I’m looking for a strategy to efficiently manage flashing and deploying firmware to 30 identical light switches.
Currently, I’ve been manually adding each device to ESPHome Builder, copying/pasting YAML, and using “include” files to centralize the configuration of sensors and switches. However, this process requires creating and flashing each device individually, which is time-consuming.
I’d like to create a “starter” firmware that I can flash in bulk to all devices. I tried using name_add_mac_suffix: true to assign unique names automatically. While it works for the hostname (see screenshot), the MAC address doesn’t get added to other components. Am I misunderstanding how this works?
Additionally, how should I handle API keys in this scenario?
My ideal setup is to maintain a single “starter” firmware in ESPHome Builder, update it as needed, and use OTA to deploy changes to all devices. I don’t plan to adopt or individually configure each device in the builder.
Is this approach feasible? If so, how can I simplify the process? I imagine this is similar to how “Built for ESPHome” devices are managed.
