Ulanzi Stream Deck D200 with Home Assistant

redphx · February 13, 2025, 3:59am

Demo video: https://youtu.be/S1V3YHe_Eoo
Deck info: Stream Controller D200 - Best Stream Controller - Ulanzi (~$55 on Aliexpress)

It’s much cheaper than the Stream Deck, and I kinda like it. They have an official plugin for Home Assistant, but it doesn’t work properly, and it’s not very flexible. I also don’t like that I can only use it when the PC is not sleeping. So I decided to “hack” it.

I’m working on a project to make it work without having to connect to a PC and use there app, which means you can connect the deck to a RPi Zero 2W and place it anywhere in the house.

I’ll update the progress in this post.
The project will be open source.

sygad1 · February 15, 2025, 7:52pm

That is amazingly good timing, i’ve literally just received mine yesterday, loaded the HA plugin and was immediately dissapointed by how terrible the UX was, I can barely get it to do a thing.

I’ll be following your efforts really closely.

redphx · February 16, 2025, 1:19am

This project can now interact with HA via Websocket API, and changes the button’s state accordingly (using templating). Now I’m focusing on clearing the bugs.

sygad1 · February 16, 2025, 7:15am

Awesome, not sure of your background, but I am more than willing to collab on the UX if desired

redphx · February 16, 2025, 9:36pm

Thanks. At first you’ll have to edit the config file directly, but later I want to implement a web editor.

redphx · February 17, 2025, 10:41pm

Update: at first I want to install this on a standalone pi zero, but now I want to use HA addon & esphome instead (running esp32-s3). This will reduce the cost and make it easier to manage multiple decks in one place (the addon).

buz · February 19, 2025, 11:47am

This soudns quite interesting - tactile buttons would be nicer than touch screen in some cases. Do you already have the code available somewhere?

redphx · February 19, 2025, 12:20pm

Not yet. I need to test it running on the Orange Pi Zero 2W first.
The code will be available here: redphx/strmdck · GitHub
Here is the current state: https://youtu.be/6KuVNlX7fyE

I walked back on the decision to switch from the Pi Zero to the ESP32 because it would take longer.

buz · February 19, 2025, 12:48pm

Pretty cool, really tempted to order one and some tiny SBC to go with it

Something like a Luckfox Pico or a Milk-V might be an even cheaper option than a Zero clone.

redphx · February 19, 2025, 1:30pm

I don’t think it will work with those boards. It needs to have at least 2 USB ports: one for connecting with the Deck, and another for power supply.

That’s why I went with Orange Pi 2W instead of RPi Pi 2W. I like having USB Type C.

buz · February 19, 2025, 2:08pm

Fair enough and once you start messing with a USB hub it becomes kind of pointless…

redphx · February 20, 2025, 11:03am

Update: it works on the Orange Pi 2W as expected. Now it’s time for fixing bugs before releasing the initial version.

redphx · February 23, 2025, 10:33am

Writing documents, my least favorite part.

redphx · February 25, 2025, 1:42am

I wanna spend a little more time to add some new features (1 more week).

If you want to run this project, you need to prepare these parts:

Ulanzi Stream Deck D200: Aliexpress $55, Tmall
Orange Pi Zero 2W 1GB: Aliexpress $16, Taobao.
Sandisk SD Card, 16GB is enough. Don’t use other brands, it didn’t work for me.
Optional: Zero 2W case: Acrylic, 3D print
OS: Orangepizero2w_1.0.0_ubuntu_focal_server_linux5.4.125. Only this version with kernel 5.4 works for me. I tried DietPi and Armbian, none of those worked.

redphx · March 4, 2025, 2:02pm

Testing sensors and binary sensors. Only pagination feature left and I think it’s ready for the initial release.

CoatsyJnr · March 5, 2025, 10:06pm

I love the Home Assistant community. This is so cool

redphx · March 10, 2025, 2:25pm

Local icon
Multiple icons + texts in one button
Pagination