My Smart Home Build

bphillips921 · February 8, 2022, 5:23am

My wife and I recently built a new custom home. One of the non-negotiables with our builder was that I got access to the house to run my own low-voltage wire. I actually got into Home Assistant because I knew I was going to build the house and I wanted to make it smart. Per request from some people on this forum, I’ve detailed below what I did in my house.

Disclaimer: I’m not an expert but I researched my options and determined (thanks to a lot of advice from all of you) what would work best for me. My general theory on HA is that it should provide convenience but not primary functionality. If I happen to meet an untimely death (or my wife kicks me out ) she can pull the plug on the HA server and everything would work as normal, with one exception that I’ll get into below.

I added links for the devices I used

My HA Server – I had an older windows PC that was running Blue Iris on our farm. The farm needed an upgrade so I repurposed the server for HA. The server has an AMD A8-5600K CPU, 8G DDR3 1600 RAM, and a 250GB SSD in a rack mount case.
06/03/2022 Update - After implementing Frigate on several cameras, and the inability to find a Google Coral, I upgraded my server to handle the load. I started from scratch and went overkill with a 4U case (to fit a large CPU fan), ASRock Z590M motherboard, Intel i5-11600K CPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, 1TB SSD
Update: I found a Coral! So the computer now has a Google Coral as well

Wall tablets - I’m using 4 Lenovo Tab M10 tablets (basement, main floor by the front door, main floor mud room, and near the master bedroom) mounted to the wall with a 3D case I made. I ran Cat6 to each tablet and am using a power injector via a Kasa smart power strip to turn the charger on/off based on the battery percentage. I’m using Fully Kiosk app to display the dashboard
Update: I discovered that the Lenovo Tab M10 has a battery monitor feature that automatically turns on/off the charging as needed. So now I have power going to the tablets via the Cat6 wires all the time. The tablet controls the on/off of the charging instead of HA.

Door sensors – I added a door sensor to nearly every door, external and internal. All but 3 are hardwired back to my mechanical room and hooked up to a ESP32 running ESPhome via a 12V > 3.3V optocoupler. The other 3 doors had designs that didn’t allow me to hardwire a sensor so I used an Aqara Zigbee door sensor and a Nortek Zigbee USB Dongle.

For the garage doors, I use MyQ to operate the doors. I have a newer style shaft mount door opener, I haven’t found a way to operate them without MyQ, and I’m pretty happy with MyQ, so it’s good for now but may add a local control option in the future. I used these contact sensors so I wasn’t relying on the door position via MyQ to tell if the door is open/closed. I also added a beam sensor near the bottom of the door track so I could get triggers for vehicles/people crossing the door threshold. All these sensors are hardwired back to my mechanical room and into the optocoupler/ESP32.
04/01/23 update: I added local control to the garage doors and ditched MyQ (except for backup). I took one of the garage door remotes apart and used a ESP32 and a relay to mimic the buttons being pressed. The ESP32 also feeds the remote 3.3v power, so no need to replace a battery.

Motion Sensors - I used a combination of these wall mount and these ceiling mount motion sensors. I also used 4 of these ceiling & glass break sensors in locations near a window that can be accessed on the ground floor outside. All of these are hardwired back to the mechanical room and into the optocoupler/ESP32. Tip: The motion detector and glass break sensors need 6 wires to each one.

Light switches - I wrestled with this one and did a lot of research. I wanted local control and a decent price (I needed 92 of them). I also wanted all of them to look the same, look good, and I didn’t want to flash custom firmware to 92 switches. I settled on the Kasa TP-Link Switches (Single Pole, 3-Way, Dimmer). I am very happy with my choice! I have had some very minor issues with a couple of them dropping off the network, but have been able to quickly diagnose and fix. I liked the integration so well that I also bought their outdoor plug for Christmas lights, their indoor plugs for indoor Christmas lights, and their power strip for my wall tablets.
2023 Update: We finished our basement and I went back to the Kasa TP-Link switches. I have about 120 of them now. I also used their 3-way dimmer switch for the first time. I had some hiccups, but it works well now.

