OpenHaystack is an application that allows you to create your own accessories that are tracked by Apple’s Find My network. They have reverse-engineered Apple’s protocol and documented it, a quite impressive project.

I wanted to track my electric scooter in case it got stolen. Although the “official” way to build your accessories was “acceptable,” it turns out to be quite problematic with several compatibility issues on different Espressif boards.

So I ported it as a component of ESPHome, a software that I already use for my embedded devices’ needs.

Why ESPHome? Isn’t it “for the home”?

I am a little obsessed with keeping my IoT/Embedded devices as up-to-date as possible (and, of course, off any cloud if possible), so ESPHome is an attractive solution to keep your devices updated with Arduino and Espressif frameworks. Through ESPHome, I can “update” my scooter whenever I want.

Why isn’t this an official component?

I tried! I opened Add support for OpenHaystack #3584, and its support documentation, but understandably they didn’t want to merge it.

ESPHome Example - ESP32

external_components:
  - source:
      type: git
      url: https://github.com/barrenechea/esphome-config-files
      ref: main
    components: [openhaystack]

esphome:
  name: openhaystack-demo

esp32:
  board: wemos_d1_mini32

wifi:
  ssid: <your-wifi-ssid>
  password: <your-wifi-password>

# Enable logs
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:

ota:
  password: !secret ota_password

openhaystack:
  # Here goes the OpenHaystack key encoded in Base64
  # I strongly suggest you handle it as a secret
  key: !secret openhaystack_key

ESPHome Example - ESP32-C3

external_components:
  - source:
      type: git
      url: https://github.com/barrenechea/esphome-config-files
      ref: main
    components: [openhaystack]

esphome:
  name: openhaystack-demo
  platformio_options:
    board_build.flash_mode: dio

esp32:
  board: esp32-c3-devkitm-1
  variant: ESP32C3
  framework:
    type: esp-idf
    version: latest
    sdkconfig_options:
      CONFIG_FREERTOS_UNICORE: y
      CONFIG_COMPILER_OPTIMIZATION_SIZE: y
      # Enable WPA3 support just because we can
      CONFIG_WPA_SUITE_B_192: y
      # Specific for Bluetooth use
      CONFIG_BT_BLE_50_FEATURES_SUPPORTED: y
      CONFIG_BT_BLE_42_FEATURES_SUPPORTED: y
      # Fix "Payload size error" - Extend Watchdog timeout
      CONFIG_ESP_TASK_WDT_TIMEOUT_S: '10'

wifi:
  ssid: <your-wifi-ssid>
  password: <your-wifi-password>

# Enable logs
logger:

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:

ota:
  password: !secret ota_password

openhaystack:
  # Here goes the OpenHaystack key encoded in Base64
  # I strongly suggest you handle it as a secret
  key: !secret openhaystack_key