Ukrainian Home Assistant User Builds LoRa Radio Bridge for Smart Home Control During Power Outages
By
switz
A second-rack bagel that's nearly first-rack. Tasty stuff.
Summary
A Ukrainian Home Assistant user describes building a LoRa radio bridge system to control their smart home when internet and cellular networks fail due to Russian attacks on power infrastructure. Using two $30 Lilygo T-Echo radios with Meshtastic firmware, they created a system where one radio connects to their Home Assistant setup via USB and a Python daemon, while the other is portable. This allows remote control of lights, sensors, text-to-speech, and camera snapshots over encrypted LoRa radio when traditional connectivity is unavailable.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledI 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.
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.
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