Sirens/Alarm - This is the one exception where HA is a critical component. I use HA as our home alarm and am very happy with it. However, I ran the hardwired sensors and sirens in a way that a “classic” home alarm system could be put in and use those sensors. Or my wife could get a Simplisafe if I’m gone. I used 4 of these sirens (basement, main floor, 2nd story, garage) hardwired back to the mechanical room and hooked to a 4 channel relay and ESP32 with ESPhome

WiFi - I knew I’d have a lot of WiFi clients, and I hated the WiFi at my old house (Google WiFi mesh network), so I sprang for a Unifi Dream Machine Pro, 48 port PoE switch, and a mixture of 10 Unifi 6 lite and Unifi 6 LR access points. I am extremely happy with it. I went overboard with access points, I probably could have done it 6 (one for each floor(3), one in the garage, one on the back patio, and one in the front yard), but I figured I should add more now and I could always fine-tune and turn some down/off later. I couldn’t run more wire easily to add one. I can also get my WiFi at my neighbor’s house a block away

Security cameras - I built a separate computer (Intel Core i9-10850K, 32GB DDR4 RAM, 500GB SSD + two 8TB WD Purple surveillance hard drives in a rack mount case) to run Blue Iris and Deepstack. BI handles the workload of the cameras and security surveillance but I also have each camera added to HA primarily to take snapshots for notifications and to add to lovelace. I’m using the HA Blue Iris integration to get motion alerts from BI when it identifies a person (via deepstack). I’m using 12 Amcrest UltraHD 4K IP Cams, 3 Amcrest AD110 Doorbells (one acts as an actual doorbell, the other two are just “hidden” cameras that I wanted to inconspicuously mount at eye level). I also have 2 Amcrest 4MP indoor cams I use as baby cams.

Audio - I wanted whole-home audio, but I didn’t want to go crazy with it. I ended up using a combination of Google Nest Speakers and some built-in speakers. The google nest speakers are a combination of Minis, Google Home Hub, and a Google Home Max I found on ebay (these sound good!). In the garage I used two Definitive Technologies AW6500 speakers and a 15" subwoofer (this thing shook a whiskey bottle off the shelf in my pantry. It’s loud). On my covered patio I used 4 ceiling speakers and a OSD subwoofer powered by an OSD 300watt rack mount amp (mounted in the mech room). The garage and patio speakers/subs are hardwired back to the mech room. I use a Chromecast Ultra and a HDMI audio extractor tied to a OSD 8-channel amp to power them. It works out really well. I can play music (or anything, really) from my phone by selecting the chromecast device. I can also add the built-in speakers to google device groups. My phone thinks I’m casting to a TV so I can also cast Youtube videos to the speakers. I have my garage and patio TV also tied into the amp. I use a 8 channel relay and ESP32 with ESPhome to automatically switch to the TV as an input when the TV is playing. All the Chromecast devices are also tied into HA so I can play messages to them. Like playing the Home Alone “ya filthy animal” clip through my patio speakers if my camera sees a person when the alarm is armed . Or using Frigate to detect birds and scare them away with gun shot sounds.

Irrigation - I skipped the Rain Bird brain and had the irrigation guy pull the wires to my mechanical room. I used 3 8-channel relays with an ESP32 and ESPhome to control the 15 zones, 2 drip zones, master valve, and blow out valve. I installed a large 5HP air compressor in my basement garage and ran 3/4 Maxline Air piping to my main garage and into my mechanical room. It pipes directly into my irrigation system (with a valve and backflow preventer in between). I use this to blow out my irrigation. I have plans of setting an HA automation to blow out the system when the forecast calls for cold weather, but for this winter I used HA to do it by manually hitting the valve switches. It worked great! I use the HA Smart Irrigation integration to control the irrigation. It tracks precipitation and evaporation then sets the amount of time each zone needs to run based on that.
06/20/23 Update: I added a Tempest Weather station in my backyard to monitor hyper-local weather. I use data from the Tempest to feed the HA Smart Irrigation integration which calculates zone runtimes based on rainfall and evaporation.

