On my PC, I have a few small Python programs running that emulate devices and display them as images. From Home Assistant (which is running on a different machine), I can control these emulated devices just like real ones using the command_line integration.
This setup works very well for testing automations and learning how Home Assistant works.
Would it be a good idea to include something like this as part of Home Assistant? This means that you have a software running on your mobile phone or PC that displays devices, and in HA you can use these devices like real devices.
I somehow missed the demo integration when I was searching for this myself a long time ago which is how I found the Virtual Components. I may have to play with it and see if it can replace some of the stuff in my test instance!
Or not, there doesn’t seem to be any configuration available as to which entities get setup using Demo, it just loads up all of the demo entities. Guess I’m sticking with the Virtual Components integration
My virtual devices do run on a different machine. So you can sit at your desktop computer and watch the lights and covers which are for the second floor.