Hey everyone! I wanted to share a really cool project I’ve been working on to integrate my Unifi APs with Home Assistant using Node-RED. I’ve always been a bit fascinated by how these devices communicate and wanted to get more detailed insights into their performance and connected devices. Inspired by some great work I saw in the community, I decided to dive in and create my own solution.
First, I set up Node-RED on my Raspberry Pi and installed the necessary Unifi palette. This allowed me to connect to my Unifi controller and start pulling data from my access points. I was amazed at how much information was available—everything from client connections to radio stats and even system health metrics.
I designed a flow that periodically fetches data from my Unifi APs and pushes it into Home Assistant as MQTT messages. This way, I can monitor things like the number of connected clients, signal strength, and even the uptime of my APs right from my dashboard. It’s incredibly satisfying to see all this data neatly organized and accessible.
One of the coolest features I added was the ability to control the LED status of my APs directly from Home Assistant. Using a simple MQTT command, I can toggle the LED on or off, which is great for quickly identifying devices during setup or troubleshooting.
I also made sure to handle errors gracefully and set up a routine to refresh the data periodically. This ensures that the information stays up-to-date without overwhelming my network.
Overall, this project has been a fantastic learning experience and has greatly enhanced my home automation setup. I can now troubleshoot network issues more effectively and have a much better understanding of how my devices are performing.
If anyone has questions or wants to see more details about the flow or configuration, feel free to ask! I’d love to help others get started with this as well. Happy automating! 