Window shades - We went with Somfy window shades from a local supplier. I knew I was going with these so I ran 16/2 wire from the mech room to each window. I made a 3D printed plug for the window that fit these jacks so I wouldn’t have a wire hanging out if we ended up not putting a shade in. I installed a 24v 20 amp power supply in the mechanical room hooked to a fuse block.
06/20/23 Update: I struggled to find a good way to control the Somfy RTS shades from HA. I finally found a fantastic solution with the ESPSomfy-RTS made by rstrouse.. The hardware can be built for $15 and it works flawlessly. I wasn’t able to get the range that some people could, so I just built 7 devices and spread them around my house. The cost of the 7 devices was still half as much as a Somfy Tahoma hub and they work much better.

Radiant floor heat - I had radiant floor heat put in the garage floor, basement floor, and the basement garage. I installed the boiler and built the pump circulator myself, I implemented HA in this as well. I used 8 DS18B20 temp sensors hooked to an ESP32 with ESPhome to measure the supply and return temps on each zone and the master supply. I use a template sensor to then calculate the delta (temp difference). I also have a DS18B20 sensor in each concrete slab to send the temp back to HA. I used a pressure transducer hooked to an ESP32 with ESPhome to monitor the pressure of the system. I also have current sensors hooked to the pump wires. I’m waiting on a custom board off ebay to get those hooked up. Once I have those hooked up I can see the watts the pumps are pulling which will allow me to calculate the GPM and eventually a rough idea of BTU/hour.

Fireplace - I have 3 direct vent gas fireplaces. I ran wire from the on/off switch of the fireplace to the mech room. I use an ESP32 with ESPhome and 4 channel relay to open/close the circuit to turn the fireplace on/off

Misc - I also went crazy with Cat6. I pulled 14,000 feet. 4 wires to every TV, wires to all the access points and IP cameras, 10 wires to my office, and 6 wires to my upstairs mechanical closet. I also ran 2 inch conduit from my basement mech room to each attic, my primary living room TV, my upstairs mech closet, the backyard for future fire pit speakers, and a few other places.

Here are some pictures of my mechanical room where most of the controls are. I haven’t had time yet to tidy up

Optocouplers with ESP32 devices. I 3D printed the mounting boards

This is the 8 channel relay with ESP32 I’m using as a speaker input switch

These are the Chromecast ultras for the garage and patio speakers. The HDMI audio extractors are mounted behind them. I made the 3D printed case

This is the irrigation controls

Just a patch panel of speaker wires

This is my sensor control wall. I used the top screw terminals to “dead” the long wires into a terminal then ran a separate wire to the optocouplers. I did this so I wouldn’t cut a main wire short then want it longer if I made a change, which I ended up doing a lot

Power supply for the window shades

3D printed plug for the window shade jack. There is a cap on it, behind the cap is the power plug.

Server rack

The irrigation system Backflow preventer then main shut off valve, pressure sensor and a T’d in blow out. The blue pipe comes from my air compressor.

Radiant floor system. I temporarily have a 110V > 3.3v optocoupler on it so I can see when the pumps are running.

Wall tablet (I haven’t had time to beautify Lovelace yet)

That’s the bulk of it. There are several other things I’ve done, but it would take me hours to detail every little thing.

Anemoi · February 8, 2022, 5:38pm

Wow thank you for taking the time to detail all of this. I will be building a home in the next few years and you have done pretty much everything I can currently think of. It’s nice to see it all in practice vs the usual discussion of what we should do when doing a new build.

Where there any hiccups along the way or things that surprised you?

bphillips921 · February 8, 2022, 7:51pm

There weren’t too many notable hiccups. I did have a one motion detector that must have had a wire screwed or stapled through, because it doesn’t work. That’s been the only thing I can think of. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how fast the automations work. I have a few doors that HA turns the lights on when they open. For the first few weeks my wife kept asking who was leaving the lights on. The automations work so fast that by the time the door is cracked the light is on and you can’t tell that it’s being turned on by HA.

