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Home Assistant

Reverse Engineering the iStrip+ App for Local Control – Part 1

Published on · 787 Words

To add some ambiance to my apartment at the end-of-year 2024, I bought several smart lights. Among them was a sunset lamp, controllable via Bluetooth. While the official app worked fine, no Home Assistant integration existed.

As I wanted local control—secure, fast, and fully integrated with Home Assistant, armed with my iPhone, a Raspberry Pi 4, an ESP32, and a healthy dose of determination, I set out to reverse engineer the sunset lamp and build a Home Assistant integration from scratch.

Creating a Home Assistant Integration for the Harman Kardon Aura Speaker

Published on · 756 Words

After finally setting up in my apartment in 2024, I wanted to automate my place as much as possible. One of the devices I own is a Harman Kardon Aura Plus speaker, which has great sound but limited smart features.

The Aura Plus is a high-end wireless speaker with 360° sound and ambient lighting. Unfortunately, while it sounds great, it lacks an open API. The official app talks over Bluetooth/Wi-Fi — and that’s where I saw an opportunity..