Automating a Balsam Hill Artificial Tree

8 thoughts on “Automating a Balsam Hill Artificial Tree”

1. Hey Dave, I really like this project and I appreciate that you also told the stuffs you tried but could not get to work with this remote (others might find these very helpful!), and a big thank you for sharing the details of the home automation parts, too! I use Domoticz but I wanted to try OpenHAB and ESPHome for a while now – maybe this was the last nudge to do so 🙂 Also, I am glad you found my post useful. Great project, just as great blog post about it 🙂 Happy holidays! Gabor

   Reply

   1. Thank you for your work and the kind words! (Just now catching up on comments, but happy holidays to you as well.)

      Reply
2. Pingback: Receiving and decoding 433 MHz radio signals from wireless devices – Gabor Heja

3. Hey Dave! In what appears to be a case of simultaneous invention. I spent December figuring out the same automation for my Balsam Hill tree as you did. I had my “eureka, it works!” moment the same day you published this. Looks like our ESPHome configs are basically the same!

   https://zerowidth.com/2025/reverse-engineering-my-christmas-tree/

   Reply

   1. Haha, that’s amazing. I love how we both followed almost the exact same process.

      One thing I didn’t mention was that I briefly considered making a quick-and-dirty sound card oscilloscope of my own to go that route, but I didn’t have anything with a true line-in, looked online for some USB options, and eventually (finally) remembered I had the RTL-SDR.

      Reply

4. I’m trying to get your Balsam Hill Automation working in Home Assistant… I’m running into just a few issues.

   First, I get errors from the “include” statements in Device Builder, are those supposed to be included in a standard library, or are they standard files you use? If the latter, do you mind sharing.

   Second, Any reason you didn’t use GPIO22 instead of GPIO25? I modified your script to use 22, because it made setting up on a breadboard easier. Seems like it should be fine, but maybe I’m missing something.

   “`
   esphome:
   name: christmas-tree-controller
   friendly_name: Christmas Tree Controller

   esp32:
   board: wemos_d1_mini32
   framework:
   type: arduino

   # Enable logging
   logger:

   # Enable Home Assistant API
   api:
   encryption:
   key: “Ygoi7qiejHuOKRl5ki4aqiwXJCDhCJeAb9g6pRGVJVo=”

   ota:
   – platform: esphome
   password: “2100e703136c3c76b0d8b69eb878bcf7”

   wifi:
   ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
   password: !secret wifi_password

   # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
   ap:
   ssid: “Christmas-Tree-Controller”
   password: “YUwj5JLjevBl”

   captive_portal:

   remote_transmitter:
   pin: GPIO22 #### ESP32
   # RF uses a 100% carrier signal
   carrier_duty_percent: 100%

   button:
   – platform: template
   name: “Brightness Up”
   on_press:
   – remote_transmitter.transmit_raw:
   code: [8800, -4400,
   1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -1024
   ]
   repeat:
   times: 6
   wait_time: 0.0s
   – platform: template
   name: “Brightness Down”
   on_press:
   – remote_transmitter.transmit_raw:
   code: [8800, -4400,
   1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024,
   1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072
   ]
   repeat:
   times: 6
   wait_time: 0.0s
   – platform: template
   name: “Color”
   on_press:
   – remote_transmitter.transmit_raw:
   code: [8800, -4400,
   1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024
   ]
   repeat:
   times: 6
   wait_time: 0s
   – platform: template
   name: “Clear”
   on_press:
   – remote_transmitter.transmit_raw:
   code: [8800, -4400,
   1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024,
   1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072
   ]
   repeat:
   times: 6
   wait_time: 0s
   – platform: template
   name: “Color and Clear”
   on_press:
   – remote_transmitter.transmit_raw:
   code: [8800, -4400,
   1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072, 1024, -1024
   ]
   repeat:
   times: 6
   wait_time: 0s
   – platform: template
   name: “Tree Off”
   on_press:
   – remote_transmitter.transmit_raw:
   code: [8800, -4400,
   1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072,
   1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072, 1024, -1024,
   1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -3072, 1024, -1024, 1024, -3072,
   ]
   repeat:
   times: 6
   wait_time: 0s
   “`

   Reply

   1. I honestly don’t remember why I picked that particular GPIO. Might have been related to the physical layout of my board, but maybe not. It shouldn’t make much difference, though.