I wish I would have hardwired temp sensors into each bedroom, or maybe each room. Mainly because I’m having some HVAC balancing issues in our bedrooms that are requiring me to use remote WiFi temp sensors that connect to my thermostat to average the temps. I would have ran wired remote temp sensors to the mech room then ran a Cat6 from the thermostat to the mech room so I’d have more options. I also wish I would have run a wire to my doorbell chime so I could more easily get a doorbell trigger in HA.

sparkydave · February 9, 2022, 12:46am

Nice write up.

It really sucks that Google discontinued the ChromeCast Audio, making you use Ultra’s with audio extraction. I was lucky enough to buy a few as the last stocks were being sold.

It took me a couple of seconds wondering why you had compressed air connected to the irrigation… then thought, hmm frozen pipes in winter. Not something we have to worry about in Australia!

GabbertC · February 9, 2022, 4:07am

This is amazing!

ondras12345 · February 12, 2022, 7:38am

Nice writeup!

The board does not seem to be able to measure mains voltage, so I don’t think you’ll be able to get real power (watts). You could estimate the apparent power (VA) by multiplying RMS current by nominal phase voltage, but you won’t be able to measure the power factor.

minideezel · February 14, 2022, 9:30pm

Amazing write up! I’m in the early stages of building my own house and this is insanely helpful!

I was wondering if you could detail when/how/where you installed the door sensors?

Also where’d you place each motion sensor and what advice do you have there?

Thanks again!

bphillips921 · February 15, 2022, 3:49am

Glad it’s helpful!

Talk with your contractor about the door sensors. I ran the wire (22/2 wire, I recommend oxygen-free copper wire. It needs to be in-wall rated. I used this) to each door I wanted a sensor on (pretty much all of them) during the electrical rough in stage. I drilled a 1/2" through the framing (not the door, just the 2x4 rough framing) and dropped 3 feet of wire through each hole, then rolled it up out of the way.

If I knew which way the door would swing I put the hole on the side of the door where the handle would be. If I didn’t know I put the hole in the middle of the door frame. There’s enough room between the rough framing and the door frame for the wire to be routed to the correct side of the door. My trim guys installed the doors, I gave them a door sensor so they knew what size hole to drill (I think it was 3/8"). They drilled the hole in the door frame and pulled the wire through. I came back after paint to install the door sensor. Although, you could probably do it before paint and just as they get the doors hung. If they are going to spray foam around the exterior door frames I recommend getting the sensors in before that step.

Here’s what the sensor looks like, it’s very hidden. The top of the door also get’s a 3/8" hole and the other half of the sensor (it’s just a magnet). You can also see a ceiling-mounted motion detector in the ceiling near the attic hatch.

Here’s my wiring schematic and my ESPhome code. I only show one door sensor, but the optocoupler and ESP32 will handle 16 of them. Just run a wire from the optocoupler to a separate ESP32 GPIO for each sensor. run the hot wire from each + input on the optocoupler to the next. Then run a separate ground wire from the 12v power supply (I used this distribution block) to each door sensor. Do not run in series from one door sensor to the next, run separate wires.

esphome:
  name: binary_sensor_board_1
  platform: ESP32
  board: nodemcu-32s

wifi:
  ssid: "Basement_AP_IoT"
  password: "YOURPASSWORD"
  #Static IP
  manual_ip:
    static_ip: 192.168.1.101
    gateway: 192.168.1.1
    subnet: 255.255.255.0
  #Turn Off Power Save Mode
  power_save_mode: none
  fast_connect: on

  # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
  ap:
    ssid: "binary-sensor-board-1"
    password: "YG6ZvkWHIdDt"

captive_portal:

