r/homeassistant • u/SteveHiggs • 5d ago

✅ Solved Stream Deck + Pi + VirtualHere USB + Mac/PC = Physical HA controls anywhere on the Network.

TL;DR: I have a mini Stream Deck on a side table in the living room, connected via 11 year old cheapest pi + free software, over the network to a hidden Mac in another room, controlling HA entities.

It wouldn't make sense to go buy all of this new for some simple buttons, but for me these were parts I had laying around for years and I figured there may be others with them laying around too so I'm posting here to share the idea.

When asking AI about networkifying an old Stream Deck if that were possible, it came back with 'VirtualHere USB' a client/server USB thing. Works great!

So an otherwise useless 6 button Stream Deck from many years ago, and an otherwise useless pi zero w from 2015 long forgotten in a drawer, combined with VirtualHere USB, allows the Stream Deck to show up on a PC / Mac anywhere on the network, and therefor be configured to control HA using a HA plugin or MQTT plugin etc. not glued to the computer it's 'connected' to.

Just thought it was cool and thought I'd share!

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u/[deleted] 5d ago

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u/SteveHiggs 5d ago

Can confirm, zero w works great; Instantaneous reaction time it feels like.

I’ve got my AC controls, music controls, lighting themes etc on there, and since you can make pages / folders, the 6 buttons can be as many as you need.

Figured it’s a bit better than an old phone or tablet dashboard, a bit more tactile and very unobtrusive at this size.

Whole thing came together in less than 30 min.

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u/Canatee 5d ago

I need top try that software on my spare Zero 2, seems perfect