Home Assistant Control (MQTT)

Make FiestaBoard appear as a native device in Home Assistant — control your board from HA automations and dashboards.

Overview

This feature lets Home Assistant automatically discover your FiestaBoard and expose it as a controllable device. Once connected, you can:

• Turn the schedule on/off from HA
• Switch active pages from HA automations
• Send messages to the board when events happen (doorbell, weather alerts, etc.)
• Blank the board or refresh the display remotely
• Change the transition animation style
• See board status, current page, version, and page count on your HA dashboard
• Start/stop the display service remotely

No installation needed on the Home Assistant side. FiestaBoard uses MQTT Discovery — the same protocol used by Zigbee2MQTT, Tasmota, and ESPHome — so your board appears automatically in HA.

Prerequisites

Before setting up, you need:

1. A running FiestaBoard instance (v2.2+ when this feature ships)
2. Home Assistant with the MQTT integration enabled
3. An MQTT broker accessible from both FiestaBoard and Home Assistant

First time connecting?

See the Connecting to Home Assistant via MQTT guide for a step-by-step walkthrough of broker setup, HA MQTT integration configuration, and FiestaBoard configuration.

About the MQTT Broker

An MQTT broker relays messages between FiestaBoard and Home Assistant. The most common setup:

• Mosquitto add-on — If you run Home Assistant OS or Supervised, install the Mosquitto broker add-on from the HA Add-on Store (Settings → Add-ons → Mosquitto broker). This is a one-click install and the most popular HA add-on.
• Existing broker — If you already have an MQTT broker on your network (common if you use Zigbee2MQTT, Tasmota, or other IoT devices), you can reuse it.
• Standalone Mosquitto — You can run Mosquitto on any machine. See the Eclipse Mosquitto documentation for installation instructions.

info

Most Home Assistant users already have an MQTT broker. If you use Zigbee2MQTT, Tasmota, ESPHome, or Frigate, you already have one.

Setup

Step 1: Enable MQTT in FiestaBoard

1. Open FiestaBoard at http://<your-fiestaboard-ip>:4420
2. Go to Settings
3. Find the Home Assistant (MQTT) section
4. Toggle Enable MQTT on
5. Enter your MQTT broker details:

Setting	Description	Example
Broker Host	Hostname or IP of your MQTT broker	192.168.1.100 or homeassistant.local
Broker Port	MQTT broker port (standard: 1883)	1883
Username	MQTT username (if broker requires auth)	mqtt_user
Password	MQTT password (if broker requires auth)	mqtt_pass

6. Click Save — FiestaBoard will connect to the broker and publish discovery messages

Step 2: Verify in Home Assistant

1. Open Home Assistant
2. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → MQTT
3. Look for a device named FiestaBoard
4. Click it to see all available controls and sensors

That's it. FiestaBoard is now controllable from Home Assistant.

tip

If FiestaBoard doesn't appear, check:

• The MQTT broker is running and reachable from both FiestaBoard and HA
• The MQTT integration is enabled in HA (Settings → Devices & Services → Add Integration → MQTT)
• FiestaBoard shows "MQTT Connected" in its Settings page

What You Get in Home Assistant

Once connected, FiestaBoard appears as a device with these controls and sensors:

Controls (you can change these from HA)

Entity	Type	Description
Schedule	Switch	Turn the FiestaBoard schedule on/off
Display Service	Switch	Start/stop the FiestaBoard display service
Active Page	Select	Choose which page to display (dynamically populated from your pages)
Transition Style	Select	Board transition animation (column, reverse-column, edges-to-center, row, diagonal, random)
Send Message	Text	Send a text message to the board (up to 132 characters)
Refresh Display	Button	Force a display refresh
Blank Board	Button	Clear the board display (all blank)
Refresh Interval	Number	Set how often the board refreshes (30–3600 seconds)

Sensors (read-only status from FiestaBoard)

Entity	Type	Description
Current Page	Sensor	Name of the page currently displayed
Service Status	Binary Sensor	Whether FiestaBoard is running
Board Message	Sensor	Summary of what's currently on the board
Silence Mode	Binary Sensor	Whether silence/quiet hours are active
Version	Sensor	FiestaBoard software version
Page Count	Sensor	Number of pages configured

Automation Examples

Send a Welcome Home Message

When someone arrives home, display a welcome message on the board:

automation:
  - alias: "Welcome Home Board Message"
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: person.john
        to: "home"
    action:
      - service: text.set_value
        target:
          entity_id: text.fiestaboard_send_message
        data:
          value: "Welcome Home John!"