# Enable logging
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:

ota:

binary_sensor:
#Terminal 1
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO23
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Kassidys Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 2
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO22
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Front Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 3
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO21
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Toy Room Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 4
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO19
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Office Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 5
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO18
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Garage Closet Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 6
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO5
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Garage Entry Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 7
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO17
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Mud Room Laundry Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 8
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO16
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Grocery Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 9
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO32
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Garage Service Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 10
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO33
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Powder Bath Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 11
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO25
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Kids Toilet Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 12
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO26
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Kids Bathroom Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 13
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO27
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "2nd Floor Guest Closet"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 14
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO14
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "2nd Floor Guest Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 15
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO04
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Beyer Closet Door"
    device_class: door
#Terminal 16
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 
      number: GPIO13
      mode: INPUT_PULLUP
    name: "Beyer Door"
    device_class: door

For the motion detectors, run a 22/4 wire (same wire I linked to above, just get the 22/4 version). If you use a combination motion/glass break sensor you will need 22/6 wire, or probably just use a Cat6. The wiring schematic is the exact same as the door sensors except you also need to send the motion detector 12v power. So 2 wires handle the 12v power for the sensor, the other 2 wires take the ground wire from the power supply to the sensor and back to the optocoupler. The motion sensor either opens or closes that circuit when it sees motion. A single 12v power supply of about 2amps should easily handle all your sensors.

For placement, I tried to put them in areas where I thought it would be helpful to see motion (duh!), for the wall-mounted sensors I hung them between 7-8 ft off the floor and always in a corner. For the ceiling mounts, I tried to put them somewhat centered in the space, but I also paid attention to how they would look (like centering them between lights). Try to keep them away from heat sources, like lights and HVAC air supplies and out of direct sunlight.

For wall-mounted, I just put a small screw in the corner of wall and wrapped the wire around it. The drywall guys pulled the screw out (use a phillips head to make it easy on them) and pulled the wire through the drywall. This is the best example I could find.

For ceiling-mounted, screw or nail a 2x4 between the joists, put a 1/2" hole in the 2x4 and drop 2 feet of wire through the hole. The drywall guys will cut a hole and pull the wire through. Similar concept to what I did with this pipe, but put a wire through the hole.

I hope that helps!

minideezel · February 15, 2022, 2:02pm

Thanks @bphillips921, that was what I was looking for! I also seem to have a flexible builder who will let me get in and install low voltage items myself.

Also for your pumps/power measurement, I recently picked up the cheap Emporia Vue ($150) and installed ESPHome per these instructions. It’s a 16 channel power meter with individual 50 A CT Clamps + 2 main phase 200 A CT Clamps with voltage monitoring on each phase. It is a fantastic way to monitor power.

bphillips921 · February 16, 2022, 7:23pm

Thanks for the tip, I’ll look into that!

minideezel · April 3, 2022, 3:58pm

@bphillips921 Brad, Can you clarify how you have these temperature sensors included in the concrete? They are going to be pouring our basement slab this week and was curious if this was something you actually embedded in the concrete or if it was just on the surface?

Thanks!

bphillips921 · April 4, 2022, 2:47am

There are two ways to do it. For my basement slab, I just drilled a hole after the fact. I used a FLIR camera to see the pex tubing in the floor then drilled the hole about 2" deep in the middle of a loop. I filled the hole with this conductive paste before inserting the DS18B20 probe. If I were to do it again, I would have stuck a straw or something in the foam board and above where the top of the concrete would go. That way I wouldn’t have needed the FLIR, I could have perfected where to put it and I could safely go deeper with my hole.

For the garage, I wasn’t going to have a good place in the slab to drill a hole, so I took a 15ft long piece of PEX pipe, duct taped the end, and stapled it to the foam board in the middle of a loop. I then pushed my probe into that piece of PEX.

Both methods seem to be equally accurate as far as reading temps.

rsachoc · April 5, 2022, 3:15pm

Awesome project. Would love to see some pics of the actual house if you’re comfortable with that! So many ideas for when (if?) I ever build a house from scratch!

bphillips921 · April 8, 2022, 2:26am

I suppose there is no harm in that. Here are some exterior pictures

A few interior
Patio

Great Room

Garage (1,800 sq ft, my favorite room in the house )

Our builder has some other pics on his website from when the house was almost done. We are missing our big fridge and backsplash in these pics, but I think most of the other stuff was done.
http://www.arkoscustomhomes.com/scenicview.html

rsachoc · April 9, 2022, 1:27am

Absolutely amazing! Dream home!

paulius2k · May 4, 2022, 2:19pm

@bphillips921 your project is great, cheers!

