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The original was posted on /r/homeassistant by /u/anvarazizov on 2026-02-18 21:24:27+00:00.

Hey r/homeassistant,

I live in Ukraine. russia regularly attacks our power grid — when it goes down, internet and cell towers follow within hours. My Home Assistant keeps running on battery backup, but I can't reach it from outside. So I built a radio bridge.

How it works

Two Lilygo T-Echo radios (~$30 each, LoRa 433MHz, Meshtastic firmware). One plugged into my Mac mini via USB. The other one is portable with me. A Python listener daemon sits between the radio and Home Assistant, routing commands and returning sensor data — all over encrypted LoRa. HA runs on a Home Assistant Green.

What I can do from the radio

Smart home control:

• Turn lights on/off
• Check temperature from Aqara sensors (I have 3 around the house)
• Check power status — grid on/off, battery levels (EcoFlow, Zendure)
• Check who's home

Voice messages (this is the fun part):

• Type SAY: Привіт, я скоро буду вдома (Hey, I'll come back home soon) on the T-Echo
• Listener calls tts.google_translate with Ukrainian language
• HA Voice PE speaker reads it aloud at home
• Zero internet. Just radio → Mac mini → HA TTS → speaker

Camera snapshots:

• Ask "what's outside?" via radio or Discord
• Listener grabs snapshots from Tapo C120 + C100 (via HA camera proxy API)
• Runs them through a local vision model (gemma3:12b on Ollama)
• Sends me a text description: "5 cars parked, no people, snowy"
• Hourly automated monitoring logs everything

Proactive alerts:

• The AI monitors power status
• Power goes out → LoRa message to my radio within seconds
• Also sends battery levels and temperature

The HA integration

The listener talks to HA through the REST API:

• GET /api/states/{entity_id} — read sensors
• POST /api/services/{domain}/{service} — control devices
• GET /api/camera_proxy/{camera_entity} — grab snapshots
• POST /api/services/tts/speak — voice messages

Incoming radio messages get classified by a local LLM (phi4-mini) — "is this a smart home command, a question, or a TTS request?" Then routed to the right HA service or to a larger model (gemma3:12b) for general questions.

Architecture

T-Echo (portable)
    │ LoRa 433MHz, encrypted
    ▼
T-Echo (USB) → Mac mini
    │
    ├── SAY: prefix  → tts.google_translate → Voice PE speaker
    ├── Smart home   → Home Assistant REST API
    ├── Camera       → camera_proxy → gemma3 vision → description
    ├── AI questions → phi4-mini → gemma3:12b (local via Ollama)
    └── Alerts       → outbox .msg files → LoRa TX

Why this matters

HA on battery backup is great, but useless if you can't reach it. The radio bridge means:

• No dependency on WiFi, internet, or cell towers
• Encrypted communication (Meshtastic PSK)
• ~1-3 km urban range with stock T-Echo antenna (extendable with mesh nodes)
• Total cost: ~$60 for two radios

Entities I use

• camera.tapo_c120_hd_stream / camera.tapo_c100_hd_stream — snapshots
• tts.google_translate_en_com (with language: "uk") — Ukrainian TTS
• media_player.home_assistant_voice_* — the speaker
• binary_sensor.tapo_c120_person_detection — triggers
• Aqara temperature sensors
• Power grid status sensor (via Yasno integration and Meross Smart Plug as a sensor)
• EcoFlow battery levels

Stack

• Home Assistant — the heart of it all
• HA Voice PE — TTS output speaker
• Tapo C120 + C100 — security cameras
• Meshtastic on Lilygo T-Echo (433MHz)
• Ollama — local AI models
• OpenClaw — AI agent framework
• Mac mini M4 — server on battery backup

Happy to answer questions about the HA setup.