I’ve been using HA about 5 years … and decided on my own naming standard before HA developers decided on their own version. Just updated to 2026.7.4 and ESPHome 2026.7.3. I haven’t done much to my dashboard for quite a while, but have been testing my new Unexpected Maker FeatherS3 ESPHome device ready to swap it into my greenhouse.
I just added my “test_um” ESPHome device to the dashboard using the user-friendly “Add to dashboard”. Colour me unimpressed.
For ghod’s sake, why use tiny boxes when the entity names are long, and all start with the same device name ???
I expect there is a way to adjust these entries to make them readable … one by one. No longer access to the yaml to do a quick cut/paste through the section. That’s one way to force users to set up their dashboards manually.
For example:
The main LiPo battery connects directly to the UM FeatherS3 and battery voltage is measured on GPIO pin 12 with yaml code; and I have a second LiPo connected to the Solar Power Manager board and measured by a INA3221.
substitutions:
devicename: "test_um"
deviceIP: "125" # last octet of the IP Address
esphome:
name: ${devicename}
sensor:
# Returns the current battery voltage of battery connected to the FeatherS3
- platform: adc
pin: GPIO2
id: vbat_voltage
name: vbat voltage
on_raw_value:
then:
- logger.log:
format: ">>>>>> sensor %s = %f "
args: [ '"vbat_voltage"', 'x' ]
attenuation: 6dB
filters:
- multiply: 3.85 # Multiply to give max of 4.2V, our max charge voltage for a 1S LiPo
accuracy_decimals: 2
samples: 3
# monitor the battery connected to the Solar Power manager board
- platform: ina3221
address: 0x40
i2c_id: i2c2 # i2c_power
channel_3: # record ALL of the actual battery voltage readings for later analysys
shunt_resistance: 0.1 ohm
bus_voltage:
name: Battery Voltage
id: battery_voltage_actual
accuracy_decimals: 2
filters:
offset: 0.10
current:
name: Battery Current
id: battery_current
In Devices & Services, under the ESPHome Integration there is the “test_um” device which contains the list of Sensors including “vbat voltage”
So far, so good. But why does the Entity ID for Battery_voltage_actual include network name and a different device name ?
OK, well I have changed things around a bit while testing … but I can bring all the Entity IDs back to my consistent values. I choose “Recreate entity IDs” and list the 20 enities to be renamed and see
It seems that padding device names with area and device name is now compulsory, and again, why is this window sized so that it cuts off important information ?
I do accept that in a large installation, prefixing device names with the area is one valid naming convention … but does it really need to be compulsory ?