Using PicoCalc with Home Assistant

PicoCalc
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I wanted to start a thread introducing my first attempts at getting the PicoCalc interfacing with Home Assistant. I was looking for a way to make the PicoCalc immediately useful to me, and it turns out a lot of the hardware used for the PicoCalc is already accessible to ESPHome via their YAML configuration build syntax.

I’ve created a MR with a templated working example:

And I’ll likely use this thread to update my progress. I’m using a Pi Pico 2W, and so I’m currently using ‘unsupported’ hardware in the eyes of ESPHome, but there is work-in-progress to add official support for this board.

If I were smart, I would have just ordered a Pi Pico W (1st Gen) and save myself the complexity of prototype on prototype on prototype.

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Little progress update:

  • Actively working on getting keyboard functional
  • Reading time and garage lights status from home assistant
  • Temp is being read from the rp2350 internal sensor
  • Wifi status accurately reflects connection status.
  • Bottom nav is wired up, but without keyboard input, no way to navigate.
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I’ve created a new git repo explicitly for developing some tools around the picocalc using esphome as the build toolchain and bootstrapping point for future development. Perhaps this will get merged/copied into my MR for the OG Picocalc repo, but I’m enjoying my freedom over in this new repo.

I’m not ready to fully release this yet… but it’s gonna be open source anyways so here’s the sneak peek.

I’m currently using the Pico RP2350 W in my Picocalc, but I plan on making the core configurable in code:

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