Tech

Hands on with Home Assistant’s new ‘smart home multi-tool’

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Based on a feed excerpt; full article content has not been acquired. Source evidence retrieved 11/11/2026, 23:16:25 UTC.

Briefings

Nabu Casa, the commercial arm of the Open Home Foundation, launched the Home Assistant Connect Aux-2, a $69 multi-function box designed to integrate non-smart devices into smart homes. Testing over two days confirmed the device is useful and easy to set up, featuring 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, and multiple ports including USB-A, USB-C, and audio jacks. The product aims to expand Home Assistant's capabilities by bridging the gap between proprietary hardware and the open platform.

Key points

• Nabu Casa, the commercial side of the Open Home Foundation, launched the Home Assistant Connect Aux-2, a $69 multi-function box designed to integrate non-smart devices into smart homes.
• Testing over two days confirmed the device is useful and easy to set up, featuring 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Ethernet, and multiple ports including USB-A, USB-C, and audio jacks.

Context

Nabu Casa, the commercial side of the Open Home Foundation, runs Home Assistant and has been developing the Home Assistant Connect series to bridge proprietary hardware with the open platform. This specific Aux-2 model represents an ongoing effort to make the ecosystem more user-friendly by allowing users to connect various non-smart devices.

Limitations

Testing was conducted for a couple of days, providing limited long-term reliability data. The device's specific performance metrics under real-world conditions remain unverified, and the exact number of supported peripheral types beyond the listed ports is not fully documented.

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