smart homes, has just been launched by Nabu Casa, the commercial arm of the Open Home Foundation. The $69 device, roughly the size of a deck of cards, boasts a range of connectivity options including 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, USB-A, USB-C, a digital/analog audio jack, a Grove port, and a pair of RS-232 serial ports.

The Aux-2 can connect Bluetooth devices to Home Assistant, utilize USB ports for devices like Z-Wave or Zigbee antennas, control devices via a serial connector, and connect an amplifier or powered speakers through its audio jack for streaming music to older audio equipment. Its capabilities are underpinned by Home Assistant’s open-source platform, and it utilizes existing Home Assistant/ESPHome integrations for its features.

The device is based on ESPHome, an open platform for creating DIY smart home devices from cost-effective and versatile ESP boards. The serial integration, developed earlier this year, and Music Assistant and SendSpin, which power the audio-out feature, are currently in active development. The author of the report, who already uses Home Assistant, found the Aux-2 to be easily set up and surprisingly useful.

They were able to connect a garage fridge to the smart home system, monitor temperature with Bluetooth hygrometers, and stream music to in-wall speakers. The setup process involved downloading and installing the latest firmware, connecting to Wi-Fi, and then following a setup wizard within the Home Assistant interface that guided them through the necessary steps.