STARTLIGHT

Home Assistant on your TV

StartLight connects to your own Home Assistant and shows what matters at a glance: a Home row on the home screen, bubbles in the right-hand panel, values on the screensaver. Values update live, and a light or a switch toggles with OK.

The connection and the Home row are free, with up to three entities. Pro adds up to 60 entities, dashboards, bubbles, screensaver values and per-entity display settings. Free and Pro

The home screen with a Pool panel on the right: temperature 23.7 °C, pH 8.1, redox 763 mV, filtration

Connect your instance

  1. 01

    Open the connectors

    Settings › Connectors › Home Assistant.

    The Connectors settings: Home Assistant, weather, calendars
  2. 02

    Scan the code

    The TV shows a QR code and a short pairing code. Scan it with your phone, or type the address in a browser on your computer. Everything stays on your local network.

    Pairing screen: a QR code, the local address and a six-letter code
  3. 03

    Enter the code

    Not needed if you scanned. The device is then remembered: bookmark the page to come back without the code.

    The page on the computer asks for the code shown on the TV
  4. 04

    Address and token

    The address of your instance, and a long-lived access token created in Home Assistant under your profile, Security tab. Typed once; on the TV, the token is sealed by the Android Keystore.

    The page on the computer asks for the Home Assistant address and token
  5. 05

    Choose what to show

    Search, tick, and give each entity the name and the two words it should show on the TV: “Lamp” rather than the name of a plug, “Open” rather than “on”.

    The entity list on the computer, eight entities chosen, one being renamed
  6. 06

    Saved

    The TV confirms, and the Home row appears on the home screen.

    The TV confirms that 8 entities are saved

Fine-tune the display

  1. 01

    Value display

    Settings › Connectors › Value display: for each entity, show or hide its name, value and icon, choose its frame, rename it. It applies everywhere: home rows, dashboard, right-hand panel, screensaver.

    The Value display list of entities, each with its icon
  2. 02

    On the screensaver

    Settings › Screensaver › Placement: put your values around the clock. They show on the “Clock and readings” screensaver, framed in a colour taken from the wallpaper.

    The screensaver: the clock in the middle, the car charge, power, pool temperature, pH, redox and filtration around it

Right-hand panels of your own

The right-hand panel holds bubbles: an entity, an app, a page, an action. Create as many panels as you need, Pool or Car, each opened by a bubble of its own.

  1. 01

    Create a panel

    Long-press a bubble, then +. “New right panel” adds an empty panel, with a bubble that opens it.

    The menu of a bubble, its list ending with New right panel
  2. 02

    Name it

    The pencil renames it, with the remote.

    Renaming the new panel Car with the on-screen keyboard
  3. 03

    Fill it

    The + lists your entities with their live values. Pick one, then the next.

    The list of entities with their values, to add as bubbles
  4. 04

    Give it an icon

    Any Material Design icon, the set Home Assistant uses: type its name, like car or pool, or pick one from the selection.

    The right-hand panel with a pool icon for Pool and a car icon for Car

Good to know

  • Up to 60 entities, and up to 8 extra panels of 12 bubbles each.
  • StartLight talks to your instance directly: no add-on to install, nothing goes through our servers.
  • An http:// address is accepted on your local network only; https:// works from anywhere.
  • Values update live while they are on screen.