Enhanced NFC Tag Reader with "Music Follow Me" Automation🗝️✨

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Hi everyone,

I’m excited to share V2.0 of my NFC Tag Readers. This project is inspired by Adonno’s Tag Reader. I have first created an original version of Adonno’s Tag Reader, and afterwards also added some hardware optimizations for better long-term stability.

Family Bucket
Family Bucket1080Ă—736 235 KB

I believe that great smart home automation should be more than just functional — it should be engaging, beautiful, and a bit of an art form.

:hammer_and_wrench: Hardware Optimizations (The “Pro” Build)

Inspired by Adonno’s classic design, I’ve made several tweaks for long-term stability:

  • Buzzer Driver: Added an S8050 NPN transistor. This resolves the common 1.4V voltage drop issue, delivering a crisp, professional “beep” every time.
  • Voltage Shifting: Integrated a 1N4148 diode for precise voltage shifting to protect the GPIO while ensuring reliable triggering.

Final Assembly
Final Assembly1919Ă—1080 210 KB

:brain: Music Transfer: “Music Follow Me”

Building upon the standard Home Assistant tag automations, I’ve modified it to use Music Assistant (MA) the music_assistant.transfer_queue service.

  • Seamless Queue Transfer: When a tag is scanned in a new room, the system checks if a story or playlist is already active. Using Jinja2 templates, it transfers the entire queue and current playback position to the new media player. No more restarting chapters from the beginning!

c03.jukebox
c03.jukebox1080Ă—608 225 KB

:artist_palette: Crafted NFC Cards: Amiibo & Audiobooks

The physical cards are a major part of the experience:

  • Cards Printing: I used a Canon TS705 with a PVC tray for printing some of the cards. Also, I reused those non-printable cards by printing onto adhesive paper and paste to the cards.
  • Dual-Purpose: Idea of using the cards both as an Nintendo Amiibo as well as a Home Assistant trigger. One card works for both the Nintendo Switch and the smart home!
  • The “Master Key” :old_key::sparkles:: I also created a special card for my daughter. It’s her magical physical shortcut—whatever automation she dreams up, I map it to this card!
  • Of course some other funny “Ruler Only” cards for myself (if you know HunterxHunter…).

Printed Tags
Printed Tags1080Ă—825 263 KB

Full Documentation and YAML: :backhand_index_pointing_right: https://github.com/cofw2005/ha-tag-reader

Tag Readers
Tag Readers1080Ă—745 233 KB

I hope you’ll like my project. Happy building! :clinking_beer_mugs:

:rocket: Sneak Peek

I’ve already started working on my next project: A custom, DIY Media Player based on ESP32-S3-DevkitC-1 and PCM5102A DAC boards, designed to work seamlessly with these NFC readers.

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Just curious but, what factors made you to use NFC instead of something like BT that can already be used for person/presence room detection and would have been very easy to just expand automations/logic to do audio/music followeint throughout the house since you’re already being tracked room to room anyway?? Here’s an example from me if it helps

20251016_202724
20251016_2027242880Ă—2880 319 KB

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Thank you for the information!
It is just a different use case. The NFC card is not only used for “follow me” function, but also each card is a different album.
The main purpose of the NFC card is to play music albums. “Follow me” is only a plus.

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Play albums??? That isnt downloaded/pirated music that you have is it??? Im going to need to see some receipts for these “albums” or else im gonna have to tell on you…

; )

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Do you know music assistant?

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Thanks for putting all this together. The kids will love this. I ready through your project on github but I couldn’t find your yaml code for the esphome though. Are you just using the same as the previous referenced project?

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yes, my post is just a guide how I build up the tag reader. No change from yaml. You can just use the yaml from adonno, only be careful on the GPIO number.
Maybe I could also upload my code. I did some minus from the code, because I only use it for Music Assistan, I removed the unused code for me.
Anyhow, the yaml from adonno is fine for use.

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Thanks for the fast reply. Will give that a go. I want to bring the scanned IDs into ha without having to add them to esphome yaml so it should be minimal requirements.

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I had a quick look at my current code. I simplified a lot only for my specific use cases. Remove the code that I don’t need.
It doesn’t fit for everyone. I suggest you just use the code from adonno. The code covers all cases, much safer.

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