Show Weather Page When Raining

Automatically switch to the weather page when rain is detected:

automation:
  - alias: "Show Weather When Raining"
    trigger:
      - platform: state
        entity_id: weather.home
        attribute: condition
        to: "rainy"
    action:
      - service: select.select_option
        target:
          entity_id: select.fiestaboard_active_page
        data:
          option: "Weather Dashboard"

Blank the Board at Bedtime

Clear the board at night and restart in the morning:

automation:
  - alias: "Blank Board at Bedtime"
    trigger:
      - platform: time
        at: "22:00:00"
    action:
      - service: button.press
        target:
          entity_id: button.fiestaboard_blank_board
  - alias: "Turn On Board in Morning"
    trigger:
      - platform: time
        at: "07:00:00"
    action:
      - service: switch.turn_on
        target:
          entity_id: switch.fiestaboard_display_service

Display on HA Dashboard

Add FiestaBoard status and controls to your HA dashboard:

type: entities
title: FiestaBoard
entities:
  - entity: binary_sensor.fiestaboard_service_status
  - entity: sensor.fiestaboard_current_page
  - entity: sensor.fiestaboard_board_message
  - entity: sensor.fiestaboard_version
  - entity: sensor.fiestaboard_page_count
  - entity: switch.fiestaboard_schedule
  - entity: switch.fiestaboard_display_service
  - entity: select.fiestaboard_active_page
  - entity: select.fiestaboard_transition_style
  - entity: number.fiestaboard_refresh_interval

Configuration Reference

Environment Variables

You can also configure MQTT via environment variables (useful for Docker):

Variable	Default	Description
MQTT_ENABLED	false	Enable MQTT integration
MQTT_BROKER_HOST	localhost	MQTT broker hostname or IP
MQTT_BROKER_PORT	1883	MQTT broker port
MQTT_USERNAME	(empty)	MQTT username
MQTT_PASSWORD	(empty)	MQTT password
MQTT_DISCOVERY_PREFIX	homeassistant	HA discovery topic prefix
MQTT_BASE_TOPIC	fiestaboard	Base topic for state and commands
MQTT_INSTANCE_ID	fiestaboard_1	Unique ID (for multi-board setups)
FIESTABOARD_EXTERNAL_URL	(empty)	URL shown as the "Visit" link on the HA device page (e.g. http://192.168.1.50:4420). When not set, no link appears.

Docker Compose Example

services:
  fiestaboard:
    image: fiestaboard/fiestaboard:latest
    ports:
      - "4420:4420"
    environment:
      - MQTT_ENABLED=true
      - MQTT_BROKER_HOST=192.168.1.100
      - MQTT_BROKER_PORT=1883
      - MQTT_USERNAME=mqtt_user
      - MQTT_PASSWORD=mqtt_pass
      - FIESTABOARD_EXTERNAL_URL=http://192.168.1.50:4420

Multiple FiestaBoards

If you have more than one FiestaBoard, give each a unique instance ID:

# Living room board
MQTT_INSTANCE_ID=fiestaboard_living_room
MQTT_BASE_TOPIC=fiestaboard_living_room

# Office board
MQTT_INSTANCE_ID=fiestaboard_office
MQTT_BASE_TOPIC=fiestaboard_office

Each board appears as a separate device in Home Assistant.

