nebarik/esp32-nfc-reader

This project provides the template files and step-by-step instructions to build a physical NFC tag reader that automatically plays an album in Home Assistant when you scan a tag. The motivating use case is a CD collection: you attach NFC stickers inside CD cases, scan a case on the reader, and the corresponding album starts playing on nearby smart speakers. The hardware side requires an ESP32 microcontroller and a PN532 NFC module, both available for a few dollars each. You flash custom firmware onto the ESP32 using the ESPHome tool, which compiles the provided configuration file and produces a binary you upload via a browser-based flasher at web.esphome.io. A short wiring step connects the NFC module to the ESP32 using four wires and puts the module into I2C mode by flipping a physical switch. Once powered and connected to your Wi-Fi, the ESP32 appears in Home Assistant automatically. After scanning your NFC tags in Home Assistant and naming each one after the corresponding album, the second part of the project takes over. A shell script called match_album.sh pulls the list of tags from Home Assistant, matches each tag name to an album in Music Assistant, and generates a Home Assistant automation YAML file that maps each tag to the correct playback command. Running the script once updates the automation in Home Assistant with all the matches. Tags that do not match any album are logged in a separate file so you can rename them and retry. The repository is described as template files and a guide for people who want to skip the research and assembly work that the author spent a long time doing.