I have a question: where did you buy these screw terminals?:

bphillips921 · May 4, 2022, 2:41pm

I got them on Amazon

paulius2k · May 12, 2022, 1:52pm

@bphillips921 I have another question, if I may.

You wrote:

I use a 8 channel relay and ESP32 with ESPhome to automatically switch to the TV as an input when the TV is playing.

Can you write more - what exactly the relays are connecting?

I.e. can you achieve that your audio source #1 is playing on speaker A, while at the same time source #2 plays on speaker B?

Maybe you could share the schematics?

Thank you!

bphillips921 · May 12, 2022, 2:57pm

I’ll do my best to explain it. It gets a little messy.

First, the parts needed.
3D printed case

ESP32

8 channel relay

RCA keystones

RCA terminals

ESPHome Code

esphome:
  name: rca_switch
  platform: ESP32
  board: nodemcu-32s

wifi:
  ssid: "Basement_AP_IoT"
  password: "PASSWORD"
  #Static IP
  manual_ip:
    static_ip: 192.168.1.111
    gateway: 192.168.1.1
    subnet: 255.255.255.0
  #Turn Off Power Save Mode
  power_save_mode: none
  fast_connect: on

  # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
  ap:
    ssid: "Rca-Switch Fallback Hotspot"
    password: "sSN6czO4UzZa"

captive_portal:

# Enable logging
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:

ota:
  password: "PASSWORD"


switch:
  - platform: gpio
    pin: GPIO23
    name: "Garage Speaker Switch-Right"
    icon: "mdi:speaker"
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
    inverted: true
  - platform: gpio
    pin: GPIO22
    name: "Garage Speaker Switch-Left"
    icon: "mdi:speaker"
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
    inverted: true
  - platform: gpio
    pin: GPIO21
    name: "RCA 3"
    icon: "mdi:speaker"
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
    inverted: true
  - platform: gpio
    pin: GPIO19
    name: "RCA 4"
    icon: "mdi:speaker"
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
    inverted: true
  - platform: gpio
    pin: GPIO18
    name: "RCA 5"
    icon: "mdi:speaker"
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
    inverted: true
  - platform: gpio
    pin: GPIO5
    name: "RCA 6"
    icon: "mdi:speaker"
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
    inverted: true
  - platform: gpio
    pin: GPIO17
    name: "RCA 7"
    icon: "mdi:speaker"
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
    inverted: true
  - platform: gpio
    pin: GPIO16
    name: "RCA 8"
    icon: "mdi:speaker"
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
    inverted: true

Here is the wiring schematic. One relay will control 2 inputs and one output. So, for stereo sound left and rigth you will need two relays.

Connect the “-” terminals for all 3 RCA jacks on each speaker side (RCA input 1 Left, RCA input 2 Left, and RCA output Left). Repeat for right inputs and outputs.
Connect the RCA outputs to the middle “common” terminal on the relay. Connect the left output to one relay and the right to the other
Connect RCA input 1 to the “NC” on the relay. Connect the left to one relay the right to the other.
Connect RCA input 2 to the “NO” on the relay. Connect the left to one relay the right to the other.

With this setup you can individually trigger the left and right relays, so you could have input 1 playing through the left speaker and input 2 playing through the right. I use my script in HA to always change GPIO23 and GPIO22 at the same time so that both speakers play the same input. You could also hardwire this by soldering a “Y” wire that goes from one GPIO pin on the ESP32 to 2 input pins on the relay that you always want to switch together.

Hopefully that helps.

paulius2k · May 13, 2022, 12:21pm

Thank you.

So in your drawing the “Output L” and “Output R” are two speakers. What are the “Input 1” and “Input 2” - are they two separate physical amplifiers?

How do you add a 3rd, 4th, more speakers to the same Input? (e.g. you want to broadcast a message to all speakers in the house).