How It Works

FiestaBoard uses MQTT Discovery — the same mechanism used by Zigbee2MQTT, Tasmota, ESPHome, and Frigate. Here's the flow:

1. FiestaBoard connects to the MQTT broker
2. It publishes discovery messages to topics under homeassistant/ — these tell HA what entities to create
3. It publishes an availability message (online) so HA knows the board is connected
4. It publishes current state for all entities
5. Home Assistant reads the discovery messages and automatically creates the device with all entities
6. When you interact with an entity in HA (toggle a switch, send a message), HA publishes a command to the MQTT broker
7. FiestaBoard receives the command, executes it, and publishes the updated state back

All state messages are retained — if HA restarts, it immediately gets the current state without waiting for a change.

FiestaBoard sets a Last Will and Testament (LWT) — if FiestaBoard disconnects unexpectedly, the broker automatically publishes offline so HA knows the board is down.

Troubleshooting

FiestaBoard Not Appearing in HA

1. Check MQTT broker connectivity — Verify FiestaBoard can reach the broker (check FiestaBoard Settings page for connection status)
2. Check HA MQTT integration — Go to HA → Settings → Devices & Services and ensure the MQTT integration is configured and connected to the same broker
3. Check broker logs — Look at the Mosquitto broker logs for connection/authentication errors
4. Restart discovery — Disable and re-enable MQTT in FiestaBoard settings to republish discovery messages

Entities Showing "Unavailable"

• FiestaBoard may have disconnected — check the FiestaBoard service is running
• Check the MQTT broker is running
• The LWT message marks the board as offline if the connection drops

Commands Not Working

• Verify the MQTT broker allows publish/subscribe from both HA and FiestaBoard
• Check that HA's MQTT integration is configured with the correct broker credentials
• Check FiestaBoard logs for command processing errors

Branding

Entity Icons

Each entity in HA shows a Material Design Icon that reflects its role:

Entity	Icon	Reasoning
Schedule	mdi:calendar-clock	Scheduled content delivery
Display Service	mdi:television-play	The board as an active display
Active Page	mdi:bookmark	The page queued for display
Transition Style	mdi:animation-play	Animated flip between pages
Current Page	mdi:eye	What is visible on the board right now
Board Message	mdi:text	The text content on the board
Silence Mode	mdi:volume-off	Quiet hours: no updates
Blank Board	mdi:rectangle-outline	Clear/empty board face
Send Message	mdi:send	Push text to the board

Device Image

MQTT Discovery does not support setting a device-level image directly. To add a FiestaBoard logo to the device page in HA:

1. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → MQTT
2. Click on the FiestaBoard device
3. Click the pencil (edit) icon in the top-right corner
4. Under Icon, click the camera/image icon and upload the FiestaBoard logo
   • The logo is served from your FiestaBoard instance at http://<your-fiestaboard-ip>:4420/logo.png

This is saved locally in HA and persists across restarts.

FAQ

Do I need to install anything in Home Assistant?

No. FiestaBoard uses MQTT Discovery, which is built into Home Assistant's MQTT integration. No custom components, no HACS, no YAML configuration needed.

What if I don't have an MQTT broker?

The easiest option is to install the Mosquitto broker add-on in Home Assistant (one click from the Add-on Store). Alternatively, you can run Mosquitto on any machine on your network.

Is MQTT secure?

MQTT supports username/password authentication. For additional security, you can configure your broker to use TLS encryption (port 8883). FiestaBoard sends credentials securely to the broker.

Does this affect FiestaBoard if I don't use Home Assistant?

No. MQTT integration is disabled by default and completely opt-in. If you don't enable it, there's zero impact on FiestaBoard's behavior or performance.

What is MQTT?

MQTT is an open standard messaging protocol (ISO/IEC 20922) designed for IoT devices. It's lightweight, reliable, and the most widely used protocol for smart home device communication. It's used by Zigbee2MQTT, Tasmota, ESPHome, Frigate, and hundreds of other smart home projects.

Related

• Home Assistant Plugin — Display HA entity states on your board (the reverse direction)
• Plugins Overview — See all available plugins