Summary
I originally started using Home Assistant simply to manage my smart home devices. Over time, however, it evolved into a powerful automation platform that now connects everything from my home server and NAS devices to a variety of self-hosted services.
One of Home Assistant’s biggest strengths is its extensive integration library, allowing it to work with far more than traditional IoT devices. The Home Assistant Community Store (HACS) expands those capabilities even further, making it possible to integrate countless community-developed projects.
One of my favorite examples is how I connected my 3D printers to Home Assistant. While the manufacturers’ apps already let me monitor prints remotely and adjust settings like nozzle and heated bed temperatures, integrating them with Home Assistant unlocked much more powerful automation capabilities—including a fully local, LLM-powered monitoring workflow.
Connecting My 3D Printers Through an HACS Integration
A Small Workaround Was Needed for the Centauri Carbon 2
Before diving into the automations, it’s worth explaining how I connected my printers.
Since Home Assistant doesn’t include native support for my Elegoo printers, I installed the community-developed elegoo-homeassistant integration created by danielcherubini. Installation is straightforward for most Elegoo printers, including the original Centauri Carbon.
The Centauri Carbon 2 (CC2) required a little extra work.
Unlike some recent restrictions seen on other printer ecosystems, the issue isn’t related to manufacturer lock-in. Instead, the CC2 operates using its own MQTT broker, which isn’t directly compatible with this integration.
Because the community project doesn’t currently support OAuth2 authentication or Elegoo’s cloud relay services, cloud connectivity isn’t available.
The solution was to switch the printer to local-only mode and pair it with Home Assistant using the security code generated by the printer itself.
Although my CC2 continues to receive firmware updates while operating in local mode, the trade-off is losing access to cloud-based monitoring tools.
Fortunately, combining the Home Assistant Companion App with Tailscale gives me secure remote access to my Home Assistant server, making cloud monitoring unnecessary. The integration exposes dozens of useful printer entities, giving me access to nearly every important metric directly inside Home Assistant.
Custom Automations Improved My 3D Printing Workflow
A Dedicated Dashboard Keeps Everything Organized
Because Home Assistant can monitor virtually every aspect of an active print job, I built a dedicated dashboard to keep all of that information in one place.
Using Bubble Card components, I created a clean interface that looks great on both desktop and mobile devices while monitoring both my CC1 and CC2 printers.
The dashboard also includes quick controls for printer speed and temperature, allowing me to make manual adjustments whenever necessary.
One feature I particularly appreciate is camera integration.
Home Assistant treats each printer’s built-in camera like any other surveillance camera, letting me view live feeds alongside the rest of my smart home devices.
The integration also exposes valuable information such as:
- Print status
- Error messages
- Task IDs
This allows me to begin troubleshooting immediately whenever Home Assistant sends an automated notification.
The real value, however, comes from the automation rules I’ve built using Home Assistant’s trigger-based workflows.
For example, receiving notifications when a print finishes—or fails—is as simple as using the printer’s status as the automation trigger and selecting Send Notification through the Home Assistant Companion App.
I’ve also connected my printers to smart plugs.
Since Home Assistant supports multi-device automations, I created workflows that automatically cut power to both my CC1 and CC2 if they remain idle for more than 15 minutes, helping reduce unnecessary energy consumption.
I Even Connected My Printers to a Local AI Voice Assistant
Fully Local Voice Control Without Cloud Services
A few weeks ago, I decided to experiment with Home Assistant’s voice capabilities after the platform introduced Voice Satellite support for the Companion App.
To power the conversational experience, I deployed a local GPT-OSS-20B model using the Home Agent integration. Thanks to Mixture of Experts (MoE) offloading, the model even runs on my aging GTX 1080.
To complete the voice pipeline, I paired it with:
- Whisper for speech-to-text
- Piper for text-to-speech
Both were installed through the Home Assistant App Store, resulting in a completely local voice assistant capable of controlling my smart home.
Since the Elegoo integration already exposes nearly every important printer entity to Home Assistant, connecting my printers to the voice assistant required only enabling those entities within the Voice Assistant settings.
The result has been surprisingly useful.
Instead of opening the printer dashboard, I can simply ask my local AI assistant for information such as:
- Remaining print time
- Current nozzle temperature
- Active print layer
- Overall print progress
The assistant can also execute voice commands to control print jobs, adjust fan speeds, toggle chamber lighting, and manage several other printer functions—all without relying on external cloud services.
Final Thoughts
Integrating my Elegoo 3D printers with Home Assistant has transformed them from standalone devices into fully connected components of my broader automation ecosystem.
With community-built integrations, custom dashboards, intelligent automations, secure remote monitoring, and a completely local AI-powered voice assistant, I’ve built a workflow that goes far beyond what the manufacturer’s software provides.
What began as a simple smart home platform has become the central hub for managing not only my connected devices but also my 3D printing environment, making everyday tasks more efficient, automated, and entirely under my control.