BTN-1 Macro Deck: 16 Custom Smart Home Actions in One Open-Source Button Pad
Your smart home can do almost anything. The catch is that triggering all of it usually means digging through an app, finding the right screen, and tapping. There is a better way, and it feels great in your hand: a physical button you press, with a satisfying mechanical click and a light that tells you exactly what is happening.
That is the BTN-1 Macro Deck, and it might be the most fun you can have with your smart home for $34.99.
What is the BTN-1 Macro Deck?
The BTN-1 is a compact, four-button macro pad built for Home Assistant, Homey, and any other local-first smart home system. It runs on ESPHome, connects over Wi-Fi, and keeps everything local with no cloud and no subscription. Press a button and it can fire a scene, toggle your lights, run a routine, control your media, mute your notifications, or kick off any automation you can dream up.
It looks like a tiny mechanical keyboard because, in the ways that matter, it is one. Four hot-swappable, Cherry MX compatible brown switches give you that tactile click, and an LED sits in front of each button so you get instant visual feedback on status, state, or whatever you want each light to mean.
Four buttons, sixteen actions
Here is the part that surprises people. Four buttons does not mean four actions. Every button on the BTN-1 recognizes a single press, double press, triple press, and press-and-hold. That is four distinct actions per button, which adds up to 16 separate commands from one small deck sitting on your desk.
Want one button to turn your office lights on with a single tap, set a focus scene on a double tap, and run your full shutdown routine on a hold? That is one button. You have three more.
To make all of this quick to set up, we built a Home Assistant blueprint that maps every single, double, triple, and hold action for all four buttons without you writing automations by hand. Our getting started guide walks you through the whole thing.
What you can do with it
The fun of the BTN-1 is in what those 16 actions become day to day. Here are real examples to spark ideas:
- Focus mode at your desk. One tap mutes notifications, pauses noisy automations, and turns a button LED red so the room knows you are heads-down. Tap again to bring everything back.
- One-button movie night. Hold a button to dim the lights, lower the blinds, switch the TV input, and set the volume, all at once.
- Good morning and good night. Set it on the nightstand. A morning press raises the lights and starts the coffee, and a night hold locks the doors and turns everything off.
- Leaving the house. Mount it by the door. One press runs your away routine: lights off, thermostat set back, and the alarm armed.
- Lighting without the app. Single press toggles a room, double press sets a warm scene, triple press goes full brightness. No phone required.
- Media and music control. Play, pause, skip, and adjust volume for your speakers or Music Assistant setup from a button you can feel without looking.
- A local stream deck. For streamers and creators, map scene switches, a mic mute, a soundboard, or start and stop recording, all running on your own hardware.
- A control panel the whole household can use. Physical buttons are friendly for kids, guests, and anyone who would rather press a key than hunt for the right screen.
- Workshop and rack control. Rack-mount it to trigger routines, reset devices, or kick off any automation while you work.
- Acknowledge alerts. Tie a flashing button LED to a household alert, then press to silence it once you have seen it.
Because every button supports four actions, you can layer several of these onto one small deck and reach all of them without opening an app.
More ideas, room by room
Not sure where to start? Here is a deck's worth of inspiration for every part of the home.
- Kitchen: start a cooking timer, switch on task lighting, run the vent fan, or send a "dinner is ready" announcement to your speakers.
- Living room: a movie scene that dims the lights and lowers the blinds, playback control for your music, or a quick fan and lamp toggle.
- Bedroom: a nightstand deck for a good-night routine, a reading light, white noise, and a gentle wake-up scene in the morning.
- Home office: a meeting mode that mutes notifications and lights a busy indicator, plus a one-press focus timer.
- Entryway: an away routine on your way out and a welcome-home scene when you return, with everything off on a single hold.
- Garage or workshop: shop lights, dust collection, or a quick reset for the gear in your rack while your hands are full.
- Kids' room: friendly one-press controls for night-light colors and a story-time scene that anyone in the family can use.
Mix and match across your four buttons, and remember each one holds four actions.
How to set up your first macro in minutes
Getting started is approachable even if you have never written an automation.
- Power it on. Connect over USB-C or drop in the battery. The first time, the BTN-1 creates a Wi-Fi hotspot so you can join it to your network.
- Adopt it in Home Assistant. It shows up automatically as an ESPHome device. Add it with a couple of clicks.
- Import the blueprint. Load our BTN-1 blueprint. It lays out every single, double, triple, and hold action for all four buttons, ready for you to fill in.
- Map your first action. Pick a button and a press type, then choose what happens: toggle a light, run a scene, or start any script you already have.
- Press it. Save, press, and watch it fire. Because everything runs locally, the response is immediate with no round trip to a server.
Want to go deeper? The firmware is ESPHome, so the YAML is always there underneath when you want to customize behavior, LED colors, or buzzer tones.
