CarHA vs BlePad

CarHA lets you control your Home Assistant smart home directly from your car's touch screen while driving. Configure buttons for lights, switches, covers, and any Home Assistant entity. Monitor sensors, battery levels, water tanks, and power consumption — all from your car dashboard with large, color-coded buttons designed for driving. FEATURES - Control any Home Assistant switch, light, or automation - Monitor sensors in real time with WebSocket updates - Fully customizable tabs and buttons with colored icons - Supports multiple Home Assistant instances - Geofence zones — get notified or trigger automations automatically when you arrive near home, work, or any location - iOS Widget — check battery and sensor status from your home screen - Backup & Restore — export and import your configuration - Works over local network or remote connection (Tailscale, Nabu Casa) - No cloud, no subscriptions — connects directly to your server REQUIREMENTS - A running Home Assistant instance - Home Assistant URL and Long-Lived Access Token - iPhone with iOS 16+ - A car with a compatible car dashboard system CarHA is not affiliated with Nabu Casa, Inc. or the Home Assistant project.

BlePad turns your iPhone into a wireless remote controller for BLE UART devices — perfect for micro:bit, ESP32, and any Nordic UART Service (NUS) compatible hardware. Great for electronics projects, education, and robotics. ■ Four built-in remote screens Game Controller D-pad (up/down/left/right) and A/B buttons with full multi-touch support. Numpad Digits 0–9 plus arithmetic keys (+, −, ×, ÷). QWERTY Keyboard Full alphabetic layout, optimized for landscape orientation. Custom Remote Freely arrange widgets on a 12-column × 8-row grid in landscape mode. Choose from Buttons, ON/OFF Switches, and Sliders (horizontal or vertical). Set custom labels, command values, colors, and sizes for each widget. Long-press repeat sends the button command every 100 ms. Pro unlocks up to 20 saved layouts, and layout names can be up to 20 characters. ■ Share your layouts Share the custom remote layouts you've created with other phones. Export a layout as a JSON file and send it however you like — AirDrop, email, cloud storage, and more. Import a layout someone shared with you to start using the same setup right away. Exporting is available in the free version; importing requires Pro. ■ Receive Log Displays incoming BLE UART notifications in real time as a timestamped text log (up to 100 entries). ■ Free vs Pro Free (ad-supported) • Game Controller, Numpad, Keyboard: full access • Custom Remote: create, use, edit, and export 1 layout • Receive Log: full access Pro (one-time purchase) • Everything in Free • Custom Remote: up to 20 layouts, plus layout import • Ad-free ■ Technical specs • Protocol: Nordic UART Service (NUS) • Write / Write without response, max 20 bytes per packet (auto-detected from characteristic properties) • Command format: +ID\n on press, −ID\n on release • Requires iOS 17.0 or later ■ Compatible devices • BBC micro:bit (V1 / V2) • ESP32 (requires NUS-compatible BLE UART firmware) • Any Nordic UART Service (NUS) compatible BLE device Note: BLE stability depends on your environment. For robotics or safety-critical use, we recommend implementing emergency stop logic on the device side.