As we speak Nabu Casa is launching the House Assistant Join AUX-2, a small field that permits you to breathe new life into the not-so-smart units round your property. Consider it as a sensible residence multi-tool: it could actually stream audio, management RS-232 serial units, and join a Z-Wave adapter, all whereas appearing as a Bluetooth hub. And by widespread demand 🥁, it comes with Energy over Ethernet (PoE) 🎉, although you too can use USB energy and Wi-Fi.
Join AUX-2 is all about making your previous gear new once more. For instance, its audio streaming capabilities help you flip that great-sounding however forgotten hi-fi into one thing that performs in sync with trendy sensible audio system. And with serial management, you possibly can carry that previous (however nonetheless functioning) photo voltaic or local weather tools into your automation setup to decrease your vitality consumption.
AUX-2 doesn’t simply make older units higher, both. There’s additionally a whole lot of new tools that may acquire some new methods. Skip that TV adware, block it from the web, and as a substitute use your AUX-2 to manage it, or get your Join ZWA-2 in the very best spot in your own home whereas powering it with PoE.
Join AUX-2 is accessible worldwide right this moment for $69 / €59.
I’m Shay, Product Supervisor at Nabu Casa. You may know us because the group that makes official House Assistant {hardware} and manages Home Assistant Link. As one of many Open House Basis’s industrial companions, our work helps fund its mission to maintain sensible houses personal, sustainable, and formed by you. Alternative and sustainability are two of the muse’s three core rules, they usually’re on the coronary heart of Join AUX-2: you get to run your property on your phrases, utilizing the tech you already personal. On this publish, we’ll cowl how AUX-2 got here to be, all the cool issues it could actually unlock to your sensible residence, and why we’re so excited to share it with the neighborhood.
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Ports with a objective
Connect AUX-2 started as a much simpler idea. After we showed off portable Z-Wave last October, our original concept was a compact box that allowed a Connect ZWA-2 or ZBT-2 to run over Power over Ethernet. Around the same time, we were exploring how we could bring serial devices into Home Assistant. Since PoE accounted for most of the hardware cost of Connect AUX-2, adding extra ports turned out to be surprisingly affordable.
Many ports, even more possibilities
That sparked our first idea: merge the serial and USB designs (the S in that acronym does stand for serial anyways 😁). But why stop there? With Music Assistant and Sendspin quickly changing into extra superior, it made sense so as to add a combo analog/digital audio jack. After extra iteration, we discovered makes use of for a second serial port, a Grove connector, and an upgraded Bluetooth antenna. Finally, we had to attract the road… in any other case, we’d have by no means really shipped it. That brings us to the title: AUX stands for Audio, USB, and X for serial… nevertheless it additionally sounds cool 😎
So whereas we added a whole lot of ports, each was fastidiously thought of: we put actual thought into how they might work on their very own and with others, and all of the completely different jobs they may do across the residence. Constructing one thing with all this performance additionally helps a much bigger ambition of constructing certain no device is left behind. Probably the most sustainable system is the one you already personal, and we consider it is best to have the choice of constructing your completely good gear sensible earlier than you’re backed into changing it. Now you need to use Join AUX-2 to save lots of a tool from the scrap heap, or pull it off some hellish proprietary cloud and again below your management (and for those who do, please inform us about it!). Whether or not it’s an amplifier, a serial system, or sensor – AUX-2 has a port to carry it into your sensible setup.
Forgotten audio gear will get sensible
There’s a lot of overlooked audio gear out there that sounds amazing, and can be had for a steal on local marketplaces. Much of this gear has an optical digital audio input (a port that receives sound as light through a fibre-optic cable) and a serial control port (a two-way connection for commands). By connecting to both, Connect AUX-2 makes it easy to turn these classic devices into something that rivals most smart speakers.