Put it anywhere: USB-C or battery
The BTN-1 comes in three versions so it fits how you actually live:
- USB-C (no battery): $34.99. Reliable wired operation for a desk, a rack, or a workbench.
- International battery-ready (no battery included): $36.99. Ships with the battery case so you can source your own cell.
- USA battery-powered (battery included): $39.99. Fully wireless and ready to go.
The optional onboard battery is a 3.7V 2800 mAh cell that can last up to a year at around four presses a day, and it recharges right through the USB-C port. Stick the BTN-1 on the fridge, mount it by the door, set it on the nightstand, or screw it into a server rack. It goes where you need it.
Built to grow with you
The BTN-1 is a real product you'll keep using in your home, and it is built to do more over time. The board carries extensive GPIO and expansion headers, and we are developing a family of modular attachments: a high-contrast e-ink display for custom status readouts, an NFC tag reader and emitter for contactless actions, plus smaller add-ons like rotary dials, OLED screens, LED matrices, extra buttons, and a sensor mezzanine for things like CO2 monitoring. One little button deck today, a custom control surface tomorrow.
Under the hood it runs an ESP32-C6-MINI. Today it connects over Wi-Fi with Bluetooth LE on the same chip. Thread and Matter are supported at the chip level with firmware in active development, and Zigbee is also possible at the chip level for advanced users.
Who is it for?
The BTN-1 earns its place for a lot of different people:
- Smart home enthusiasts who want physical, reliable control of scenes, lights, climate, and routines instead of hunting through an app.
- Streamers and creators who need a local stream deck for macros, sound effects, and scene switches.
- Makers and tinkerers who want an open, hackable ESPHome device with room to expand.
- Anyone with a focus habit, because muting alerts and pausing automations with one tap is genuinely useful.
Our customers have found their own uses. One set theirs to disable certain lighting automations and audio alerts when it is time to focus. Another pointed out how open the device is, with battery charge, signal strength, device temperature, and uptime all exposed directly in Home Assistant. That openness is the whole point.
Local, private, and open by design
Like everything we make, the BTN-1 is built on a few values we do not compromise on.
It is 100% local. Every press is handled on your own network through Home Assistant or Homey, with no cloud in the loop. It responds instantly, and it keeps working even if your internet goes down.
It is private. Because nothing leaves your home, there is no account to create, nothing to track, and no data to sell. What you do with your buttons stays yours.
It is open source. The BTN-1 runs on ESPHome, so the firmware is open for you to read, change, and extend. Start with the no-code visual setup, then drop into YAML whenever you want more control. It is Made for ESPHome, Works With Home Assistant, and Works With Homey certified.
Every purchase supports the open home. Apollo is the second official commercial partner of the Open Home Foundation, and we contribute the majority of our profits back to the foundation. That funds the future of Home Assistant, ESPHome, and a smart home built on privacy, choice, and sustainability. When you buy a BTN-1, you are backing all of it.
It also pairs naturally with the rest of your setup, from our sensors and hubs to the ESPHome Starter Kit if you are new to building your own devices.
Ready to build, learn, and automate?
The BTN-1 Macro Deck starts at $34.99, and shipping is free on orders over $110. It is also available through our distributors in the US, UK, and Europe.
Grab one, map your first sixteen actions, and find out how good it feels to run your home with a real button. This is just the beginning of what you can build with it.
Frequently asked questions
Does the BTN-1 Macro Deck work with Home Assistant? Yes. The BTN-1 runs on ESPHome and integrates directly with Home Assistant, including a ready-made blueprint that maps the single, double, triple, and hold actions for all four buttons.
Does it work with Homey? Yes. The BTN-1 works with Home Assistant and Homey, and with other local-first smart home systems.
How many actions can four buttons really do? Each button recognizes a single press, double press, triple press, and press-and-hold. That is four actions per button, for 16 total commands from one deck.
Does the BTN-1 need the cloud or a subscription? No. Everything runs locally with no cloud dependency and no subscription. You keep full control of your data and your device.
Is the BTN-1 battery powered? You choose. It comes in a USB-C version and battery-powered versions. The optional 2800 mAh battery can last up to a year at around four presses a day and recharges through the USB-C port.
Can I change the switches and keycaps? Yes. The switches are hot-swappable and compatible with Cherry MX, so you can swap switches and keycaps without soldering.
How much does the BTN-1 Macro Deck cost? Pricing starts at $34.99 for the USB-C version, with battery-powered options at $36.99 and $39.99. Shipping is free on orders over $110.
Apollo Automation designs, engineers, and manufactures privacy-first, locally-controlled smart home sensors in Versailles, Kentucky. Every product features 100% local control with no cloud dependencies or subscriptions required. Apollo is a Works With Home Assistant partner, Made For ESPHome certified, Works With Homey certified, a BBB Accredited Business, and the second official commercial partner of the Open Home Foundation. Learn more at apolloautomation.com.
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