      Those two includes are where I put most of my standard stuff. It’s just how I’ve chosen to modularize my configuration and keep things consistent across all my devices. Here they are for your reference:

      # common/common.yaml
packages:
esphome: !include esphome.yaml
logger: !include logger.yaml
mqtt: !include mqtt.yaml

      button:
      - platform: restart
      name: "${friendly_name} Restart"

      api:
      reboot_timeout: 0s

      sensor:
- platform: uptime
name: "${friendly_name} Uptime"

      # common/network.yaml
packages:
network_base: !include network-base.yaml

      wifi:
      # https://esphome.io/components/wifi
      ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
      password: !secret wifi_password
      use_address: ${device_name}.smarthome.davecorder.org # I use this to add a custom domain instead of using the default .local
      domain: .smarthome.davecorder.org
      fast_connect: true

      # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
      ap:
      ssid: "${friendly_name}"
      password: !secret esphome_ap_password

      captive_portal:
# this section intentionally left blank

      Those, in turn, have other includes, including:

      # common/network-base.yaml
# Enable Home Assistant API
api:
# https://esphome.io/components/api
# password: !secret api_password
encryption:
key: !secret api_encryption_key

      ota:
      # https://esphome.io/components/ota
      platform: esphome
      password: !secret ota_password

      # Enable Web server.
web_server:
port: 80
js_url: http://majel.davecorder.org:6052/static/js/esphome/www.js
# auth:
# username: !secret web_username
# password: !secret web_password

      # common/esphome.yaml
esphome:
name: ${device_name}
friendly_name: ${friendly_name}

      # common/logger.yaml
logger:
# intentionally blank

      # cat common/mqtt.yaml
mqtt:
broker: majel.davecorder.org
username: !secret mqtt_username
password: !secret mqtt_password
discovery: false

      Reply

      1. Turns out the issue was me reversing signal and VCC. The way they labelled my transmitter was dumb. One burned out transmitter later, and it was all working great, but range was limited. I upgraded my setup to the transmitter below. You need an additional enable pin that turns the internal amplifier on and off (esphome docs for remotetransmitter have directions for that). Sniffing with my RTL-SDR, the tuned frequency is closer to that of the remote than the cheap aliexpress modules I started with. Whether it’s the amplifier in the new module, the longer antenna that comes with it, or the better tuning (or a combination of all of them). I am getting dramatically better reliability, and much further transmission distances with the new module.

         https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BLTSSMXH?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

         I also made some readability improvements to the codebase using includes and `transmit_rc_switch_raw`.

         #christmas_tree_button.yaml
         – remote_transmitter.transmit_rc_switch_raw:
         code: ${button_code}
         protocol:
         pulse_length: 100
         sync:
         – 88
         – 44
         zero:
         – 10
         – 30
         one:
         – 10
         – 10
         repeat:
         times: 6
         wait_time: 0.0s

         # relevant portion of christmas-tree-controller.yaml
         button:
         – platform: template
         name: ‘Brighter’
         on_press: !include {file: christmas-tree-button.yaml, vars: {button_code: ‘00000000111100001111111000000001’} }
         – platform: template
         name: ‘Dimmer’
         on_press: !include {file: christmas-tree-button.yaml, vars: {button_code: ‘00000000111100001111111100000000’} }
         – platform: template
         name: ‘Color’
         on_press: !include {file: christmas-tree-button.yaml, vars: {button_code: ‘00000000111100001111110000000011’} }
         – platform: template
         name: ‘Clear’
         on_press: !include {file: christmas-tree-button.yaml, vars: {button_code: ‘00000000111100001111101100000100’} }
         – platform: template
         name: ‘Color and Clear’
         on_press: !include {file: christmas-tree-button.yaml, vars: {button_code: ‘00000000111100001111101000000101’} }
         – platform: template
         name: ‘Off’
         on_press: !include {file: christmas-tree-button.yaml, vars: {button_code: ‘00000000111100001111110100000010’} }

         Reply