Optical audio brings clean, lossless CD-quality sound into the device. While serial allows you to control the volume, source, and power, even from standby. This also lets you turn off some audio equipment’s poorly maintained smart features, which often waste a lot of energy in connected standby. AUX-2 never sips more than a watt or two 🤏
AUX-2’s digital-to-analog converter (DAC), the chip that turns digital audio into sound, is a nice step up from the one used in the Voice Preview Edition, letting you plug it into nearly any AUX port 😁 Its digital output is the star of the show, allowing for your self-hosted FLAC music library to be played in perfect clarity. It also senses if the audio cable is analog or digital, and will automatically switch the playback to the right output.
Lots of speakers all playing in sync with AUX-2
Music Assistant is what supercharges this entire setup. It helps nearly every streaming service below the solar, together with native recordsdata, combining them into one cohesive library, at all times selecting the very best quality file to play on AUX-2. When you haven’t used Music Assistant shortly, it’s made large leaps prior to now a number of months. Particularly, it launched the brand new Sendspin protocol, which now helps you to sync audio throughout sensible speaker manufacturers. This implies you possibly can play music in sync by grouping a number of AUX-2s collectively, or pair them with a HomePod, Sonos speaker, and extra. Apparently, sound passes between walled gardens 🎶
Serial provides you actual management
Let’s face it, you’re not going to exchange your photo voltaic inverter or brand-new TV as a result of the app sucks. However we will change the app, and get your knowledge again whereas we’re at it. Serial has been sitting on the again of this sort of tools for many years, and it’s what skilled management techniques have relied on for years. We even discovered a means to make use of it with Modbus (extra about that in our deep dive 👇).
House Assistant already helps a fast-growing checklist of serial units, they usually’re extremely simple to arrange and use. With two ports included, you possibly can management two units without delay. Simply get the best cable to your serial system, plug it into AUX-2, and add its integration in House Assistant. Some units want serial management turned on of their settings first, and you then’re set. So, for those who’re sick of your LG TV listening into your property, reduce it off out of your community, and use the LG TV serial integration 😏
That is useful data for serial devs, however most individuals can in all probability skip this bit.
To start out off, we selected the RS-232 commonplace because it was the commonest connector discovered on units we examined, however we additionally found a option to join RS-485 units. Particularly, utilizing the USB port with a $15 RS-485 adapter, you possibly can simply join Modbus units. Between these two requirements, it’s attainable to attach most serial units.
One other selection was the three.5 mm serial connector, permitting you to make use of the audio cables you already personal to attach AV receivers and TVs. Don’t fret, out of the manufacturing unit we put a sticker over the three.5 mm serial ports to keep away from folks complicated them with audio ports (it in all probability gained’t trigger points… however let’s not discover out 😬).
Different units will use DB9, RJ11, mini-DIN, and the checklist goes on. We prototyped having different connections on the again (particularly attempting to slot in DB9), however we discovered converter cables a greater answer for all this selection. One other factor we noticed throughout testing was cables switching the RX and TX features, and we determined so as to add switches to the underside to permit folks to purchase any cable with the arrogance that it’s going to work (with out opening it up ✂️).
Z-Wave in the very best spot
Our Zigbee and Z-Wave adapters are a number of the strongest available on the market, with class-leading vary, simplicity, and reliability. However generally your House Assistant system is in a basement or behind thick partitions, and our Join ZWA-2 and ZBT-2 solely work by way of USB, which implies you’re tethered to that much less optimum location. Join AUX-2 permits these adapters to be positioned anyplace within the residence with community connectivity.
An essential factor to notice: We’ve been testing Z-Wave for months with this setup, and it really works nice. Zigbee remains to be very new, so we’re not at present promoting this functionality on our advertising pages. It really works, however we would like extra folks to check it earlier than we promote it for on a regular basis use. So anybody who can take a look at, please inform us about your expertise within the feedback.
We’d extremely advocate utilizing these units over a wired connection, and PoE makes for a reasonably streamlined setup. Whereas Wi-Fi is feasible to make use of (our testing with Join ZWA-2 reveals solely marginal will increase in latency), there’s nonetheless the possibility of instability or, within the case of Zigbee, elevated interference.
