I’m happy to announce that the PwrTool 500 campaign is now live! PwrTool 500 gives Home Assistant users better tools for off-grid systems. It’s fully open source, built on the ESP32, and works out of the box with 12–48 V battery systems up to 500 A peak draw. You get real-time monitoring of current, voltage, power, and even environmental data, all in Home Assistant with no coding required.

I’d like to quickly introduce myself as we launch PwrTool 500.

Five years ago, I bought and began living in a skoolie. I had already been building solar setups for myself and friends, but once I got into Home Assistant, I ran into all kinds of hurdles trying to integrate the two, without spending a fortune on hardware or writing piles of complicated code.

Over the years, both hardware and software have improved, but a lot of the same problems still exist. “Smart” devices are still mostly built for on-grid use with AC power, while solar gear tends to stick with industrial protocols like RS485 and CAN, or just locks you into their proprietary apps.

PwrTool 500 is the first of several designs I’ve been developing to bridge that gap. It gives Home Assistant users better tools for off-grid systems. It’s fully open source, built on the ESP32, and works out of the box with 12–48 V battery systems up to 500 A peak draw. You get real-time monitoring of current, voltage, power, and even environmental data, all in Home Assistant with no coding required (unless you want to).

Check out the campaign page and video for all the details.

Feel free to reach out using the Ask a Question form. I’m also on Bluesky with updates, Q&A’s, and we’ve got an active Discord for discussion around the PwrTool 500 and other Voidbox projects.

Thanks for your support. This is just the beginning.

– Voidbox Industries