Ioios Aims to Bring Beautiful, Open Source, Programmable Controls to Your Smart Home System

Electrical engineer John Lumley has launched a crowdfunding campaign for a line of open source physical interfaces for smart home systems: the ioios range, compatible with ESPHome, Home Assistant, OpenHAB, Tasmota, and more.

"I was looking for devices to control to my smart home but couldn't find what I needed, so we set about creating our own," Lumley explains. "By creating a range of 'open' interfaces for smart homes, we offer complete control at your fingertips. Providing sleek, physical controls for your lights, entertainment, climate control, blinds and more."

"The electronics and the cases are all open source so you can make your own or just buy them straight from us. Our premium line is made from a combination of aluminium and oak. 3D printer owners can achieve great looking items with a little experience and good filament selection."

The ioios family is split into two key ranges. The Counter range comes in Wedge Mini, Wedge, Wedge Plus, Tower Mini, Tower, and Tower Plus, with all models including a rotary dial, an OLED display, and a temperature and humidity sensor; higher-end models add additional switches, a passive infra-red sensor, and a speaker with MP3 playback capabilities.

The Plug range, as the name implies, is designed to take advantage of the increasing number of USB charging points around people's houses. "They can plug directly into any USB power socket — which are appearing all over our houses — and can provide many of the features found in the Counter range," Lumley adds. "The USB plug can be unsoldered and flipped over if you have a USB port with unconventional orientation. If you'd rather use a USB cable instead, the plug can be replaced with a micro USB socket."

Lumley is looking to fund production of the units via Kickstarter, with rewards priced from £30 for just the electronics and from £55 for a pair of physical Counter Wedge systems.