Published October 7, 2025

Easy way to use the Unihiker K10 with Home-Assistant

The Unihiker K10 has sensors and built-in AI for simple voice/image recognition. Alone, it can't do much, but with Home Assistant... a LOT!

IntermediateFull instructions provided1 hour3

Easy way to use the Unihiker K10 with Home-Assistant

Things used in this project

Hardware components

DFRobot Unihiker K10

Software apps and online services

Home Assistant

DFRobot Mind+

Story

I use Home Assistant (HA) for Home Automation and other cool things it can do.

One of the nice things about HA is that it can support many kinds of sensors and it can control many kinds of things (Lights, AC, servos, you name it).

Usually one can buy some compatible sensors or make their own boards with sensors, buttons, displays, etc, but the beauty of the K10 is that it has so many already built in!

Usually an ESP32 device would be onboarded using ESPHome which is great, but only works with HW it knows and has many updates that need managing.

An alternative is to use MQTT which allows any capable device to send and receive messages; regardless of the development environment. This is what I chose.

The K10 allows development in Mind+ (like Scratch), micropython and Arduino.

Unfortunately there's not enough documentation for the latter two so I had to use Mind+, even though I much prefer the others. One "sort of" positive is that Mind+ generates Arduino code which one can modify and build within Mind+, but sadly I was unable to build it in a separate Arduino IDE. They say it's coming. Also; it builds and uploads really FAST!

Anyway, the examples provided are useful and it was easy to make a Proof Of Concept that actually works and can control some lights in my home, using voice.

1. Connect to WiFi

2. Connect to the HA MQTT Message Broker (receives and sends message between "things")

3. Set-up Voice Commands

4. Loop forever: If WakeWord is heard, listen for command. If command is recognised, send specific message to MQTT

5. Upload the program to the Unihiker K10 (Connect it to your PC and click on "Upload")

5. In HA, set up automations for each MQTT Topic/Message to do what you want.

alias: K10_MQTT_Lights
description: ""
triggers:
  - trigger: mqtt
    topic: UniK10/Lights
    id: TrigID0
    payload: BathOn
  - trigger: mqtt
    topic: UniK10/Lights
    payload: BathOff
    id: TrigID1
  - trigger: mqtt
    topic: UniK10/Lights
    id: TrigID2
    payload: BedrOn
  - trigger: mqtt
    topic: UniK10/Lights
    id: TrigID3
    payload: BedrOff
  - trigger: mqtt
    topic: UniK10/Lights
    id: TrigID4
    payload: ChinaLights
conditions: []
actions:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - TrigID0
        sequence:
          - action: automation.trigger
            metadata: {}
            data:
              skip_condition: true
            target:
              entity_id: automation.cat_bath_on_hue_1_on_short
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - TrigID1
        sequence:
          - action: light.turn_off
            metadata: {}
            data: {}
            target:
              area_id: cat_bathroom
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - TrigID2
        sequence:
          - action: automation.trigger
            metadata: {}
            data:
              skip_condition: true
            target:
              entity_id: automation.cat_bed_on_hue_2_short_based_on_time
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - TrigID3
        sequence:
          - action: light.turn_off
            metadata: {}
            data: {}
            target:
              device_id: d8e91ec1298e9a8114723d9e65304128
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - TrigID4
        sequence:
          - action: scene.turn_on
            metadata: {}
            data: {}
            target:
              entity_id: scene.cat_bedroom_chinatown
mode: single

/*!
 * MindPlus
 * esp32s3bit
 *
 */
#include "asr.h"
#include <DFRobot_Iot.h>
#include "unihiker_k10.h"

// Static constants
const String topics[5] = {"UniK10/AutoBdrOn","","","",""};
// Create an object
UNIHIKER_K10 k10;
ASR          asr;
DFRobot_Iot  myIot;
uint8_t      screen_dir=2;


// Main program start
void setup() {
	k10.begin();
	asr.asrInit(CONTINUOUS, EN_MODE, 3000);
	while(asr._asrState == 0){delay(100);}
	k10.initScreen(screen_dir);
	k10.creatCanvas();
	myIot.setCustomMqttCallback(obloqMqttEventTsiot47switch, "siot/switch");
	asr.addASRCommand(0+1, "bathroom light on");
	asr.addASRCommand(1+1, "bathroom light off");
	asr.addASRCommand(2+1, "bedroom light on");
	asr.addASRCommand(3+1, "bedroom light off");
	asr.addASRCommand(4+1, "Chinatown lights");
	myIot.wifiConnect("MySSID", "MyPwd");
	k10.canvas->canvasText("Connecting WiFi", 0, 0, 0x0000FF, k10.canvas->eCNAndENFont24, 50, true);
	k10.canvas->updateCanvas();
	while (!myIot.wifiStatus()) {}
	k10.canvas->canvasText(myIot.getWiFiLocalIP(), 0, 0, 0x0000FF, k10.canvas->eCNAndENFont24, 50, true);
	k10.canvas->updateCanvas();
	myIot.init("192.168.0.xx","mqttuserName","SomeGeneratedNumber","mqttPassword", topics, 1883);
	myIot.connect();
	k10.canvas->canvasText("Connecting MQTT", 0, 30, 0x0000FF, k10.canvas->eCNAndENFont24, 50, true);
	k10.canvas->updateCanvas();
	while (!myIot.connected()) {}
	k10.canvas->canvasText("MQTT Connected", 0, 30, 0x0000FF, k10.canvas->eCNAndENFont24, 50, true);
	k10.canvas->updateCanvas();
}
void loop() {
	if (asr.isWakeUp()) {
		k10.canvas->canvasText("Say Command", 4, 0x0000FF);
		k10.canvas->updateCanvas();
	}
	else {
		k10.canvas->canvasText("Say \"Hi Telly\"", 4, 0x0000FF);
		k10.canvas->updateCanvas();
	}
	if (asr.isDetectCmdID(0+1)) {
		myIot.publish("UniK10/Lights", "BathOn");
	}
	else {
		if (asr.isDetectCmdID(1+1)) {
			myIot.publish("UniK10/Lights", "BathOff");
		}
		else {
			if (asr.isDetectCmdID(2+1)) {
				myIot.publish("UniK10/Lights", "BedrOn");
			}
			else {
				if (asr.isDetectCmdID(3+1)) {
					myIot.publish("UniK10/Lights", "BedrOff");
				}
				else {
					if (asr.isDetectCmdID(4+1)) {
						myIot.publish("UniK10/Lights", "ChinaLights");
					}
					else {
					}
				}
			}
		}
	}
}