PoE provides you a reasonably clear two-cable setup.
One factor we haven’t been capable of get working is Thread connectivity; it’s simply too latency-sensitive and can’t be run reliably over a community connection. Theoretically, a Join ZBT-2 and AUX-2 may very well be mixed to make a standalone OpenThread border router that runs independently of your House Assistant system, nevertheless it requires a giant rewrite of the serial communications and that work hasn’t even began but.
Substitute your Bluetooth hub
Bluetooth is utilized by all types of sensible residence units; some even make it appear to be their cloud-connected hub is the one option to join them. The reality is, Bluetooth units usually work higher when instantly linked to House Assistant. Join AUX-2 is our first purpose-built system to attach Bluetooth units (known as a Bluetooth proxy in House Assistant).
That piece of metallic on the best is a really succesful antenna.
No flashing or configuration: if you add AUX-2 to House Assistant, it is going to begin discovering Bluetooth units round your property. It has an optimized antenna, and you may put a number of in your house to enhance Bluetooth connectivity. Additionally, if you use it with Ethernet, it is going to not be sharing the identical antenna between Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, guaranteeing it’s devoted to the job.
Constructed to be tinkered with
Like all official House Assistant units, we’ve made Join AUX-2 to be tinkered with. It’s totally unlocked and able to check out new firmware. Need to flip this right into a devoted Squeezelite or Snapcast streamer? Construct to your coronary heart’s content material 🛠️
The Grove port on the AUX-2 affords a simple means so as to add sensors to the system with out opening it up. It helps GPIO and I2C sensors, which measure issues like temperature, humidity, or gentle by way of AUX-2. These readings then present up in House Assistant, the place you need to use them in dashboards and automations. For instance, for those who’re utilizing AUX-2 to watch your rack’s uninterruptible energy provide (UPS) or energy distribution unit (PDU), why not add a temperature sensor to regulate its cooling? This will all be accomplished with a $5 sensor and somewhat ESPHome constructing.
These screws are the one factor between you and the insides.
As at all times, we by no means use clips or glue; simply 4 Phillips head screws and you may take the entire thing aside. We’ll additionally launch all of the PCB and 3D print recordsdata to get the modding neighborhood going.
Oh yeah… it has PoE
Our final 4 merchandise may need skipped Energy over Ethernet (PoE), however the AUX-2 is 4 merchandise in a single… so by our calculations, we now have an excellent cut up of PoE and non-PoE units 😉 Joking apart, we all know what number of of you’re keen on PoE, and we’re additionally large followers. For anybody new to it, PoE permits you to ship each energy and knowledge to a tool with a single Ethernet cable, which implies you possibly can place it anyplace you possibly can run a cable, with out the necessity for a close-by outlet. For installers or DIY professionals, it gives superb flexibility, and we thought this system was an ideal match, as you are able to do some very superior stuff with AUX-2.
Energy it with USB or PoE, and join it with Ethernet or Wi-Fi.
We put a whole lot of work into getting it proper: we examined the PoE port throughout a variety of {hardware} to make sure it really works reliably, even with choosy networking gear. So we’ve discovered quite a bit and will apply that to future merchandise. Now we simply want to verify the demand is there.
Constructing for everybody
Join AUX-2 has somewhat one thing for everybody, but when it’s greater than you want, that’s additionally OK. You may solely need PoE to your Join ZWA-2, or a Bluetooth hub substitute. Our {hardware} is at all times centered on bootstrapping growth, and it’s no coincidence that serial has progressed leaps and bounds this yr, or that extra Zigbee adapters can now work over a community. These capabilities are actually constructed into ESPHome and House Assistant, so you possibly can DIY an answer that works for you.
As we at all times say, if you purchase our merchandise, you’re investing in growth. That’s the facility of this neighborhood: everybody advantages from what we construct collectively. And all of us share the identical aim of getting essentially the most out of the units already in our houses. So get within the feedback and inform us what you make along with your AUX-2!
