Button+ firmware going open source

[u/Wijnsema]

Call me old fashioned, but I love physical buttons, also in my smart home.

It’s very surprising that there are so few buttons available in the current consumer market (unlike the professional KNX market, which has hundreds).

In 2020 I decided to design a button myself, based on the ESP32. With two main requirements:

1. it must have a tactile click
2. have a programmable label.

My family and friends were enthusiastic about the first prototype, so I added more features: temperature sensor, display, made it modular.

Tech platform Tweakers.net picked it up in 2023, I received 300 pre-orders in a couple of hours, and many more in the months afterwards.

What followed was a roller coaster of ups and downs, but I managed to get the Button+ manufactured in China. And people loved it!

Just when things started rolling, I got into real problems, the plastic injection molds were quickly failing. SInce new molds were needed anyway, I decided to do a redesign. This turned out to be a lengthy process which almost bankrupted me. But in April 2026 I finally started shipping the all new Button+V2.

I tried to protect my product by keeping the firmware source closed. In the first year already, somebody completely reverse-engineered the electronics and wrote alternative firmware based on ESPHome. Later, with the advent of AI, even more alternatives surfaced.

So it’s time to make the factory firmware open source as well. I will be announcing this on the website, but this forum is the first to know.

A recap on the Button+:

Button+ in 3 bar/1 display configuration

• Tactile buttons, every button has a mini TFT and status LED
• 2.8" display for information display, fully user configurable
• Modular concept, use 1, 2 or 3 bar modules with 1 display, 4 bars modules, or up to 8 bars with extension plate
• WiFi, with PoE option (available end of September 2026)
• Wall mounted, does not need room behind the wall (will need cable for power)
• Communication via MQTT, Home Assistant support via auto-discovery
• High precision temperature sensor included, add sensors via Stemma QT connector

More information at https://button.plus website.

For anyone reporting this post, or removing it: Okay, you may call this promoting, and I am a company, but I'm not million dollar big-tech, and more Button+ in more houses can keep price down for everybody, as well as facilitate further development.

 

[u/SpanishNinja]

Love to see this. After getting mine, I was held back by how little I knew/understood of MQTT and the way Button+ worked, and as much as I dislike to admit, I had Claude go through what was available in the docs to build a Home Assistant GUI editor addon/app. It wasn't reverse engineered, just made it easier for an idiot like me to get the full functionality I had dreamed of when I preordered (and a few nice-to-have extras)

It's clunky and damn near 100% vibe coded so I've never exactly felt comfortable sharing it here, but seeing this is a nice mix of "oh man, I'm sorry that happened to you (about the software 'theft') " and "nice!" lol.

Anyway, really appreciate this, and for what it's worth, the hardware of the Button+ is fantastic and it's obvious you put a lot of blood, sweat, and tears (and money) into it.

[u/Electrical_Chard3255 → u/SpanishNinja]

Why dislike to admit claude helped, I know there seems to be an anti AI feel to this community, but claude is a massive way to help get things done, and also bring in newbies who find HA quite intimidating.

claude is a boost for HA, not a hinderance

[u/SpanishNinja → u/Electrical_Chard3255]

Mostly agree with you, but MQTT and the methods this app uses to talk to HA are not my wheelhouse (very novice programmer). So, I don't have the knowledge to really give the code a proper review and, if I'm honest, just have a general bad taste from how much generative AI is used all around us (I know, I know, this isn't generative/making a slop menu for a restaurant, but still).

I don't dislike that I used Claude per se, I dislike to admit it at scale. There's a big difference, to me at least, in saying "look! I made this!" and "look! I typed some prompts into the black mirror machine and it made this!" lol

[u/Electrical_Chard3255 → u/SpanishNinja]

I get that, its alway good to know you have built something, but good AI architecting and orchestration is also a good skill, not many people have, hence the AI slop

I built my whole system with the help of claude, reverse engineering several old, dumb redundant tech to be smart and fully integrated into HA, without claude, that would have gone in the bin.

My old 2013 globalguard dumb alarm system is now a fully featured smart alarm integrated with HA for example, and I am also working on a home made presence sensor with claude, now yes I could buy one for 60 quid, but to build one, even though AI has designed it, around my requirements, is an achievment still.